vertical stairs?!

Must say I am feeling very positive at the moment. Apart from horrendous sleepyness the past few days following my first Rituximab infusion, literally fallen asleep in my dinner, I am so much better within myself. I have unfortunately got another one to go through next week (they do 2 infusions 2 weeks apart) so not looking forward to that but im sure it will be ok now I know what to expect. So as I was feeling a bit better today I decided to resume my exercise. I go swimming twice a week and also go on my exercise bike to keep the wobbles away! So swimming went fine, although it made me recall this time I went to the pool a few months ago when things were really bad.
Now im sure you will all agree that moment that you step out of the changing rooms onto the side of the pool is embarrassing enough for most of us, what with the freezing cold whilst stood wearing next to nothing and scared of revealing those bits you dont like to the lush lifeguard. Well, im not like most people and I am pretty confident when it comes to my body, however this soon changed when I saw how we were supposed to get into the flippin pool!
Normally I would not have a problem getting in or out but on this particular day my knee was giving me right gip and was pretty much the size of africa as it had swelled up over night. I looked at the "stairs" and nearly died! The stairs were actually a ceramic vertical ladder which I had to climb down to get into the water. I knew straight away that this was never going to happen! My knee hurt so much it just wouldnt bend that way ha! So i looked around for cute lifeguard and co and thought how am i going to get out of this without looking like an idiot. I fluttered my best eyelashes when my mum came bursting up and said "would you mind getting the other stairs for my daughter, shes disabled"! Oh my god.... the shame. She didnt mean it nastily of course she is just a straight to the point lady, god love her. So whilst everyone else got in, I stood and waited, Freezing my lil bum off, on the side whilst pretty much every employee at the leisure centre dragged these portable stairs the length of the pool. Not sure if it was just me, but the whole pool stopped and starred. Whats worse is that the girl who was part of the removal team looked at me in disgust. I thought to myself "Terribly sorry to have ruined your standing around time love, but I am not actually retarded just have a sore knee so if you could hurry up with the stairs I can crack on and bloody swim!"
Safe to say I have never asked for the stairs again and have gagged my mum with a swimming cap on several occassions. Better not inconvenience the staff hey!