Suddenly the forearm crutch was associated with permanent disability.
May 25, 2022 10:34 AM   Subscribe

Can we please kill [underarm] crutches. (Outside Magazine podcast + transcript) The best estimates have axillary [underarm] crutches being prescribed roughly 60 to one over forearm crutches [in the U.S.]. They've been the standard for so long that they're just part of the medical system's DNA. But this has been the case for a long time. I mean there's ancient Egyptian drawings that depict the use of an underarm walking stick and I'll bet they just put up with it too.
posted by spamandkimchi (56 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
(FYI, if anyone is looking for the transcript, click "view more" -- it took me embarrassingly long to find it)
posted by knownassociate at 10:41 AM on May 25, 2022 [10 favorites]


Around twelve years ago I broke my right fibula in my leg. I got a boot, which was sure a lot better than a cast. And a pair of crutches. I live in a third floor walk up apartment. Crutches are torture. Worse than the injury. I find it interesting that one of the most common items at yard and garage sales are crutches, the most visibly ubiquitous medical appliance. 60 to 1? I can believe that. But do the prescribing doctors know that they are passing out torture devices? Or is it just the knee jerk bum leg give them a crutch procedure?
posted by njohnson23 at 10:52 AM on May 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


So much this. Every time I've had to use them I've kicked myself for not buying the better kind. Skin rubbed raw and choice of two speeds: agonizingly slow as the loss prevention line to leave Costco or exhausting reckless swinging jog.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:54 AM on May 25, 2022


Today I learned that when North Americans talk about crutches they mean this, instead of this. Which is slightly horrifying.

Thank-you for such an interesting post!
posted by Braeburn at 11:07 AM on May 25, 2022 [26 favorites]


I have only used the bad kind. I honestly thought the forearm crutches were reserved for people with special needs. I'm kind of pissed off right now.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:10 AM on May 25, 2022 [23 favorites]


And the fact that Braeburn's links are to $30 underarm crutches and $300 forearm crutches pretty much answers the question of why.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:11 AM on May 25, 2022 [37 favorites]


Many forearm crutches are around $60-80 at major U.S. retailers.
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:17 AM on May 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


The modern day pirate peg leg aka the iwalk however, is listed as $159 (U.S.)
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:21 AM on May 25, 2022 [4 favorites]


Have never had to use them, but I may be looking at lower joint replacements sometime in the future, and I've wondered if there was a reason why "Christ on a crutch" was a popular curse.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:22 AM on May 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


When I tore my calf muscle a decade ago I was given what I now realise is the good kind of crutches at the hospital, and when I asked how to return them they just told me to keep them. So they can't be that expensive. Mine were a lot less fancy than the ones in the link above and I still have them somewhere for the next time I do something foolish. Also, thanks socialised medicine!
posted by YoungStencil at 11:22 AM on May 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


Back when I hung out with pirate reenactors, I knew a guy who actually had a below-the-knee amputation (subsequent to a motorcycle accident) and wore an iWalk-style crutch made of wood and leather.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:26 AM on May 25, 2022 [6 favorites]


Also, my top tip if you do find yourself on crutches is to get a pair of good quality cycling gloves (fingerless or not depending on your local climate) with a very padded palm. Grippy and padded where it needs to be, but leaves your fingers able to do stuff.
posted by YoungStencil at 11:27 AM on May 25, 2022 [9 favorites]


When you require crutches in the US you are automatically issued a brand new pair of cheapo under-shoulder crutches. You use then for 6 weeks then store them in the basement or wherever. And if you have another event, you're issued another pair of cheapo crutches. There is virtually no reuse of these crutches ever. Your insurance company does not want to be blamed if you get bad used crutches. When my son sprained his ankle again, we objected that we already had crutches (from the same event earlier) but they issued them anyway.

But better crutches which were rented at reasonable prices could solve this problem, in theory. I've just looked at options around here and TBH I have better options than most because I live near several large medical centers with attendant medical supply stores. It appears that the forearm crutches are often called Canadian Crutches here, speaking to how the style of crutch is simply local tradition, and are about twice as expensive. Amusingly, however, the deposit is equal to the retail price and so is the 6-week rental price. I suspect if their use were more conventional around here that situation could be improved significantly.

