Getting Back on my Feet with Smart Crutches

I have stiff person syndrome and my lower limbs and feet are most affected. My muscles are stiff and liable to spasm at any time. I also have nerve pain which makes walking difficult. My feet feel as though the are in high heels which are two sizes too small constantly, even when I’m barefoot. My hips and back are affected too, so you can understand how my mobility is affected. When I do walk, it’s incredibly slow and I feel like I’m walking through treacle.

I’m fairly new to this immobility, it’s only been 23 months. Over that time I’ve tried several things to help me walk. My favourite so far has been my sticks. My rollator is better and more stable but I just feel like a real old lady when I use it. The problem with stick is that they help me a little but I never feel really steady. When I left hospital I was given some standard crutches but they were cumbersome an uncomfortable to use.

Then I heard a friend saying that she’d bought some crutches from Smart Crutch  and that they were amazing. I took a look and I thought they looked like some other coloured crutches that I’d been looking at. Then I looked again and saw all the positive extras that these crutches had. So I had to have a pair.

Choosing a colour was difficult although I was immediately drawn to my favourite colour, each one had a little description behind the colour. This is what the site said about yellow:

Optimism, Enlightenment, Happiness and a promise of a positive future.

Yellow will advance from surrounding colours and instil optimism and energy, as well as spark creative thoughts.

I was sold, this sounded just what I needed. At £98.99 I was hoping I had made the right choice
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When ordering they need to know your height, weight and the length of your forearm so you can get the best fit. I was really excited to receive mine just two days after ordering.

Smart Crutches

Don’t they look great! They are fully adjustable in both height and angle of arm rests. You can also adjust the length of the arm rests. I messed about with them for ages before I decided I was happy. Then I thought they felt too short, but they were on the highest setting. Feeling confused I contacted Customer Services at Smart Crutch. After all, I’d given them my height. They wrote back very apologetic saying that they would send me the longer bottom halves but could I first measure the ones I had to make sure that was the problem.

This is where I win wally of the year, as I was taking the bottom half out I realised just how long they were. I measured them and sure enough they were 600mm, the longer length. What I’d been doing was adjusting them upside down, so I was thinking they were on the tallest setting when in fact I’d made them on the shortest setting. It was so simple and I had got it wrong! Anyway, after confessing to customer services what a silly mistake I’d made I finally had my crutches on the most comfortable setting for me.

Time to go out with them!

We took the kids to Mc Donalds and as it wasn’t a very long walk from the car I decided to use the crutches. I found them very comfortable and easy to use. Then once inside we had our meal and eventually I needed the toilet. It was another short walk to the toilet but I had my crutches so I gave it a go. You may think I’m making a big deal out of walking to the loo, but we are talking Mc Donalds, where there are kids everywhere and obstacles like pushchairs that I have to navigate around. When you can barely walk this is huge! But with my crutches I felt confident and supported, I even managed to take a loo selfie.
(I admit that using my phone to take a photo was difficult with my daft hands, but at least i had the crutches to balance on.)