QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Have you a questions or doubt? Here there are answers.
We can answer you and we know very well how to do so.
Have you anything to ask us about “Proprio in Gamba” project or about disability?
Send us an e-mail and we will reply and publish it, or find out below the F.A.Q and see questions already resolved
Frequently asked questions
How can we know what the next trip will be?
Follow the social pages of Proprio in Gamba (Facebook and Instagram). Each and every new journey will be shared on these social networks by all its followers and I hope they can give us more information and advice by answering.
Is Proprio in Gamba a tour agency or a tour operator?
Proprio in Gamba isn’t a travel agency or tour operator. We don’t sell package tours
but only give advice and indications with our ideas of the structure and places of interest all the world over, hoping that it will be also useful for you.
All the trips which we propose are tour packets sold by tourist operators who are people you can trust and be sure they guarantee the maximum accessibility for disabled. Proprio in Gamba doesn’t receive any economic rumuneration for offering their trips, but offer their social channels and blog pages to promote and advertise different tours, all accessibile without surprises. Proprio in Gamba will become your guarantee , checking out regularly the local tour operators and the truth of the levels of accessibility
promised.
Can I collaborate or simply be of help to the project Proprio in Gamba?
Of course!
Any bit of help is well accepted in whatever way or form.
Do you think you could be of help? If you have any interesting ideas or you wish to give a hand and let the readers have more precious information, you are in the right
place. Contact me privately and I’ll give you all the information you require.
You can collaborate or simply give a hand to the project Proprio in Gamba.
I'm disabled in a wheelchair and I have difficulty in planning a trip which would satisfy me. Can I ask your help?
Yes, I am here for you.
In three ways:
1) You can get in touch privately and we can go through the itinery which suits you, obviously without any cost;
2) You can read yourself my blog and use the pages of research which will help you to quickly find the info you are looking for.
3) You can go through the tour proposals already done in the travel section. For each of them, if you require further information I am willing to help you in private.
I have mobility problems (move with the help of a walking stick) and prefer travelling on my own. Can you give me advice on places I can visit?
To travel alone when one’s health is not the best is not easy and I understand your worries. You can ask me whatever you like: I and my helpers know how to reply
to any requests you may have and we can advise you on the best solution according to your disability.
I would like your point of view what your opinion is about my hotel. Is it possible?
You are in the right place: I’ll analyse and check myself on different structures which will guarantee to my readers an objective opinion as regards the accessibility to the same. In regards to certain structures or proposed activities we will offer our personal views on our pages in blog and on our social channels.
Ask me any information or doubts you may have in private.
Articles on trips, articles on psychological problems: I don't understand what this blog is talking about.
You have answered yourself! This blog started off just to tell my personal experiences and the idea was to share it with others. The added values to this project is exactly that of getting precious advice and experiences of a trip for disabled with questions concerning psychological aspects for relevant trips.
I would like to emphasize the psychological questions are a very delicate subject which I don’t even try to resolve. But I do have help from a group of professionals, who can help me to reply directly to this type of request.
The doubts already resolved
16 AUGUST 2019
Is there a limit between the wish to help others especially in things which you are competent to do so and the showing off to do so whatever it costs? Aren’t you risking to create the opposite effect?
Anna Agati answers
Know myself (and respect myself) is the borders which puts me between myself and the rest of the world.
To exhibit oneself could evoke a discussion about the truth in what I am demonstrating,and that I am only doing it to please myself.
The main objective is to do all for me, for my happiness and personal fulfillment. The compliments and acknowledgments are welcome, but only if lived as such.
1 AUGUST 2019
Did you know your actual wife before your operation? Was it difficult to overcome the embarassment of mixing with the opposite sex? Have you ever been afraid of a negative reaction especially the first time you met?
Alessio Degl’Innocenti answers
The embarassment and the sense of not being up to it in front of the other person, especially if you are really interested in that person, depends on your personal character and doesn’t have anything to do with your physical condition.
I must admit I have always felt a little this way and the amputation made me feel even worse. Though I was very fortunate to meet my wife after I had already received medical help in accepting my physical condition and this allowed me to introduce myself normally for what I truly am without covering anything up.
Accident or destiny?
What would have happened if I had known my wife before this happened (when I was even embarassed to leave the house)?
Well, if my case it was to happen as it did, I don’t see why I should bother going into the ‘and if…..
It didn’t go that way. Stop.
What I am certain about is the best things happen when one stops looking persistently and when one is ready to accept whatever happens.
With Sonia (my wife) it happened exactly like that: I would never have thought that evening at dinner where we met, that I had really found the person who within a few days from then. would have accompanied me for life. I only thought of the food I was eating and enjoying.
Not realizing that this permitted me to be myself that evening and acted normally and didn’t even pass my mind to be careful how I was walking so that I would avoid people staring at me. You try yourselves in similar situations to look at life this way. It will be much easier for you to get what you want and make all your wishes come true.