It would be interesting to hear from a Canadian to see how thing work there. Are crutches generally rented and reused? Are the prices reasonable?
posted by sjswitzer at 11:27 AM on May 25, 2022 [3 favorites]


Last month I hurt my back and needed to get an old pair of underarm crutches out of a closet in order to get around the house for a day or so. They were not correctly adjusted for my height, because I had compactified them during a move, so I had to use them in a forearm-crutch sort of way in order to get to a place where I could sit down and remember how to adjust them.

After about twenty minutes of futzing with the three different adjustments, and taking painful little walks around the kitchen, I realized that the underarm configuration was much, much harder to use than basically putting the handgrip at a convenient height and using the crutches like walking sticks with annoying projections above the handle. Perhaps I am lucky to have the upper-body strength to do this?

I’ve never used a forearm crutch, but it seems like a walking stick with an “acrobat’s grip.” It’s just what I would have wanted.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 11:32 AM on May 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


I have only very limited experience with crutches here in Canada, having been on them only a couple of times in my life. My options were to purchase them (and later receive reimbursement from my insurance) or wait for the occupational therapist and see if the hospital had a donated pair on hand that I could have for free. In so far as I had insurance, I wasn't going to take a pair of free crutches that someone else might have actually needed and I certainly wasn't going to wait around to do that, so I bought them.

I moved apartments twice after that and on the third move, decided to give them away. A couple of years later, I sprained my knee. See above for what happened next.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:35 AM on May 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


now realise is the good kind of crutches at the hospital, and when I asked how to return them they just told me to keep them.

Well, if you were in the US they'd say that because then they can charge your insurance a 5x markup on their cost.
posted by rh at 11:48 AM on May 25, 2022 [5 favorites]


My pet peeve around crutches is that most people aren't provided with the 5 minutes of instruction needed to keep them safe.

11 years ago I broke my back + heel. The heel required 4 surgeries over the next year to reassemble: lots of crutch time. And with a newly-bolted back in such a fragile state, falling was Not.An.Option.

Actually, due to the incision that went through my abs, even sitting up wasn't an option for a while, and crutches weren't an option either. But once they were, I was lucky enough that a PT showed me how to use them, and the multiple ways of getting up & down stairs safely.

Since then I've become a crutch evangelist, so every time someone shows up in crutches, they get a lesson on stairs from me because I'm not letting them fall on my watch. It does drive me nuts that ERs basically hand them out and say "here you go! good luck!". I know ERs are busy. But still.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfM0qMou6f0
posted by Dashy at 11:57 AM on May 25, 2022 [9 favorites]


I think this is why people have those little leg scooters these days.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:06 PM on May 25, 2022 [13 favorites]


I had to wear crutches back in high school, but luckily it wasn't a broken bone--it was a bruised bone. So the doctor gave me crutches and said it wasn't totally necessary to use them, but that I should at least for a few weeks. So I did and they were fucking awful. I can still feel the chafe of them under my armpit. After about three days I threw them to the side and happily limped everywhere for the next few weeks.
posted by zardoz at 12:12 PM on May 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


You use then for 6 weeks then store them in the basement or wherever. And if you have another event, you're issued another pair of cheapo crutches.

AIUI Goodwill accepts crutches and then gives them out again for free - just looked this up because of the basement clutter myself.

If they’re terrible, at least they should be free.
posted by clew at 12:13 PM on May 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


  • armpit crutches are bad
  • forearm crutches are better
  • knee walkers and scooters have their place
  • they all require some technique to avoid compensatory injury
  • none of these should be handed out without some oversight
  • anyone requiring any of these should also (probably) be booking time with a PT
  • wheelchairs are an entirely different rabbit hole, though there is some significant overlap
  • hierarchies of disability is totally a thing and, like many social constructs, gets in the way of practical necessities
posted by mce at 12:14 PM on May 25, 2022 [32 favorites]


