#also ft my citrus crutches

[comical-wheelchairs]

Shazam! #5 (2019)

Other Aid Saturday! Because I've used a lot of mobility aids and I have opinions on all of them.

Freddy (blond kid in the middle) uses forearm crutches, and they're usually drawn great, which was what made this panel stand out to me so much.

Holding a forearm crutch backwards like that isn't just hard or useless - it's painful!

The full rant with pictures and videos is under the cut, which is much more educational than anything against the artist of this particular panel. I know it was probably just a drawing error lol

TL;DR A character that uses forearm crutches would be more mobile without crutches at all than holding a crutch backwards, even as a weapon.

What are forearm crutches for?

Forearm crutches are for weight bearing! They're better than canes in this aspect, and even better than rollators (rolled walkers) which can bear less weight before you compromise the stability of the wheels.

Why does the orientation matter?

Check it out! It's my forearm crutches! You can see the angle that the crutch takes from my elbow down to my arm - this helps distribute my full body weight between my wrist and my elbow, which is way less strain on my sensitive joints.

Here's those exact positions with my crutch again - "wow!" I can hear you say. "Pecan! That looks like such a strain!" It is! I have to bend my elbow and my arm backwards in order to hold the crutch at 90 degrees from the ground. Ouch!

Also beyond that, my crutches have a full cuff (a personal preference) but Freddy's do not. With my full cuff it pinches me - with an more open cuff it would just not stay on!

How do you move with forearm crutches forwards vs backwards?

Well. Lucky for both of us I was having a pretty good pain day a little ago and took some videos for this purchase because I kept this post in the drafts since I made this blog. Here you go!

Standing/weight bearing with a jump:

And weight bearing with a jump and backwards crutches:

It's a lot easier to put my weight on the crutches and maintain balance with them facing forward as opposed to backward.

As for walking, here's me taking a couple steps (kicking my legs for fun) with the crutches forward:

And then here's me taking a couple steps with them backwards, trying to do the same thing:

Even on my lesser-pain day it's hard to even keep my balance with the crutches backwards!

Aaand lastly,

Pecan, what if they grab it backwards and don't have time to get it on properly?

Not a concern! Look at how easy and fast it is to get a crutch flipped using just your wrist and broad hand movements!

I hope that this is educational or informational or something - this amount of explanation is not proportional to the drawing error with Freddy's crutches in that panel, so this was honestly more for the love of infodumping than a full critique of that panel. I love Freddy and this was genuinely the only error I saw in this particular run. I love my forearm crutches and I love seeing people who love theirs too. :)