24 JULY 2019
Is it possible that since I became disabled I am more interested in new experiences and discovered emotions that I didn’t have before, often wanting to do things which in my condition I shouldn’t even try!
This continual wish to better myself, doesn’t it have the opposite effect?
Anna Agati answers
The condition of changing profoundly comes from your disability which brings you eventually to a different redefinition of what you are doing in the world.
The wish to better oneself is a strong sign of force and means you want to continue with your new life in the best way possible.
But as always we much choose the right way to do it.
Therefore, yes, it’s good to come out from one’s comfort zone where on feels protected, go foreward or at least try.
But we mustn’t loose respect of the positive things and what on the other hand will only cause us frustration, choosing wisely where we want to go, what paths we want to take, what are our objects.
22 JULY 2019
Do you go away on a trip to escape from reality? I know I think less of my physical state when I am travelling but at the same time, it gets worse everytime I finally have to go back to reality. What can one do?
Anna Agati answers
You do it for a short period, it’s fine. Why shouldn’t you try to get away from your usual habits for a while. Travel to get more experience, to go beyond everyday life. All this is positive. But if you find that going back to reality worsens every time, tiring, negative,that means perhaps there’s something needed to be looked over in your everday routine. Perhaps it’s best you ask for professional help and think it over with someone else.
16 JULY 2019
Continue to use support for your disability or have you already given it up?
Alessio Degl’Innocenti answers
My crutches are my best friend and will be so, for the rest of my life. Different than a wheel-chair (which I fortunately used only in the months proceeding the prosthesis) crutches are always with me for the simple reason that I don’t wear my prosthesis for 24 hours a day, as there are times during the day when I feel it is necessary to be free of it (at home for example) and know I have to let my stubb rest.
Certainly I can ‘jump’ but it becomes tiring!
8 JULY 2019
I have a leg prosthesis and can get about without crutches but when I go somewhere new, a place I have never seen or been to before, I feel as I need the crutches.
Why?
Anna Agati answers
A crutch is something which supports me, makes me feel more secure, is a big help to me.
So for this reason (practical and figurative) they help me overcome any difficulties which may arise, whereas that is not the case when I go somewhere where I have been many times and I know inside out.
29 JUNE 2019
I’m a disabled person with movement problems and so I have difficulty also when people stare at me, especially in certain places like when I am on the beach!
What can I do about it?
Anna Agati answers
One mus accept one’s disability, acquired of not, and one must slowly get over it although it is not the same for one person or another. There’s no universal formula!
28 JUNE 2019
How should we react to other people’s curiosity?
Alessio Degl’Innocenti answers
Who is never curious in their life? I myself am curious about anybody who is different from me. I’m not talking about disability but about people with different colours of skin, people who talk a different Language which I have never heard before, or who has a particular tattoo or different hair colour from the usual ones. I could go on for ever.
Once we have accepted our disability (which takes time and is very tiring), then it becomes much easier to affront the differences in other people but obviously we must have the correct motives.
If instead of curiosity you suffer or embaresses you or puts you in a difficult position, then there may be a psychological problem still to tackle and overcome.
When do you know that the problem has been solved? When you stop thinking that people are always judging you and when you don’t take any more notice when people stare at you. Instead you also turn around and watch others as you did before the disability. With the same curiosity that generally all human beings possess.
Now I think a lot when somebody asks me what happened to my leg: whereas before, I just gave the answer “I hurt myself”. Instead now I tell them my story and inform everybody who is interested. Disability is a condition which must be considered normal and only by informing people and making them feel at ease, it is possible to reach this object.
12 JUNE 2019
Why does one face up to their disability when they are far from their home?
It could be collegated to the fear of other people’s judgement: when we are far away from home we don’t know anybody.
So we are less anxious , feel free, influenced less by what other people think of us or in their opinion of us (more or less put to us directly) when we aren’t in our home city.
Anna Agati answers
It could be collegated to the fear of other people’s judgement: when we are far away from home we don’t know anybody.
So we are less anxious , feel free, influenced less by what other people think of us or in their opinion of us (more or less put to us directly) when we aren’t in our home city.
2 JUNE 2019
Before my disability I was not afraid of flying but since my accident I don’t like flying any more. What has happened?
Anna Agati answers
Here the entire question depends of the changes in my life and what the future holds for me: all this has nothing to do with my disability but evidently I can’t distinguish between before and after.
That is why the thought of flying reminds you there are experiences which life holds for us where the outcome doesn’t entirely depend on us and how competent we are (in fact when we fly we depend totally on the pilot and the air company) and so enters in our minds that now we are disabled, we will have more difficulty than before is there is an emergency.
However if we have decided to take that flight, means that our wish to face up to any obstacles (real or immaginable) are greater than our fear.
22 MAY 2019
Do you remember anything that happened just before your operation? Did you realize that you would awake without a leg?
Alessio Degl’Innocenti answers
I remember every second of that evening, from the moment of the crash up to the first aid entrance. I’ve not forgotten any of it.