Around twelve years ago I broke my right fibula

Me too! Only for me, it was 18 years ago, left foot; it happened in Germany, right at the end of my trip, and I had no travel insurance. But no matter, emergency room visit (in a Klinikum), X-rays, crutches, cast, and a handful of disposable syringes I was to inject subcutaneously over the next few days to avoid deep-vein thrombosis on the airplane, all for just €300. In the US, that would've been at least $5K just walking in the door.

when North Americans talk about crutches they mean this, instead of this

Exactly. And being in Germany, I was issued the 'European' kind. Note that they require A LOT of upper-body muscle, and I thought, I'm getting a pair of the 'American' type as soon as I touch down Stateside. First thrift store I checked had none, and I wondered, are crutches considered some sort of prescription, medical device, which cannot by law be re-used? (No -‌- later I noticed a bunch of crutches in another thrift store, prompting comparisons with Lourdes.)

I did eventually acquire the American kind and oy, such pain in the armpits, you cannot believe! Plus everyone thought my European crutches were so cool, I shunned my American pair.

Note that if this happens to you, nowadays the knee-scooters jenfullmoon mentioned are available, perhaps even at a thrift store; wish I'd had one of those when I was mending.
posted by Rash at 12:26 PM on May 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


I got all of it (I found used crutches at Goodwill -$5) and a knee scooter. I didn't like the knee scooter much - it was really tiring to use and my kids love to drive it around my house still. It was $60 off craigslist.

Crutches are like beginner guitar fingertips - it hurts for a day or two and then it's fine.

Falling is actually ok as long as you don't do it too much per all my doctors and PT instructors for my achillies tendon repair. It's even somewhat common since you have to be on assistance for like 6 weeks or more. They did have the story of the one guy who re-injured himself [at least that's what he said happened] by falling, but it makes the news because it's so rare. And of course people admitting they ignored medical advice is the bulk of the re-injuries. And people skipping PT. My in-laws do that. Went once after a shoulder injury and surgery and never went back.

Also I got no advice or oversight for any of it.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:39 PM on May 25, 2022


My crutch story involves my daughter. She sprained her ankle days before a trip to Laos. Issued crutches which she hobbled around in Laos. After a week she decided that they were more of a PITA than they were worth, plus her ankle was getting better. Time to discard the crutches. Across the street from our hotel was a hospital, so instead of throwing out we'd take them over there because I'm sure someone needs them. We wander over. First weird thing, in Laotian hospitals ( at least the one we went in) the maternity ward is directly in the front door, ie. street to woman at 8cm. dilation is three steps. Awkward. We proceed into the depths, looking for the ER thinking a nurse there will happily take them. It takes a long time and much gesturing to make the point that we are not there for the bruised akle, but rather to donate medical supplies.

Finally we do after the only english speaker in the building is found and the donation was made. I retired to my balcony for a refreshing gin and topic and the smug self-satisfaction experienced only by westerners when doing the absolute least that can be done. Privelege is a hell of a drug.
posted by Keith Talent at 1:01 PM on May 25, 2022 [4 favorites]


I broke my foot, and was using crutches. In springtime, crossing a muddy field, the crutches slipped and all my weight was caught by the broken foot. It re-broke, and has never been the same.

I blame the crutches, obviously.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:04 PM on May 25, 2022 [8 favorites]


I loved my underarm crutches and got so good at moving fast on them. I would swing between them, practically leaping on my one good foot.

I think it helped that I was eight years old. My power-to-weight ratio was perfect for crutches, along with skipping rope and climbing (and falling) out of trees (that's how I broke my arm the following year). I have no idea what they would be like with an adult body.
posted by jb at 1:18 PM on May 25, 2022 [5 favorites]


My kid broke his leg at age six, and the ER staff just said that they don't give crutches to kids that young. Like, he's supposed to just sit still for the first six weeks of summer?!

