Category: Daily Living
I just got back from a trip in which my cane snapped, and I didn't have a spare with me. although I got lucky, and the person I was with had a spare, it occured to me that travelling with a spare cane would be a very good idea. Thoughts?
I think it's a good idea especially after having the cane for more than a year. You never know what's going to happen. I had a friend who snapped his cane 2 days after I suggested he bring a spare, and luckily he did because he was the only blind person traveling in a group.
It probably is a good idea, especially if you're not traveling with someone on whom you can rely to be a sighted guide.
How do you guys manage to snap your canes? Do you use them for bull fighting, bar fighting or to stop cars, do you break down buildings or play golf with them? I'm just curious as I have never managed to even properly bend my cane, and I consider myself a decent, though by no means outstanding, cane user. I think taking a spare is a good idea because I could lose my cane somewhere, but I just don't know how you guys snap or bend them like you do, lol.
i'm with ya there B. I still have not snapped a cain. Nem, vacumed the cord in one and it snapped the cord in two. lol. but i hav never snapped a cain.
Well, hopefully Nem has learnt to use his "cane" by now, lol.
wildebrew,
i have only snapped my cane one time. i was walking across a driveway and one of those hybrid cars came zooming out of the garage and ran over the tip. I had an extra back in my office desk but i was over half way home so I kind of limped the rest of the way to the house. What killed me is when it happened i was in shock and said an expletive. Some woman said "well feel sorry for that man. he was the driver. e'xcuse me? I doubt he ever knew anything had happened. I had to worry about getting my sorry self out of the situation.
I snapped one once. It was old and had been used for several years. I was leaning on it too heavily as I used it to help balance as I stepped up on a step wearing this damn orthopedic boot I have to wear due to foot problems. But luckily, the step where I snapped the cane was leading up to my front door, so I didn't have far to walk without it.
Turricane, I can't believe some idiot told you to feel sorry for the man who drove the car that ran over your cane. Some people are so totally clueless I want to slap them.
buy a telescoping one. its not great. but a lot better than nothing
I hate the telescoping canes. The one and only time I used one was when I was on vacation and bought one because they are so lightweight and portable. The stupid thing kept wanting to fold...well not fold because they don't fold...but you know what I mean. I'd be walking along, and all of a sudden I'd think my cane had just hit quicksand or something mushy. Turns out it was just collapsing in on itself. I kept pulling it back out and it kept collapsing. So, I got rid of it as soon as I got home from vacation.
Always have a spare one around whether you're traveling, just going to work, or at school. I recommend the folding ones as they don't take up so much space and the straight ones tend to break easier.
I snapped mine by accidentally slamming it in a car door. I thought I had cleared the door, but apparently not.
I! Hate! Telescopic! Canes! I used one once and it just kept collapsing because I walk so fast, so just gave up on it and went back to using my folding cane. I don't have a spare cane at the minute, but it does sound like a good idea. In fact, I'm getting a new cane some point over the next month because mine is kind of bent and needs a load of painting which I can't be bothered to do, so I might use my new one and keep this one as a spare.
Sounds like a good idea. After all, spare canes don't need to be in the best condition, as long as they work.
Why would you not carry a spare?
I've had canes get run over, stepped on, misplaced, you name it.
i always, always, always! and did i say always? carry a spare cane. sometimes two if out of the country. one for use, one on my belt, and one in the hand luggage if i can squeaze it in.
i also carry a spare cane after the tip got smashed by a rasser scuta as i was walking from my railwasy station to the bus stop lol.
btw in australia we get canes from free threw guidedogs its really good.
I want to get one of those fold up kinds that are really thin. I know a lady who has one. It would be grate for colege, and i need to get a cane holder, Oh only if I had the money. I will get the stuff when I get the money witch should be soon with my birthday and christmas comming up.
those really thin canes are ID canes, they aren't made for actually travel. They are for somewhat sighted people to carry so people will know they are visually impaired. they aren't built of heavy enough stuff to take the impacts a normal cane deals with. If you want light weight, spring for carbon fiber or even titanium. I have used both, and they are amazingly light, and very strong. I refused to use aluminum canes, they always bent on me, graphite is ok, but it had a tendency to split on me. I liked titanium, but itsa little pricy, but carbon fiber, if you go through revolution, is pretty cheap, and very good quality.
As for snapping canes, I can't count how many I've broken. It usually happened in public school, when someone would be running down the hallway and it would get caught between their legs and snap, or they'd try and jump out of the way of it, and land on it. Or a door would close on it, I even broke one by catching the tip in a sewer grate when I was walking too fast. that was when I learned not to have the shaft of the cane pointing at your stomach. Not a pleasant lesson let me tell you.
The latest telescoping canes are actually pretty good, i've learned a trick to keep them from collapsing whigh is to twist the segments a little when you extend it. I try to carry a spare with me, usually one of the folding ones but might consider another telescoping one as i've grown to like them somewhat now
I've broken too many to count. So, oh yes, especially if you live in the big city like me, it's a must have.
I always try to carry a spare if at all possible, Which reminds me. Guess I'd better send in the two or three busted canes I have lying around my apartment that I've bought over the course of ten or twelve years. I've had just one graphite cane snap on me, but beyond that I've had great experiences with them. Granted I have had a couple fall apart on me at inopportune moments because the tip was worn down so far it just finally slipped off. One such incident happened when I was seventeen and I was attending one of the summer camps the Oregon School for the Blind used to hold, Creative Enrichment I believe. Anyway this was in the evenings and we were on the way to the mall. We chose to walk and I remember we were maybe halfway there when all of a sudden I noticed the cane in my hand felt alarmingly light. Then I heard the tink tink tink of the rest of the pieces sliding off the handle, fortunately just onto the sidewalk. Luckily we were also able to gather up all the pieces. My O&M teacher fitted it with a new tip once I got home for the weekend so I was set when I headed back for the second week of the camp. I had another cane fall apart in the middle of a High School corridor the next spring. Actually it might have been the same one. I remeber I had problems with that cane's tip falling off at the slightest provocation. Since then I've tried to carry at least one spare on me.
