#cane stuff

don't forget that cane tips need to be replaced.

i've been using my cane for almost two years on a near daily basis and i JUST switched out the tip and

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the new tip versus the old tip. i'm not sure how clear it is but, YEAH, there's like. half a millimeter of tread left on the old tip, if that

the replacement was LITERALLY 2 dollars. i bought two to justify the four dollar shipping but. TWO BUCKS.

i had noticed that i was having slipping issues on linoleum recently, but i did not realize how bad the issue had gotten until the new tips came so. PLEASE check your cane treads and if they're notably worn out PLEASE get yourself a new tip they're SO cheap and the grip i get on the new one is INSANE

ive seen a lot of your posts about canes, i have hEDS and chronic pain and im trying to convice my mom and my doctor to let me have a mobility aid. my mom is very adamant that i dont need a cane because i dont have balance issues, but my knees and ankles are pretty much always aching. i was just wondering if you think a cane would help with chronic pain or if i should look into other aids?

Canes can help chronic pain, they are not guaranteed to help you specifically

You can get a cane for ~$30 at most stores and try it out

A physical therapist and/or a specialist in rheum will most likely know more than your PCP about your specific pain and situation

Parents often don't want to admit their kids have health problems

I wish you luck

I won't be answering any more asks about mobility aids.

This is nothing about you specifically, you were not rude, I just get a lot of questions like this in my inbox. It becomes draining to get so many asks with people's personal vents about their medical issues or religious trauma or the homophobic situations they're living in.

While I would love if I could help people, I am not a doctor. I am not a therapist, I am not a social worker. I'm just a random artist on the internet who has EDS and is barely getting by myself.

I prefer to keep my blog about my art and about my work, not about my disability. It is relevant to my work, of course, and discussing my conditions in vague terms in how they relate to themes present in my work is more than okay, but I prefer this space to be dedicated to my work and getting to engage with my readers through my stories.

Personal information about my pain, my medications, my tests my doctors and my trauma are not things I want to make public.

did you know.

i am constantly exhausted, walking everywhere makes me hurt and feel sore and i can barely bring myself to get up sometimes. but I feel like if I had a cane or crutches, I'd feel, like, less pain, and stuff, yknow? so would that be disrespectful? because I still am ABLE to walk and get places i just don't do it because it hurts & im supposed to be hiking for school in a bit and I feel like it would help a lot,,

It's not disrespectful in the slightest to use a cane. They're a fashion item as well as a mobility aid! If it helps you in any way, then you need it, and you should use one.

You shouldn't have to be in pain or exhausted from doing things like walking for a short time, and anything that reduces that for you and makes you able to do it for longer and keep up with others is something you should absolutely allow yourself to do.

And if you will allow me to perhaps overstep my bounds a little bit, disability is not limited to people who can't walk whatsoever. I can walk without my cane; most cane users can, in fact (most wheelchair users can walk, as well!). But using a cane makes walking safer, less painful, and an overall better experience for us. Disability is incredibly varied between individuals, and is a lot more encompassing than you might think at first.

I would definitely suggest getting a cane and trying it out. I of course can't and won't guarantee it will help, but it can make a huge difference and it's an incredibly cheap and accessible way to potentially really increase your quality of life! I would also suggest perhaps talking with your doctor about this, if you can. You might find it freeing to take your needs and limitations more seriously, and not downplaying them just because you CAN do things.

this is untargeted but i see these mistakes a lot in art so:

WALKING CANES also called SUPPORT CANES or WALKING STICKS are used for support while walking and standing, often best if weakness or an injury is worse on one side. you hold a walking cane in the OPPOSITE HAND of the worse leg. if your right leg is worse you use your cane in your left hand, and vice versa DR. HOUSE USES HIS CANE INCORRECTLY. walking canes should come UP TO YOUR WRIST WHEN YOU ARE STANDING WITH YOUR ARMS RELAXED AT YOUR SIDES. any taller and it becomes awkward to use for support, any shorter and you'll fuck up your back using it.

WHITE CANES also called GUIDE CANES or BLIND CANES are used by the blind and visually impaired to help them navigate. white canes should come UP TO ABOUT YOUR STERNUM WHEN HELD STRAIGHT UP. the coloring on a white cane can also tell you about the person using it, an ENTIRELY WHITE CANE means the person has no useable sight or is completely blind, a cane with a RED SECTION AT THE BOTTOM means the person has some usable sight, and a RED AND WHITE STRIPED CANE means the person is also deaf or hard of hearing. there are also different types of tips for white canes, and just a few minutes of research into the different types would not be misplaced, as they have very different uses.

WHITE WALKING CANES are used by someone who is blind or visually impaired who also needs the support of a walking cane, these LOOK LIKE WALKING CANES AND ARE MEASURED AS SUCH but are usually white and red to flag to others that the person using it is blind or visually impaired in some way.

If it helps, you need it. Use it.

nope, I don't use crutches! I think a few people in the notes of the cane post might have chimed in with their experiences, and some people might know of a post or offer their experience in the replies here if you're lucky!

But I suggest, in this order:

Looking into online stores for crutches and crutch accessories to learn about the varieties

Reading/watching medical resources for using the different types of crutches from physical therapists so you understand how they work and what they help with

and then finally looking to see if you can find community resources, tags, and posts from actual crutch users to do more research about lived experiences and actual use cases

The medical and store research up front will give you a solid baseline understanding of the many varieties of crutches and how they work, which is necessary information to have the proper language and knowledge so you can actually learn from real people what their experiences are truly like.

If they're sitting, the cane will probably either rest between their knees, on the ground under the bench (if it's the kind of bench that has space underneath it'll go fully under, if it has no space underneath it might be pressed between the bench and their feet (but that can be a bit uncomfortable)), laying on the bench next to them/behind them (if no one else is sitting there and it's a big enough bench), leaned against the bench upright next to them, holding it between their legs with both hands (kind of resting on it), or holding it to the side/between the legs with one hand!

I don't really know of a good place to find references, but I usually do one of these things when I'm sitting at a bench (usually just holding the cane between my legs with both hands or one hand, personally, but it depends how long I'm sitting)