We persuaded them by sheer force of will his cuteness, and eventually left with the smallest crutches I have ever seen. The kid absolutely tore around the yard with them, too.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:56 PM on May 25, 2022 [3 favorites]


I am a human pear, heavy bottom, small top. I have broken my ankle twice (hyper mobility will do this) and was left with only underarm crutches. I thought it was the only option. It was agony.
I did have one of those knee scooters the second time but it was an expensive rental. I'll break or dislocate my knee, hip or ankle again eventually (like I said about the hyper mobility...), and I'm not gonna be stuck with those horrible crutches again, thanks for the thread!
posted by wellifyouinsist at 2:02 PM on May 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


Italy: buy or rent, hospital will not just give you a pair. My brother keeps loosing the forearm crutches, like we are probably on the 6th pair, much to my father annoyance, because sometimes he needs them too and they have gone missing.
I have used underarm crutches when I tore a ligament in Beijing. Got them at the farmacy, they were cheap too. They were fine, more like a third than a substitute second leg.
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 2:10 PM on May 25, 2022


Thanks for the post! I had heard that the underarm ("axillary") crutch was ONLY popular in the US and that in other places, especially Europe, forearm crutches are the default, but I had just chalked it up to "yet another way the US does things bizarrely differently and refuses to update out of infrastructural inertia". It was very interesting to understand the stigma issue, that forearm crutches signify permanent disability rather than temporary injury.

People looking for a specific brand/model as an example: Nova brand standard forearm crutches, model number NT7710PME0343.
posted by brainwane at 2:12 PM on May 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


I've had both - forearm crutches are by far the best - the underarm ones always left my arm pits in lots of pain

But before that when recovering from my achilles reconstruction (6 weeks plus enforced bed rest, then progressive stretching of the new tendon in what was best described as a medieval torture moon boot) the thing that made me self sufficient in my home was the knee scooter that got me between bed, toilet and recliner chair
posted by mbo at 3:08 PM on May 25, 2022


Even 45 years ago, the kid with muscular dystrophy in high school used forearm crutches. If someone has to use them all the time, clearly they are better. I've seen people using the knee scooters, I thought they were genius, but thanks for the warning about steps with them.
posted by Bee'sWing at 3:28 PM on May 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


Knee scooters aren't an option when the knee is the thing that is injured! When I tore my ACL and had surgery I got the underarm crutches. And lived on the top floor of a 4-story walkup...
posted by misskaz at 3:51 PM on May 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


I was told during the first time I've needed to have crutches (I've had to use them three times, never for terribly long), that underarm crutches are to be fitted as going 2-3" under your underarm if you have your elbows locked on the handles holding your weight, and that you don't use your underarms when you're walking, you use your locked elbows (or semi-locked, not overextended) to carry your weight and only use your armpits to rest on when not walking.

I've never had any real problems using underarm crutches.

Are these not instruction given to everyone issued them?
posted by hippybear at 3:55 PM on May 25, 2022 [3 favorites]


when I broke my ankle I would have been unable to feed myself anything more complicated than cereal if I didn't get an iWalk. the idea that everyone has another person to chop carrots for them at home so we give them something that isn't hands free by default is insane.
posted by slow graffiti at 4:20 PM on May 25, 2022 [3 favorites]


When I broke my tib/fib many years ago, I started with just underarm crutches but ended up with a pair of each kind. I could alternate whenever the underarm ones chafed or the forearm ones made my palms sore.

But I got very good at going fast on either kind, once I realised that I was now essentially a four-legged creature (even if one leg was busted). When I had a long unobstructed straightaway, I used to imitate the action of a cantering horse: plant crutch 1, then crutch 2, then the good foot, repeat.
posted by Pallas Athena at 4:35 PM on May 25, 2022 [3 favorites]


I try to lend out my MobilityDesigned forearm crutches when people I know get injured. No one will ever even *try* them because they don’t want to look disabled. They want to make sure everyone knows it’s temporary. And they’re willing to suffer and not be able to use their hands and arms or carry things to do it! Good crutches are FREEDOM.
posted by Bottlecap at 5:10 PM on May 25, 2022 [5 favorites]


So. I have something called Spastic Paraparesis, and as a result, I use either forearm crutches or a rollator 100% of the time.

I wish that everyone who got underarm crutches could get forearm crutches if they wanted. They are SO handy! They do require some upper body strength, true, but there's no risk of a nerve injury. And, they are shorter and more maneuverable than underarm crutches.

