Background
In the past year i’ve fallen 4 times.
The first time was while i was walking Charlie. I tripped over a huge uplifted crack in the sidewalk caused by tree roots. Where i grew up, there were tons of those kinds of cracks in sidewalks and i learned how to walk over them without falling as a child. However, aging takes a toll, and i’m no longer as agile and coordinated as i was many many years ago. I didn’t break anything, but i did bruise and scrape up my knees and hands.
The second time i tripped over a chair pulled out from the table. Our floor is dark brown and so are the chairs. My eyes don’t handle dark shades well because cataracts are slowly forming which are not bad enough to warrant surgery, but tend to make things dimmer than they used to be, and i don’t always see things well when the lighting isn’t bright. I didn’t break anything, but when i fell, i hit my head on our marble coffee table. Marble doesn’t give. At all. I don’t know how i avoided a concussion, but i did have a huge goose egg on my forehead for a few weeks.
The third time i tripped over a smaller crack in the sidewalk while walking Charlie. I didn’t break anything, but once again, i skinned and bruised my arms, hands and knees.
The fourth time was in the exact same place as the third with the exact same results. I’m still healing from that last time.
Next
So we did two things.
We bought some neon yellow spray paint and painted the two cracks i’d tripped on in incidences 1, 3 and 4. At least now i can see the danger spots clearly, as can the joggers who run around the lake Charlie and i regularly walk around. The joggers were appreciative. I may not have been the only person to fall in those two places.
Then i searched online a bought a cane. I think that most metal canes with the weird shaped handles make you look old and infirm. I have no problems with pain or stiffness in my knees or hips, so my cane wasn’t going to have to look like a medical device. My problem is that i’m a bit unsteady and a little wobbly in my balance. As i discovered researching on google and youtube, using a cane for balance is not the same as using a cane to help you walk because of a physical problem with your legs, hips or knees. That’s important to know.
The Difference
Normally the key purpose of a cane is to bear part of your weight to take the load off of a weak or injured leg. This means you place significant weight on it and it also means it must be sturdy and able to handle the weight.
A cane used for help with balance does not require that you place very much weight on it. It is used for stability. Normally a cane is set to a length by measuring from the floor to the bend in your wrist and adding an inch. That’s because you lean on it. However, when you use a cane for balance, instead of keeping it in close to your leg and placing weight on it, you angle the cane out from your body to create a stable tripod of contact with the ground. You place a little weight on it, but much less than when using a regular cane. This means that the cane needs to be 1 or 2 inches longer than the normal cane length since you angle it out. It also doesn’t matter which hand you use to hold the cane when walking, and in fact you can switch hands based on terrain or fatigue.
I’m still getting used to using the cane when i walk, but i definitely feel more stable and solid when walking now than i did before getting it.
Here’s a picture of my non-medical looking cane:
