Hand Crutches

As I have become better using a walker, my therapist has begun to teach me how to use hand crutches. Using hand crutches is significantly scarier than using a walker because you are way less stable. In addition, as the video shows, getting up using hand crutches can be scary especially at first. To get up using hand crutches you need to push yourself to a vertical position and then, quickly moving the crutches, catch yourself before you fall over. 

Initially I had a lot of problems getting to a standing position using a walker and I felt and probably still feel that in the long-term the best solution is to learn to use hand crutches. As I learned better technique with the walker and specifically have improved my ability to stand up from a seated position I see hand crutches as probably inevitable but less urgent. It is certainly true that there is less equipment involved with hand crutches and that the equipment takes up less space and is more portable. Now that I am at home and using a walker there my therapist has been concentrating almost exclusively on the use of hand crutches, a skill that I am still developing.

The video below shows something like my third attempt to walk using hand crutches. It is not very pretty but then I never imagined that whatever I got to would be elegant. I'm assuming that over time my technique will improve and specifically that I will become more stable. I have been discovering that there are things that are difficult to do with a walker. Some of these such as walking down a slope (the walker feels like it may have a tendency to roll away from you) or walking on an uneven surface may well prove easier when using hand crutches.

The Shower

For the past six months I have been taking showers in a rolling bathroom chair. While the chair has small wheels which, unlike my manual wheelchair, makes it impossible for me to simply sit in the chair and push in the wheels, the bathroom is a small room. Rather than pushing the chair, I have arrayed a collection of handles on the walls of the room. Using my hands and , when the reach is to long, a stick with a hook on the end, I have been able to get myself anywhere I need to go. When I am ready to leave the bathroom, I simply transfer into my regular chair and roll off.

   The one place I could not get was into the shower. We had a walk-in shower installed, However, a two inch lip on the edge prevented me from getting the chair into the shower without help. This is important because showering is one of the few things I am incapable of doing by myself. When my wife and a friend went camping for several days leaving me by myself, the only thing given up was the ability to take a shower. Recently we had the  man who installed the man who installed the shower look at the issue of removing enough of the lip for the chair to get into the shower. He came up with a plan to cut off the back of the lip and to replace it with a gentle tiled slope. S The implementation had some problems. The cement under the slope took a long time to dry and was still wet by the time we tested. The tiles were designed as wall tiles and some of them broke and came up as the chair rolled over them.

of them broke and came up as the chair rolled over them.
 We have arranged for the tiles to be replaced the next time we're on vacation. However, the arrangement is usable enough to try. This morning, for the first time, I was able to roll the wheelchair into the shower, shower and roll the wheelchair out without any assistance at all. With this accomplishment if Verna wants to go on a long vacation, say a week or more, she is free to take off and I am confident that I can take care of myself during this period. No matter how much I might miss her.

  The one place I could not get was into the shower. We had a walk-in shower installed, However, a two inch lip on the edge prevented me from getting the chair into the shower without help. This is important because showering is one of the few things I am incapable of doing by myself. When my wife and a friend went camping for several days leaving me by myself, the only thing given up was the ability to take a shower. Recently we had the  man who installed the man who installed the shower look at the issue of removing enough of the lip for the chair to get into the shower. He came up with a plan to cut off the back of the lip and to replace it with a gentle tiled slope. S The implementation had some problems. The cement under the slope took a long time to dry and was still wet by the time we tested. The tiles were designed as wall tiles and some of them broke and came up as the chair rolled over them.

The Ins and Outs of Braces

After walking around much the rehab clinic with my physical therapist walking behind holding a gait belt in case I lost my rather precarious balance, I was allowed to take the braces home. Not the walker which meant I was allowed to practice putting on the braces and  standing up followed by sitting back down but not moving around.

 There are three pieces - a back support shown above as the large curved piece and below shown from the back showing the assembly linking the legs . There are also two leg supports. These consist of a plastic piece molded to the foot and the leg below the knee, a small insert the fits over the leg just below the knee velcroing into place and a metal rod coming up the side of the leg and locking into the hip assembly.

In the picture below I have put the brace on my left leg and am in the process of putting it on the right. I have not yet fit the leg into the hip assembly.

 Here the assembly is together except for the shoes which go over the feet. An important piece is an
wedge in the shoe which raises the heel and throws my weight more forward onto the arms

 Getting into the shoes.

 In the last picture I have used the bars on our stair case to pull myself to a vertical position. Eventually the idea is to push up from a walker. Walkers are quite light and not too stable when pulled on. In addition the physical therapist felt (properly) that I was not ready to handle a walker without adult supervision. When I am standing in this position the braces lock at the hips allowing me to move the legs but forcing them to move in sync.

Curiously while I have no problems moving my legs in the parallel bars or the walker, I am unable to move when standing at the stairs. The problem seems to be that I cannot use my arms to unweight one leg allowing me to move it.