Invacare Forearm Crutches From Hell!

Disabled Couple

So as you might or might not know Juliet requires the use of Forearm Crutches. Due to her severe Fibro condition she can’t walk on her own 2 feet without severe pain that will cause her to fall constantly.

We had attempted getting them through Assistive Devices Program in Ontario (ADP). Sadly at least at the time Juliet was declined because of the Height requirements she needed. I was not with her at the time so sadly I don’t know exactly the entire story but she ended up having to buy it with her own money and that was a challenge being on Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).

The model she requires was the 8153-T and from my understanding the T is indicating the tall version. Juliet is 6 Feet 1 Inches in height. You might have heard these crutches as Canadian Forearm crutches and their not the prettiest looking thing but they do their job mostly.

Comfort wise as your main source of moving around it can be hard on your hands and forearm as it’s made out of solid hard plastic that can rub your skin off with prolong usage. I personally think these would be great for temporary setting but not so much as a full time crutch.

Sheared off rivet
Cuff & rivet

So getting to our title… Forearm Crutches From Hell… Simply put these Forearm Crutches seem to have an insane failure rate for us. Three times so far the Plastic Cuff Rivet’s have sheared off and caused Juliet to fall hard. In fact the last fall was so bad that she was in pain for over a couple of weeks. Keep in mind that she has the Fibro and things don’t just heal up the next day for her sadly.

The good news is Invacare was quite decent to us. We contacted them 2 out of the 3 times and even though it took some effort and work they had replaced the crutches for us. The first time they replaced both crutches and the second time they replace the cuff as they were discontinuing this model.

Sadly though at this point for Juliet’s needs, the crutches can be quite dangerous and honestly a ticking time bomb waiting to break again in the future. Not only will there be a fall, but there will also be no crutches left to go to.

We are hoping in the future to get support through ADP for new Forearm crutches, but so far we have not had luck as of yet. We be really happy to have just a spare set and that way when something does happen we have something to fallback right away without 2-4 week delay for parts.

We have contacted and checked out some manufactures in Europe for Forearm Crutches. There is so many amazing designs and features with them, but sadly their costs even just the shipping is out of our current price range for now. Hopefully one day our government will work to bring some better Forearm Crutches into Canada.

Extreme Heat Warning from Our Government.

Disabled Couple

We found this to be a bit of irony today. Our government put out a warning that extreme heat can be dangerous especially for those who are elderly and some people with Disabilities.

Today in our home the Hallway was hitting around the 28c mark with about 60% humidity and Juliette’s Bedroom that she is mostly confined to was hitting around 30c with about 70% humidity. 30c and around 70% humidity brings the heat index to 35c.

We both suffer from the heat a lot but Juliette tends to suffer the most because of her Fibro and Asthma. The combination of the 2 causes her to be in more pain, fatigue, and causes a lot of breathing issues.

So the Irony here is we have tried to get some sort of funding from the Government to get a Central AC Unit and of course we were rejected. We might be able to get help for a Window unit but it causes a lot of facial pain and noise pain to Juliette because of the noises and the more extreme moving of air that you tend to get from Portable / Window unit AC’s.
Even if we had the money and could survive the window unit / portable unit our Power Grid can’t… Our home’s entire upstairs and a big chunk of the basement is connected to 1 single 15 amp breaker.

So our other option is maybe some sort of Stairlift to get Juliette into the basement… Well the bad news here is our Government does not provide such funding and tells us to use a charity and most charities don’t see it a vital need as she has access to a small tiny room upstairs, bathroom with a shower and a kitchen. These charities tend to be a once and a lifetime usage as well. So if we ever moved into say a forever home we would not get the support and help required.

Long story Short our government is telling us to do something that we and I could imagine 1000’s of others with disabilities can’t do a single thing about it as well.