Use Your Cane 
SAFELY

Start Off on the Right Foot

My right leg was the one hurting, I told her. 

"Switch hands then," she ordered.

Lee took the cane away from me and moved my left hand out away 
from my side then moved the cane close to my left hand. She explained 
what she was doing.  "We want the top of the cane to exactly meet 
the middle of your wrist."

 One more click did the trick. When she invited me to walk I automatically took the cane back into my right hand. My right hand and my right foot started off at the same time. Lee shook her head. "Can I show you a better way to walk?" she asked innocently.

Lee took the cane into her right hand and moved her right foot forward. "If you put your cane forward on the same side and at the same time as you do your injured leg you will be lurching all your weight on that side. That is worse than useless, you can hurt yourself a good deal as well."

As she showed me what she meant it was easy to see she was lurching like a drunken sailor when she did it that way. 

I wondered what I had looked like before.  "How do you walk then?" I asked.

Use your cane correctly

Lee put the cane into her left hand and swept it forward as the right leg stepped away in the same direction. "As your bad leg goes forward put the cane out in your opposite hand and put your weight on the cane -- not on your leg."

She walked forward a brisk 20 paces and back again in a jaunty stride that made it all look easy until she said the tragic words, "Do not use your cane as an excuse to slouch.  Watch your posture carefully.  Stand up straight, tall, proud and handsome as you walk. You try it."

Sure enough, that treacherous cane got behind me.  It hit the floor beside me instead of in front of me, and even when it finally went forward at the right time,  the silly thing did not descend to meet the floor until I arrived at that spot and showed it where the spot was.  "It will take practice," Lee assured me.

I was all too willing to pause in mid stride and postpone that practice period until a later date; Lee wasn't.  "Keep going.  Keep going."

Back and forth I went, muttering to myself and mumbling belated instructions to the cane. "This is exactly opposite of what I thought was natural."

"Keep going," she told me. "Keep going."

Practice, and MORE Practice,
Makes Perfect

It took almost 10 minutes but I finally mastered the art of walking with a cane. It just about wore me to a frazzle.  Lee was not satisfied with that. She led me over to the stairs and insisted that I learned how to go up and down them. "Up with the good and down with the bad," she told me.

What does that mean? "When you are going up the stairs your good leg goes up first with the cane in place behind you, helping to steady your weight as you rise. Once your good leg is in place, push off with your cane and use the strength in your good leg to raise your body up to the new level. You repeat this process into you raise yourself all the way to the top of the stairs."

How about coming down the stairs? "That's when you go down with the bad. When coming down the stairs extend your cane to the next lower-level first. Use your cane to lower your body weight down as your bad leg descends.  Make it absorb as much weight off that bad leg as your arm can stand while you bring your good leg down to that level. There your good leg takes up the weight of your body while your cane first, then your weaker leg descend to the next lower level."

How about that four footed cane you see the elderly using?  Well, they are more stable, and they are MUCH better when going across uneven terrain.  But, if you are dining out and have a choice between a four footer or a walker, take the walker.  Yes, the walker does make you look more helpless.  BUT, the people around you will notice the walker ten times as well as they do the cane.  That four footer will get into more people's way than you can shake a stick at.  No matter where you put it (as you edge through a crowd) somebody is just about to step there without looking.  BANG, all three of you go down together.

Train Yourself 
For The Obstacles

Lee made me practice over and over again until it was obvious to her I did know how to negotiate the stairs and win every level. Then she took me away from the stairs and aimed me up against a blank wall. "Okay let's imagine you are fretting in line at a supermarket. You can't walk away in without losing your place in line. You can't move ahead either," she tapped the wall. "And you can't move backwards. What can you do besides stand there and endure it?"

I stared at the wall and cringed. This situation was all too real for me. Five minutes too long in a slow-moving line at the grocery store could literally put me in bed for five days or more. But the only answer I could come up with to her question was "uh".

Lee nodded as if confirming some inner anticipation that might be my only answer. "The first thing you want to do is put your cane out in front of you, or to your side so you can use it to help yourself move your body around while standing in place. When you need to, use your cane to support as much body weight as you can stand. The main thing is to keep shifting your weight so that it doesn't fatigue your leg muscles."

Rising to the Occasion 

She took a deep breath and continued.   "When you are sitting down in an armless chair, ready to rise, place the tip of your cane close in front of you with the top portion pointed slightly forward.  Use both hands to pull yourself upwards as your good leg raises you.  If the chair does have arms then use your opposite hand to help lift and steady your body while pulling on the cane in your other hand."

I thought about that and nodded.  I could see it working.  

Rising
From a Fall

"Sooner or later it will happen," she warned me.  "You will fall, you will sprawl headfirst into disaster. As we go through this you might even imagine that your cane will go sailing far beyond your reach. You are stunned. You are helpless there on the ground.  How do you get up?"

I was ready for Lee that time. One afternoon I had discovered my landlady sprawled unmoving in the kitchen floor. Her eyes were opened, her brain was in gear. "All you hurt?" I asked her. Her head shook in the negative. "Why don't you get up then?"

Her answer had surprised me. "I have forgotten how."

That was funny until I tried to tell her how to rise from the floor and realized I did not remember how to get up either. That is something you do automatically after the third grade.  Before I could assist her with instructions I had to ask myself the question how do you get up from a bad spill? Gradually and one step the time I had worked it out. "Roll over on your side and then draw your knees up. Next you put out your upper arm as a support and roll over onto your hands and knees."

Be careful
What Kind of Help You Accept

Lee made me actually go through the procedure several times on the floor. On the last try she stopped me just as I got up to my hands and knees. She cautioned me: "There may be people nearby eager to help you get up. They will probably rush forward and grab you either by both shoulders or by one or both of your upper arms." I nodded. That was exactly how I had seen it happen dozens of times. Lee shook her head. "Do not let them help you up that way!

"First of all, ask them to get your cane. You should use it to help yourself rise.

"Second, if you are dizzy, or having any kind of other trouble, ask them to help you rise by lifting you gently by the waist, or by your belt as you use the cane to rise. If your cane is completely missing they can also offer you their hand or arm as a support for you to pull down on in order to raise yourself to a standing position."

These same principles apply for the use of one crutch or the arm support crutches.  

Your Cane Should Be 
MADE FOR YOU

My new, wooden cane was cut to the exact specifications Lee decided that I needed and a rubber tip was mounted on it.  Lee even scratched my name onto the wood to make it patently MINE.

Final Instructions  

As I signed the papers and began to rise from the chair Lee put her hand on my arm so that I paused and looked up.  "Again, I caution you not to use your cane as an excuse to slouch over.  Slouching can make a cripple out of anyone.  Stand up straight when you walk with a cane.  Be jaunty about it. Throw your head up, and your chest out proudly.  Use the cane as sparingly as possible.  If you don't need it for support at the moment, don't use your cane at all."