Also? It would normalize using forearm crutches in the USA. Which would work to reduce the price of them, make different kinds more available, and lessen the staring/comments when I go out in them. Because they are associated with permanent disability here. Which is why I use them, certainly, but the treatment I get is worlds different than if I were to be using underarm crutches.

Also - good quality forearm crutches are expensive, hard to come by, and often aren't paid for by insurance. I know many who can't use the standard all metal ones easily, as they are too heavy. Not to mention that they have an institutional look to them that can be a turn off to using them.

I end up using Walk Easy crutches, which are repackaged/rebranded crutches from Germany. They are lightweight, colorful, have many different styles, and are basically the best crutch I've ever used.
posted by spinifex23 at 5:14 PM on May 25, 2022 [11 favorites]


So… I’m not gonna listen to a podcast (sorry, just no) but based on the info in the FPP there’s something not yet commented upon. I can totally see how the apparently superior crutches are associated with disability in America (in an ableist way) because when I think about those crutches one of the things that immediately comes to mind is Jimmy from South Park. It apparently never occurs to people (most Americans anyway) that those dealing with physical challenges would find the better solutions available but instead stigmatize those solutions as signifiers of disability.
posted by sjswitzer at 6:05 PM on May 25, 2022 [3 favorites]


I speak with unfortunate great and recent experience. Last May, I stepped in a pothole while waiting for one of those gigantic NYPD funerals to start, fell literally flat, broke my foot and sprained my ankle, cut my hands and knees etc. I highly recommend that if you're going to fall, do so with a lot of cops and EMTs standing around, because a platoon of them rushes right over, pick you up, check you out and make sure you're okay. I went to an urgent care a few hours later, was issued crutches and barely made it back out to the car. No upper arm strength, armpit pain, etc., and a weird fear that they were going to slide in different directions and I was going to fall on my face again. So I bought a scooter from a friend and used that, even when the ortho doc's office warned me repeatedly that some people (they didn't say age but that's what they meant) had balance problems.
I thought, ha, not me. Exactly wo weeks later, I hurled myself out of a recliner in the dark, forgot the scooter was right near me and, off balance with the boot, fell over it and crashed, hand first, into the base of my couch, breaking my wrist in two places.
It was a pretty awful, painful experience and several months of very slow recovery. So my shed holds a scooter, crutches and two kinds of orthopedic boots, which I'd be happy to give to a charity interested in taking any of them.
Those forearm crutches look like a huge improvement over the regular months and I sure wish I'd had them as an option. I too always thought they were for people with specific physical problems, not just routine stupid ortho problems.
posted by etaoin at 6:20 PM on May 25, 2022 [4 favorites]


sjswitzer, I recommend the transcript of the podcast which is available on the same page as the podcast. They mention South Park.
posted by brainwane at 6:44 PM on May 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


I got forearm crutches when I broke my leg on holiday in the UK. Which I had to beg for, because (being the NHS) they were terrified I was going to flee the country without returning them. (I did get a couple of very good lessons on walking and even climbing and descending stairs before I was allowed out of the hospital, btw.) I'm a nice guy, so I bought a replacement pair, same manufacturer, for £25 online and returned the originals.

That taught me that not all crutches are made the same - the replacements had lovely soft ergonomic left and right handed handles with palm pads, and were were a joy to use (inasmuch as using crutches is ever a joy) when compared to the old ones with flat topped ones of some hard plastic. So even among the new style ones there are better and worse varieties. (And apparently I am going to regret giving them to goodwill.)
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 7:02 PM on May 25, 2022 [4 favorites]


Abehammerb Lincoln: I honestly thought the forearm crutches were reserved for people with special needs.

Okay, but here's the thing... surely if you need or can benefit from crutches, then that is a special need you have, right there?

Many of us tend to see disability as sharply defined: you either have a disability OR you are able-bodied. But it's not as simple as that, isn't? I see myself as a person without any disabilities, but I have to be careful in how I use my right foot, and even apart from that I can't run worth shit. If a good runner fell back to my level of being able to run, they would probably call that a disability.
So it's not a sharp line, it's fuzzy. And most of us float in and out of that fuzzily defined area during our lives, and eventually, almost all of us end up right inside it.

