Category: Health and Wellness
Hopefully, I'll never need crutches, but if the time came when I'd have to use them, is it possible to use them with a cane or guide dog? Any ideas on how it could be done?
Well, you'd either have to use just one elbo crutch and a long cane or guide dog, or get an electric wheelchair where the controls aren't on the same side as your hand in which you'd normally use a long cane or hold a guide dog's harness. I knew a girl in Secondary School, who'd lost her sight and was also quite badly arthritic and couldn't walk very long distances. You'd often encounter her stuck fast in the main doorway in to the main school building because she was in this rather wide electric wheelchair. Also, she always missed the backs of your ankles with her cane, but you could always count on her running you over about a millisecond later in her chair if you didn't hop out of the way bloody quickly, lollol.
The wheelchair would make more sense than using the crutches. I couldn't imagine the price for renting one for like six months though.
i think that is the most challenging situation.
you could use a cane, but in her case, i rather be pushed by sombody if i were badly artritic
if i were badly arthritic, i rather have somebody push me around serously, i don't say this because i want to be dependent, but i say that because arthritis severely limits your mobility depending on the degree of the ilness.
I was wondering the same thing.
If you can get by with one crutch, the best thing to do is use that on whichever side doesn't have the cane or dog in it. If this isn't possible, either attempt to use the implement the ther wa round, or do what I did, which was to completely give up the cane and put my faith in a the crutches. Luckily I was only going around school, and around to various places in a taxi, but I never found a better way than that. The best thing you can do if you can is lean heavily on one crutch so you lean slightly to one side, then probe the ground in front of you if you get to a sticky bit or you don't know where you are. its odd because your centre of gravity changes, but you get used to it.
Funnily enough, it's given me more confidence to walk without a long cane - though I only usually do this when I'm being lazy and I don't much care if I get smacked in the head by a flying lamp-post.
HTH - Erica.
when i was at summer camp one year, i sprained my ankle very severely by sliding down a water slide extremely quickly. my right foot hit the bottom of the pool at about 5 miles per hour. i felt my ankle pop out of its socket and twist under me. so somebody carried me to the clinic. the nurse taught me to walk on the crutches and let me tell u it is not easy using them with a cane, someone actually had their hand on my back as i walked with the crutches and the person told me which way to go while at the same time guiding me by pressing their hand into my back. when we went on the scavenger hunt in the woods however, the crutches were taken from me because the councilors were afraid that i would trip because of the uneven ground. big mistake. i gingerly put my weight on that foot and collapsed. 2 people picked me up and supported my weight on their shoulders as they brought me back to the side walk and the ccrutches were given back to me.
I'd be claiming compo by now
that irritates me. it should be your decision what happens like that. re having someone guiding you by putti9ng a hand on your back - god I couldn't do that. However if it were to happen I would employ that person as a back scratcher, and they better be a good one.