A custom cane. I know it’s silly but I get a lot of compliments on it. It’s hand crafted in Ukraine and it has a steel sculpture of Thors face adorned on the front.
If you’re someone like me that is going to need that for the rest of your life, why use some cold looking medical device or that stupid “hurry cane”? Nah I’d rather it be as beautiful as it is functional.
I've taken it on all my travels so far and it makes for a great conversation piece and a great way for others to broach the uncomfortable topic of my accident or walking impairment. Most people will ask about the cane first before asking me why I need it. Prior to owning the custom cane nobody asked me about anything.
I’ve been struggling with gout in my knee and ankle off and on. When it gets bad I’m almost immobile and I broke down and finally bought a cane to help me hobble around when it’s at its worst.
Mine also came from Ukraine and like you I wanted something with personality. I got an oak, ball top style stained cherry and I love it!
Same. It’s awful. It’s not gout obviously but the stiffness in my knee and ankle is the most debilitating. Ironically I didn’t break my ankle or my knee. My hip was broken and keeping my foot still for the better part of a year has been problematic for movement ever sense.
The hip aches a lot but I can tolerate that by modifying my walking and using the cane. I still haven’t figured out how to get the stiffness out of my ankle and knee.
Physical Therapy! Do the exercises/stretches. If you need to go back and ask a doctor for another round, do it. I get it though.
Sometimes KT tape can do wonders, but it really really depends. Personally, the best was with knees and arms. I wear a different kind of brace for my ankle, a Trilok, but there are apparently a whole bunch of similar ones now.
Dude do it. I dealt with chronic pain for way too long and just accepted it as hopeless. I had tried stretches and exercises on my own with no luck so I wrote physical therapy off as pointless.
Eventually I gave in and 6 weeks in to physical therapy my pain is like 80% gone. I started noticing improvements after a week.