I've bought myself a spare cane now. I've never had a problem with grafite canes, apart from the fact of elastic snapping inside them. In that case after it's been fixed once or twice, you might as well get a new cane because you're just repairing repairs eventually because the elastic gets so worn down with being folded and unfolded all the time.
Exactly. Even so I'd still much rather use a folding than a straight or telescopic cane. I always hated having to find just the perfect spot to stand my straight cane up where it wouldn't fall over or be knocked over by careless students. And I couldn't just lie it flat under my desk because it was too long. THen I discovered the combination of folding cane and holster.
I had someone jump over my cane but trip and it broke in half then last year i picked up my cane and it fell to pieces because it was several years old lol
I love carben fiber canes, I will never, never, use a tellascopic cane, or a straight cane. My appinion if you feel like your going to have a cane snap on you then by all means bring a spare one.
Oh, you can keep those aluminum canes as well.
i bought a spare cane at national convention in detroit and let me tell you it saved me big time because one day i forgot my cane while going on a trip to Road island and i luckily had a spare cane in my backpack. it is one of those telescoping ones. so what i did was so that it didn't snap, I put rubber bands on the veryend of the cane and it works. it came in a small poutch that was very cool pouch from indipendent living aids. it's one of those back up canes but luckily it's perfect for me since i'm so short, but if you're very tall like 5 ft 6 and up than it's too small. but it works very well
Graphite all the way as far as I'm concerned. I've never had one of those break in the now about fifteen years or so that I've been using them. I did have one of the joints snap on one of them but I don't believe the joints themselves are actually graphite. And that only happened once.
i like using my teloscopic cane for light traveling but a folding one for long distance or heavy travel. spares are always with me though, currently have 4 canes includng my everyday use one standing in the corner waiting
I have a guide dog and even I carry a cane when I travel. it helps me get use to a new hotel and so on before I start telling my dog which way to go.
That's what I plan on doing if and when I get a guide dog.
I don't have a guide dog. I should carry a spare more often when I go out, but I don't. I usually try not to let my current cane get too old before getting hold of a new one, and I -always have a backup somewhere...it's just a question of whether or not I bring it along.
I've snapped the tip off one of my canes and had another break when someone basically fell on it while I was moving, but other than that, all I've ever managed to do is serious bending. Heh.
It's definitely a very good idea to bring along a spare if you're out, just in case the unexpected happens.
yeah. I don't normally like the aluminum ones very much, but they're okay as spares, and I have plenty of them lying around in various places. I just found one the other day, in fact. Now I have two spares, plus the one I use most often.
i like the aluminum ones better as far as durability. they have never broken on me except the one time where someone not paying attention ran over my cane while i was walking back to my dorm. and it happened once
For me, the problem would be where to put the spair cane, should I ever choose to bring one. I don't carry a bag of any kind, just a fanny pack. And my pants don't always have belts so I couldn't use the clip of a cane holder. I've never bent or snapped a cane and never had one fall apart, though I did have one where the elastic got really thin which probably would have fallen apart if I continued to use it. I also have old ones that definitely look their age.
Last year, I bought the Adjustable Length Telescoping Cane from Maxiaids and absolutely adore it. As a matter of fact, it's the only cane that I ever felt the need to always take with me, even though I pretty much always go out with sighted people. I actually feel weird without it. It's never collapsed on me, except one or two times when I didn't twist the sections properly. For that same reason, I once had the sections come undone and fall in the street. Luckily, my boyfriend got them and they screwed right back on. But again, that was my fault for not securing them tightly. It never happened after that. I might get another one just incase they stop making them. The one issue that I have with it is that it doesn't get really small, so I have the problem of where to put it, as has been discussed about straight canes. I honestly couldn't imagine using one of those, precisely because of placement, though I always wanted one with the old-fashioned handle, like on a candy cane, just to say I have it. But it must be for the blind. I've never seen a titanium cane. What are they like and are they as light as fiber glass? I love light canes.
I have a straight cane, and love it very much.
as far as storing it is concerned, it's really no biggy. you just have to figure out the proper way of doing so sometimes, but that's all there is to it.
I think it would be a little difficult to bring a straight cane as a spare, if you don't carry a backpack with you. I'd like to try one of those, though, as I like to use canes that are a little too long than the usual recommended length, at least by the CNIB. I usually hold it as close to the top of the grip as possible to get the best use out of the length. That didn't work very well in high school, where people were more interested in seeing how long they could make out while walking than looking out for obsticles in the hallway, but it works just about everywhere else.
I was talking about using the straight cane in general; I use the telescopic ones for spares.
Jess, next time I see you, I'll be happy to let you try out the straight cane if you'd like.
thanks girl. that would be awesome.
I like a graphite cane because it can out last 7 aluminum canes. let me tell ya, I walk pretty fast so my cane has been tested. Plus I work with a whole lot of blind people for the most part are good cane users. however, there are those who just plane suck at using a cane. Some use a cane made of plast and not sure what the folding links are made of, hmm... if any of you know of this type of cane let me know.
I use a graphite cane as well, and they don't bend like aluminum ones, which is a major plus. They're also quite a bit lighter than the aluminum ones, although not as light as the telescopic ones. The only down side to them is that if they do break, they snap, and you might as well get rid of it if that happens.