At what point do you decide to get a mobility aid?
Hi! I (26NB) was born 10 weeks prematurely in extremely rare circumstances, and when I was removed I was doing perfect splits. They had to bind my legs down straight to keep my legs from growing wrong. I think it only partly worked.
Over the past 10 years, I had more and more difficulty going down stairs/running/crouching. I begged my ex-primary to help, he just said repeat this one physical therapy exercise and it'll fix itself. Didn't work; after three years he finally referred me to an ortho and I found out I had birth defects in both knees where I have little-no patellofemoral groove and I've essentially speedran developing arthritis in my mid-20s.
I had reconstruction surgery last year for the worse of the two knees. It's still in really rough shape, I can't kneel on it. Now my right leg's getting inflamed and hard to bend, too. I can't stand and work for longer than two or four hours without feeling like I'm standing directly on my foot bones and limping.
At what point do I just bite the bullet and get some mobility aids? What would I even get? I just feel lost and scared, and I don't know what to do about losing my mobility slowly like this. Any advice is appreciated.