Forearm crutches are so common here that I could easily pick up a spiffy pair, with adjustable height and turquoise palm and forearm support, for all of €5 at a second hand store. And I could do that without depriving anyone in need, because they had more.
So I did. You never know when you might have 'special needs' for a while. Special needs really aren't all that special.
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:54 AM on May 26, 2022 [13 favorites]


Thinking about this more... this question remains unanswered: what is the reason that forearm crutches are seen as a long term mobility tool in the US, and not a short term one, while this is not the case in the rest of the world?

It can't just be polio. We had that, too.
It can't be the cost. I can buy a shiny new pair of forearm crutches in a colour of my choice for €30.
So what is it? Just a cultural habit? But why is that habit so localised?
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:51 AM on May 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


I bought a replacement pair, same manufacturer, for £25 online and returned the originals.

And despite the fuss over handing them out, the hospital seemed pleased but a little surprised to be getting them back, and didn't even ask me who I was returning them on behalf of. I would guess it's not only people escaping to distant foreign climes who don't bring them back.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 3:01 AM on May 26, 2022


I’m maybe 85% recovered from an Achilles tendon rupture at the end of last year. I hated my underarm crutches so much for the several weeks I couldn’t put any weight on the bad foot after surgery. (Luckily was able to borrow a knee scooter from a friend, which was much easier.) Even after having them well adjusted, and even after I was partially weight-bearing, the crutches really didn’t work very well. I got issues with muscle strain - chest pain so bad I thought I had developed some sort of heart problem.

I knew I hated underarm crutches from having had a broken leg many years ago, so I asked for and was denied forearm crutches. The surgical center didn’t even have any in house, they said. I would have had to go buy them separately, which was hard since I couldn’t drive…

My sense from talking to the center staff is that (at least there, for them) it’s a cost thing. Even a few dollars extra cost per set makes a difference, so it doesn’t matter if they would be more comfortable for the patient, or even for just some patients. It’s pretty sad and a symptom of the way the system is failing us.
posted by gemmy at 3:27 AM on May 26, 2022


In 2013 I was at a 4 day geek convention in a hotel near London.

I was hobbling around on two collapsible walking sticks because of a trapped nerve in my lower back - in hindsight this was beyond foolish and stupidly agonizing, but the tickets had been paid for a year in advance, and myself and my partner this was the only 'vacation' we were getting and had been on for five years.

I made a new friend at the convention and she has MS. On the second evening, whilst chatting in the bar she proclaimed that getting drunk and not leaving the bar was her only objective and her friend with a motor scooter would give her a lift back to her hotel room later on, so if I wanted I could borrow her Smart Crutches, and give them back at breakfast.


This is what they look like
.

THEY ARE AMAZING. I never knew walking aids could be like this.

Padded in all the right places, angle adjustable, height adjustable, weight on forearm, not fugly, relatively lightweight and sturdy, also a very clever flexi-foot design!

Had to share this info because prior to this I never thought that I could just buy something like this that would improve mobility so much.
posted by Faintdreams at 3:56 AM on May 26, 2022 [11 favorites]


ManyLeggedCreature: the hospital seemed pleased but a little surprised to be getting them back

Maybe it wasn't so much that they got them back in the first place, rather the number returned?
posted by Stoneshop at 5:43 AM on May 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


gemmy: Even a few dollars extra cost per set makes a difference

Which is, to me, a weird factor in two ways: looking at their construction underarm crutches require more material than forearm crutches so from that alone would be more expensive, and the latter being more comfortable to use a patient is less likely to incur damage from them or stop using them earlier that proscribed so a lower chance of additional surgery and/or more physical therapy. But I guess that the surgical centre's equipment store staff were concerned about their own costs, not those of any additional treatment.
posted by Stoneshop at 6:09 AM on May 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


what is the reason that forearm crutches are seen as a long term mobility tool in the US

I'm in the US and I don't have this perception. And after reading this thread, I'm afraid the answer to this is, because of a character named Jimmy in South Park (a program I'm almost completely unfamiliar with).
posted by Rash at 9:01 AM on May 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


(And apparently I am going to regret giving them to goodwill.)