The decision to amputate though, was decided when I was on the operation bed in order to save my life and I didn’t know anything about before I was put to sleep.
I knew I had lost my leg when I woke up in the hospital ward, in intensive care, because of the strong tranquilizers they had to give me to help me support the physical pain but I didn’t realise what had been done to me.
I can’t deny the psychological drama.
But I am here today to tell you the entire story with all the naturalness in this world and that just goes to show that anything can be superated, ANYTHING!
21 MAY 2019
When I’ve completed a trip, immediatley I think of the next one. Often I even start thinking about and planning it whilst I am still planning the one before!
I haven’t even done the first one and already I’m thinking of the one after…
I don’t believe it is an addiction but am I perhaps enjoying less the present trip?
Anna Agati answers
It’s a common thing, in fact when one is travelling, you become a different person and feel more willing to do things and respect all that surrounds you, paying particular attention to everything around you , making the most of these moments.
This entails you to explore further and plan directly your next journey.
Fact of the matter being, when you go away and travel you leave your monotonous daily routine and you choose to be a different person and to begin a new life and have new experiences. It’s good therefore to let your mind wander and think about future moments in which you will find yourself in the same situation.
1 MAY 2019
Why do we always consider to travel a long, long way?
Why can’t one travel but remain, for example, in Italy?
Anna Agati answers
Yes absolutely! Italy has much to offer which other countries can’t even dream about! You have to decide where to go. Depending on the organisation term and choose the Holiday which is most adapt for you taking into account your personal disability. If you have only just started to travel, for example, it is best to first have some experience in Italy, as there you can feel ‘at home’ in regards to culture and Language (which is important if it is your first experience). In fact to plan a trip is not easy How and what do you use to get about?
How many and what architectural barriers are there? As for example these are two important questions to be thought about and considered right from the beginning.
Don’t even take into consideration going abroad this time but leave it for the next trip , and consider it as another level to superate.
19 APRIL 2019
I’m disabled and find it hard in getting about. Why should I travel and put myself to too much stress which in the end will put me off doing it?
Anna Agati answers
A disabled person who finds it difficult in moving about, must think and work out all the details of the planned trip, before setting off.
Now comes into the picture an essential informative aspect, which we must have the capacity of choosing well, on the network or not, but to get the right information and not to choose the wrong place to get it from, so as to avoid running into difficulties and causing us frustration.
Exactly for this reason ‘Proprio in gamba‘ was created!
31 MARCH 2019
Collaboration with an expert in psychology in a blog which also deals with travel and disabiled people, Why?
Anna Agati answers
The psychological figure appears where there are certain problems, big or small, but also where there is a need of strengthening various emotional resources: the psychologist is not for ‘mental people; but instead is a precious potential figure, integrating diifferent situations.
In fact in our case, where the theme of disability is very delicate and different, the figure of a professional person who has stuidied various health problems is of great assistance: both in an informative way and a true and helpful person.
30 MARCH 2019
Hi Alessio, I read that you underwent a high amputation (a short stump).
What disadvantages did you have in regards to a long stump?
Alessio Degl’Innocenti answers
It’s true that I had a high amputation.
One calls it a short stump when the length is less than half of the femur (in the case of an amputation trans femoral) not to be confunded with the disarticulation (in this case there is no stump or otherwise very much reduced): this condition makes things even more difficult and complicated the prosthesis of the missing limb).
To have a short stump has more disadvantages than to have a long one. More than anything you need more strength in moving it and getting about because one senses less the lever needed than one who has a long one.
Other disadvantages are that of having less adherence in the silicone bonnet which tends to slip quicker in the presence of excessive sweat. Also the choice of the invaso is limited -in fact often obliged – to the bonnet with a nail as it is impossible to apply other techniques. The longer the stump is the more advantages one has.
But in this case one must pay attention to the excess: it can happen that a long stump touches the joints: in this case you might there can be a problem in fixing the knee (or ankle) because the space is limited and there is a risk of constructing a protesi longer than it should be.
On the other hand it will not be a centimetre more or less that limits your movement. One Always gets by and is able to move about and reading the pages in this blog verifies that!
21 FEBRUARY 2019
Does it worry one to to be seen in public without the protesi or to have the stump on view?
Alessio Degl’Innocenti answers
A good question. In these past years I must admit that I have truly felt every possible sensation, good or bad whatever: in the beginning I hated being without it in front of people, so didn’t ever go out without it. I felt ashamed of myself. I wasn’t able to support people staring at me and perhaps them feeling pity for me, but with time, very slowly with psychological support I overcame this feeling and gradually I began to go out without it even, and managed to support other people staring at me. It wasn’t easy and it took time but now it doesn’t bother me any more. In fact the opposite.
Now sometimes I can see the funny side and smile when somebody passes and stares at me in a morbid way! So then it ends up with the person feeling embaressed by his curiosity. Don’t be afraid to be embarressed yourself, It’s normal especially in the beginning. It’s a very personal thing and everyone is different and needs their own time to superate it. Trust me, in the end even you will get over it!
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