A conversation with Betsy de Pauw

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Zoetermeer – “I’m really happy” says Betsy de Pauw spontaneously after the photo shoot, for which she climbed a long way up the hill in Buytenpark. Together with her husband Louis, to whom the 74-year-old Zoetermeer resident has been married for 55 years, she briskly walks back to the car a little later.

Until recently, she couldn’t have imagined this, she says several times. After that disastrous operation for a double neck hernia in 2003, she adds, “I thought I’d never move again.” A nerve was damaged during the procedure. When she woke up, her entire left side was paralysed. Despair: “I said: if it stays like this, just open the window and put me outside, because I don’t want to live like this anymore.” That didn’t happen. She started a rehabilitation programme in a wheelchair. After a year and a half of hard work, with Louis as her rock, she was able to walk again with crutches. “I got through it pretty well”, says Betsy, looking back, “but I’ve always had problems with my left leg and hand.

Garden

Her job in the hospital laboratory (which she enjoyed) could no longer continue. In 2009, Betsy’s occupational physician decided that it was no longer responsible for her to continue working, and she ended up on disability benefits (WAO). Around that time, Louis also retired. They enjoyed themselves with trips near and far, their children’s holiday home in Hoenderloo and the garden at their home in Zoetermeer. It’s no coincidence that the interview is taking place at an Intratuin garden centre. “I really love garden centres wherever we go, and if there’s one, I want to see what they have and what we can use for our garden. Gardening is my passion; I work on it every day. And as long as I can, I’ll keep doing it.”

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Crutch

About four years ago, things started to go downhill. Walking became more and more difficult. “After just a short distance, we’d have to sit down. Only cycling was still reasonably easy.” Louis: “She sometimes said to me: I used to walk with crutches, and now you’re my crutch.”

I’m going to look into arch supports, Betsy thought, and after twenty years she made an appointment with a rehabilitation doctor. After looking at her medical history, he was surprised, she says, that she came in without a wheelchair or walker. They decided on physiotherapy for her hand and foot. In addition to arch supports, she also got a splint. “That went well for the first few months, but with the arch support, I started walking crookedly, got corns and pain in my hip, and my foot broke. In the end, I put that splint in the cupboard.”

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Freedom

She ended up at Manometric for a splint for her hand. During that first contact, she asked if there was anything that could be done for her leg. “We’re working on it,” she was told, so she signed up. A little while later, she received a phone call. To be honest, their expectations were rather modest. Louis: “After all, we had already tried so many things”. Betsy adds: “Our expectations were practically zero after everything we had tried.” They were seen by orthopaedic technician Tom Dukker. Betsy was fitted with a trial splint and was amazed when she tried it out. “I thought: this can’t be possible. And then Tom said: this is just a trial model, you won’t leave here until it’s really perfect. I thought: it really can’t get any better than this.”

But it was possible. Betsy, who has now had her custom-made AFO for several weeks, says, “I never dared to dream this would happen. I still can’t quite believe it’s real. I’m walking miles again and I dare to go places on my own without being afraid of falling or something else going wrong. I have my complete freedom back. I sometimes say to Louis, ‘Walk a bit faster.’” Louis, laughing, says, “And then I say to her, ‘Hey, don’t run like that.’”