How much is that froggie in the window, if you have the energy to do so, you could research various local disability groups / veterans groups in your area, to see if they'll take them as a donation. There's a dearth of good forearm crutches in North America, and a need for them. They will find a good use. (I'm assuming you're in the USA or Canada, by the 'Goodwill'.)

Worst case scenario? Memail me, and if they'll fit my needs, I can take them off of your hands. I can never have too many crutches!
posted by spinifex23 at 9:39 AM on May 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


I am someone who lives in the US and was aware of South Park as it evolved from nothing to zeitgeist. If you’ll forgive me for using the vulgar phrasing, “Jimmy the cripple” was an amplification of an existing stereotype, not the creation of a new one. The entire schtick for (early? current?) South Park was to take problematic or offensive ideas and put them front and center.

Ableism used to be just the way we did things. Some of us are trying to do better.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 9:40 AM on May 26, 2022 [4 favorites]


Yeah, I never saw any South Park, but I do remember this prejudice from decades before the show premiered.

--
I am not sure that I ever saw someone use arm crutches that didn't have a long-term need for them, whereas axillary crutches were always issued for temporary use. (Because, as we have discussed, axillary crutches suck, and anyone with a long-term need would abandon them as quickly as possible.) So that association of "arm-crutches==disabilty" might be based on facts, as ableist as it is.

But yeah, now I want a set of these for the next time I hurt myself. Maybe I will hunt Craigslist or something....
posted by wenestvedt at 12:29 PM on May 26, 2022


Hi all
I have been a reader of this forum since 2001, but it's only now that i feel the need to contradict most of what has been said/written in this thread.

A lot of what i read here is factually wrong, offensive to me, or both.
I don't even know where to start!
There's no such thing as good crutches & bad crutches.

"Almost everyone who’s used underarm crutches agrees: they are terribly designed. They’re hard on your wrists, they cause falls, they cause nerve damage. This is why almost every country in the world has abandoned them—except the U.S., where if you go to the hospital with a leg injury, you’re most likely going to leave with adjustable aluminum crutches. In this third installment of our series exploring how gear gets made, we look at the fascinating history of why better designs for crutches haven’t caught on, and whether or not they ever will."

With that, the authors of that podcast already dug themselves in in a fantasy mudhole.

I have been a below knee amputee for 23 years now, have been on crutches for extended periods of time, more often than i care to count.

As it turned out, for me the "bad", (canadians, as they're called here), crutches were & are by far the best.

Why?

And this is the single most important aspect of it all: You're able to manage your household hands free by squeezing the crutches with your armpits. It is easy to learn how to move without your hands locked to the crutches whereas with forearm crutches you just can't ever do without your hands firmly carrying the weight.

As i said, i don't even know where to start, let me instead finish with the nerve damage scare:
It is asinine. Unless you get a limb cut off at an instant, nerve damage will announce itself long before it's irreparable. You will feel numb limbs repeatedly, long before any damage is done.

Upthread there are quite a few statements and links to hysterical, panicky POVs that just get my blood boiling.

Am i permanently disabled, or am i privileged insofar as i am one of few probably, in this thread who know what they're talking about?

I hope the last sentence didn't come across as aggressive.
As a european, i fortunately don't suffer stigmatization , but i also don't tell myself that i'm not disabled

Also, hi, i'm Gabriele, nice to meet you all
posted by gabriele pasternak at 3:21 PM on May 26, 2022 [10 favorites]


Hi Gabriele! 👋
posted by Too-Ticky at 7:22 AM on May 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


Hands-free forearm crutches seemed really cool to me, from a geeky point of view, but I don't have any skin in the game. So I'm just posting incase anyone else hasn't heard of/seen them either:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJTAOaKNuOs

JoshSundquist reviewed the model above, and rated them as best for injury or surgery, but not everyday use - however that's because he prefers even lighter carbon fiber forearm crutches for day to day, not because he uses underarm crutches, except at a standing desk.

They all seem to have tradeoffs, which people will make based on their own lifestyle, but dang - I really doubt it would be 60 to 1 in favor of underarm crutches if people had options and knew what those tradeoffs were?
posted by Elysum at 12:51 AM on May 29, 2022


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