NOTE

As I continue to work on things away from this blog (which is a collection of Free-Time/Casual Online Writing, Remarks, And Notes By ME Whelan) and continue to figure out what goes and what stays of my existing online-writing, the de-emphasizing of one or another continues as well....

Monday, June 1, 2015

A "Heavy-Duty" Cane That Now Comes In Several Colors - How Exciting??


August 6, 2014
(Note: Before going on here, let me say that I have no affiliation whatsoever with any company that makes canes. In other words, I'm not trying to sell this particular cane with this post.)
I kind of hate to publicly bring up the subject of canes (of the "walking variety" not of the "candy variety" that we associate with Christmas, or even of the "sugar variety" that we learned about in grade school and pretty much stopped caring about once we did - at least if we lived where sugar cane is grown somewhere far away, and all we need to do is watch how much sugar we do or don't eat or add to the stuff we eat and drink).

In any case, I kind of hate to bring up the subject of canes because a serious leg injury that I did a few years ago happened when I was old enough to be self-conscious about the fact that canes tend to be associated with being "old". I wasn't really of the age that I could comfortably and happily settle into The Cane Community, but I did, I thought, run the risk of having some people make the mistake of seeing my use of a cane as "prematurely entering The Cane Community", rather than as an injury that could happen to anyone at any age.

It didn't help that a few people seemed to assume that "that was it" for my "regular" walking days. It didn't help that I apparently live in a world where the idea of someone in her fifties ever truly getting over a serious and complicated injury is an idea and concept that a lot more rare than should be the case. Maybe it's more that I live in a world that has had ingrained in the minds of so many people that not writing off as hopeless someone or something is not being smart enough, or realistic enough. That, however, is a subject for another day.

The other thing with bringing up the matter of a cane online is that I don't want to start creating an image in the mind of people who don't know me that I hobble around on a cane when, in reality, I'm back to the point where I can walk as much as 5 or 6 miles fairly effortlessly (and I do, under the right weather, shoe, heat/humidity, and/or latest leg-recovery stage). I know that regardless of why it is someone may need a cane, it's nothing to feel self-conscious about; but a) I admit to resenting the fact that too many people think the fifties are old and "unlikely to heal" (apparently); and b) when, after using "the good leg" far more than was ideal and therefore doing another fairly serious (but nowhere near as serious as the first one) injury, someone actually brought up the idea that I may want to think about "assisted living" (!!!!)). It all goes to that very real thing that if you're thirty and have an injury people apparently assume it may heal. If you're in your fifties too many assume you're on the road to inevitable decline (and earlier than most other fifties people would be to boot.

Anyway, when I had the one leg with the one whopper-injury, it was challenging; but I had the second leg to count on as far as stability and standing went. When the second one happened just as the first one was making substantial progress it meant that I had to rely on the not-ready "first leg" more, maybe, than was ideal. It's all fine. They're both on the road to recovery, one closer than the other because one was over four years ago and the other a little more than a year and a half ago. There was a time there, though, when taking a shower was kind of scary. I don't have a walk-in shower. It's the usual bathtub-with-shower thing. I don't really recall when product, "HurryCane" came out, or at least started showing up on television commercials; but I guess I saw it after my "high-stability-concern" stage with regard to taking showers. When that commercial came out, though, I thought of how great it would have been to have one of those canes (a folding cane with kind of a stand on the bottom of it) when I really could have used one.
The other day I saw that the cane now comes in different colors, rather than just black; and I had to kind of laugh to myself to think how excited I got to see that the company has decided to brighten up the matter of "heavy-duty cane use" (or need) with color. Thankfully (and I hope for a long time - knock on wood), I don't need such a "heavy-duty" cane

I suspect that a lot of people wouldn't quite see the "hilarity" (more accurately, mild humor) in finding themselves "all excited" to see that something like the HurryCane now comes in assorted colors. (I suppose the makers of that cane are aiming to meet the fashion and mood needs of the knee-replacement/hip-replacement generation (formerly known as "Baby Boomers"). All I know is that I never would have thought I'd find something like this at all even interesting, at least not this soon in my sort-of-still-youngish-kind-of life. (YES, you forty-five year-olds, what you'll discover in the next fifteen or twenty years will be that "around sixty" isn't as old as think it is now.)

In my own case, I suppose, maybe, it's a matter of "with age comes wisdom", or else maybe "with injury comes the need for colors other than black or gray or "metallic"

In all seriousness, I think, maybe, the real key is in recognizing that age, injuries, and canes don't always automatically either go together, not always go together, or amount to never getting back to "pretty much good as new" (at least for now, and again, knock on wood).

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