It might seem like a small thing, especially when you consider that I didn’t have much of a “learning curve” in crutching (this is more like a “refresher course”), so crutching isn’t a big problem—but this little baby enables me to have my hands free!
This is the same kinda gadget I used when I broke my foot three years ago and had to be non-weight-bearing for months and months. Here is a picture Sue took of me at Christmas 2007:
As before, we rented it from D&H Drug Store in Columbia—it’s $75 a month. I actually had a prescription for it from my doctor, but D&H doesn’t accept my insurance company. Which reminded me of why I now order my prescription medication online from a Canadian company.
(And yes, my insurance company is indeed very mainstream; it’s one of the biggies: it rhymes with “Beholden Fool” and is the individual-insurance branch of rhymes-with BlightedWealthcare—it’s not a small, fringe insurance company, but whatever.) (Oh, don’t get me started on the subject of how awful private, profit-motivated insurance companies are to individual buyers! Trust me, the government can surely do no worse than these profiteering medical insurance fatcats.) (Ahem. But I digress.)
Back to the TLC—the “Turning Leg Caddy.” Here’s the website for the company. Made in ZhongShan City, China! This model is called “The Pathfinder”! How exciting, huh? But seriously, although it’s not exactly a Cannondale or a Schwinn, I was literally clapping my hands with joy when we got back home with this thing.
Trust me, it’s just a bad idea to try to simultaneously crutch and carry a cup of hot coffee. You do that, and you’re asking for trouble. And if spilling is bad, then you have to crutch around on a wet floor, looking for paper towels . . . no fun.
This “knee scooter” also allows me to “stand around” without having every bit of my weight on just one leg. (You’d be surprised how tiring that gets—I mean, try it sometime!)
Carrying things, standing around . . . it sounds like cooking, doesn’t it!
This means I’m starting to be able to contribute again. Doing the dishes. Carrying my own pillows around (“keep it elevated”). Making my own sandwiches.
It’s not helpful with stairs, it’s clumsy to carry, and I have to help it on and off of carpets, over thresholds, and around many tight corners. It scares the cats. But having my hands free, and taking some weight off my good leg, is mighty, mighty fine.
Okay; that’s all for now. —Gotta go!
(Addendum: yeah, after looking at the website for TLC, I saw that the guy at D&H turned the two cushions so they are opposite how they are supposed to be--he did it while I was standing there, and I thought it seemed odd--so the smaller cushion is supposed to go in BACK! So if you are reading this to learn about leg scooters, please don't use the first picture above for assembly instructions!) (Blah, blah, blah, blah.)
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2 comments:
Hey, hope you don't get a speeding ticket on that thing. Did you ride it over to the window today and watch the UE guys change a pole out on Broadway?
We were at Yellow Moon antiques and came past your place. Well at least in the one lane they had open.
Have a good weekend.
Actually, yes, I did watch the Amerenue guys occasionally. Yesterday when they began the project (messing with the high-voltage line at the top, in a cherrypicker, with 30 mph wind gusts), I didn't have any work to do, so I sat out on the front steps and watched. I considered bringing the camera with me, you know, just in case anything "newsworthy" might happen, but thankfully, they finished that stage of the work uneventfully, broke for lunch, then drove away.
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