Snapping Crutches

It’s not all roses and sunshine this recovery business. I have my ups and my downs but mostly try and stay positive. One of my small treats was getting some badass crutches off the Internet. After all, I figured if I was going to spend the next three months hobbling about you may as well have a fancy Rolls Royce to hobble about on rather than a dodgy old banger.

Enter the Ergobaum 7G’s at £144 you can’t actually spend more on crutches! With comfy ergonomic soft handles, built in suspension, dynamic feet, a knee rest and lights and a frigging horn there was a lot to get excited about! However, while a sound idea on paper, the feet squeak and make a terrible racket and after a mere two weeks hobbling around the block on these bad boys, I had snapped them!

Glebe Healthcare were very helpful and sent a replacement pair, but they squeaked as well, where the rubber foot rubs the metal. So I put them away in the office, raised a dispute and used the old pair I got from the pharmacy in France for £30.

All was going well until one fine Sunday morning when I had a catastrophic failure on those! They snapped just above the handle on the right crutch while I was mid-swing. I went down hard on my busted leg and was left in shock in a heap on the pavement. Unable to really do anything Mary came to my rescue. I made it back home and cried about feeling fairly useless but more about a feeling of being trapped. My short hobble around the block was a highlight for me, I might have only gone 600 yards but it was a high-calorie burner and garnered me some much needed fresh air. Now even that was seemingly being taken away. I’ll admit I cancelled all my plans for seeing the family and had a bit of a down day, after all with no crutches I can’t really go anywhere.

Needless to say, the next day I was back in higher spirits. Independence is important when you are in a situation like that, even the small challenges of washing yourself make you feel human… With new £15 cheapo crutches, I was out and about that afternoon helping Mary as she went kiting in Camber. I plucked up the courage to trust in my new sticks and logged a half-mile stroll on the new seawall at Camber. Normality, kind of, restored!

 

It’s good to feel useful!