Why I Use Forearm Crutches

This blog short originally appeared on Instagram. Follow me at @disabledinthewild7

In January, I shared a story on Instagram about a stranger who told me I didn't actually need my forearm crutches and that I should just throw them away. I thought this would be a good opportunity for an important conversation!

People use mobility aids for all kinds of reasons, not just a total loss of function, and you can't always tell by looking at a person what the nature of their disability is. Pain, muscle weakness, balance issues- these causes are not always apparent or visible to others, but that doesn't make them any less real.

To use myself as an example, I use my forearm crutches for a few reasons:

1. Fatiguing Weakness

   I have a neurological disorder that causes fatiguing weakness, which means the farther I walk, the weaker my leg muscles become. So while I can walk a short distance unassisted, after about 200 feet, my legs will just stop working. When my legs get to that point, I have a several day period afterward where I can't even get around my house without great difficulty or nearly falling over. Using crutches not only increases endurance, allowing me to walk much farther, it also ensures that my legs are still usable around the house after my adventures.

2. Chronic Pain

   I suffer from severe chronic muscle and nerve pain in both legs, and putting weight on my legs causes that pain to get drastically worse, even from walking short distances. Using crutches relieves some of that pressure, which means walking is less painful both while I'm using my legs and in the hours and days afterward. It can be the difference between a mild 2 day flare and a massive 2 week flare up from a short walk.

3. Lack of control

   My right leg is my “bad” leg. It doesn't always move the way I want it to move, and sometimes my right knee will randomly buckle. I tend to overcompensate by relying heavily on my left leg, but doing so wears out my left leg and then I can't move either of my legs properly. Using crutches greatly reduces this issue, so I am able to walk much more "normally" and safely with both of my legs.

All three of these issues are helped tremendously by forearm crutches, but these issues are not visible from the outside.

We do not and cannot know the nature of a person's disability just by looking at them, so it doesn't make sense for us to judge whether or not someone needs their mobility aid. Instead, we should trust that disabled people know their bodies best, and assume that if a person is using an aid, it's because they do, in fact, need it.

To read about why I don’t view forearm crutches as a bad thing, check out this post: www.disabledinthewild.com/blog/mobility-aids-are-not-a-negative-thing