Starting with some comments vaguely related to this blog posting
(Note - I just woke up from post surgical haze — about a week of post surgical haze. More on that later, now I’ll finish my post on getting around.)
(Note 2 - I’d really love to here other peoples experiences with other crutch alternatives. The One-crutch,
I walk free, and so forth Getting around seems to be the main challenge with one good leg).
The weekend before halloween, my neighorhood businesses open up for trick or treating. There is nothing more delightful for the kids. It’s a parenting experience I treasure - and I couldn’t imagine doing it on crutches. This was 4 days post rupture. We ran out and rented a knee walker just so I could go. I managed 1.6 miles that day, some carrying a 26 pound bumblebee. So, I love me knee walker.
After 2 weeks on the knee walker, here’s all I know about it.
Summary of the knee walker experience
Crutches? Anything but crutches! I love my knee walker! After a few days on crutches I was desperate. I had know idea how inconvenient crutches were. Let’s point out the obvious: you can’t carry much with each hand on one crutch. (Yeah - I figured out the trick of hanging a satchel over a shoulder). Absolutely impossible for the daddy of two busy children.
However, don’t throw out the crutches. There are many places you simply cannot go on a device with tiny wheels. The back yard, the beach, poorly maintained sidewalks. I crutch around periodically to give me right knee (bad) and left ankle (good side) a break.
What about other devices? I know little of other alternatives. One-crutch, I walk free look interesting, but I haven’t found any informative reviews of these, and don’t want to shell out the cash to find out that it won’t work for me. I wanted to try before buying, the local medical equipment stores only carried the knee walker. So, that’s what I have.
Great stuff about the knee walker
I just went trick or treating with the kids! 20 blocks. Not easy, but possible. (early - our neighborhood business do a Halloween walk the weekend before)
Carrying things! I have a free hand (+ basket) for kids, dishes, coffee, and the like. When I’m daring, I have two hands free.
Walking with the kids! My favorite thing to do. I still can’t keep up with the four year old, but it’s a fairer race now. I’ve decided to just cheat and go to places where walking is easy (the zoo, the Locks.)
Warnings about the knee walker
It works great indoors and on very smooth surfaces, but is not an off-road vehicle. Hills and even slight inclines are frightening. You are on one leg or on tiny wheels with very little breaking power. Tt tends to slide off to one side. Any flaw in a sidewalk can send you over the top. A 1″ pebble outside my house got me last week.
It is not a scooter nor a skateboard. Don’t lean all your weight on the knee walker and push it along, even if you see me doing it. This is tempting - but I’ve spilled off the walker several times this way (pebble, table leg, sidewalk crack). If you actually “walk” with it, you have much more control. By this, I mean you take your weight of the walker while you move the walker forward. You keep as little weight on the walker as possible. If the walker flips or spins downhill you are still standing.
The super safe method of using it is like this (I do this on any questionable terrain)
- start with nothing moving
- move the good leg forward while walker is still not moving
- shift weight off the walker onto good leg and “walk” forward: push the walker forward with your knee just barely resting on it.
This feels just like walking.. (However, I’m a slow learner, despite 3 tumbles in a week, I still scoot and coast. I’m practicing those judo rolls … )
Limitations / Complications
Very tricky to get up and down stairs: In the basement, I leave a rolling office style chair or my crutches near the stairs.
Did I mention hills? Ascending a hill gives you much time to contemplate high school physics, friction, force, intertia, but hopefully not corialis effects. I occassionally navigate two steep blocks in my neighborhood or to work. This is extremely unpleasant. For getting to work, I’ve found A map of seattle accessible routes - it has all the buildings in downtown with public elevators. I go well out of my way to find wheelchair routes.
Weird pains the first week. These aren’t as bad as with crutches (or hopping), but I’m had weird pains in butt and hips the first week. Keeping it stable requires use of muscles I don’t use much. No problems after I learned how to use it, except a sore right knee. I’m thinking of getting kneepads to create a flat surface from knee to splint.
Miscellaneous other mobility tips
Best when combined with a claw … I keep a 3′ claw / grabber thingy hanging off the front of my knee walker. This allows me to clear toys and clothes out of the way (the 2 year old is very tidy, the 4 year old is not). The claw saves me lots of hops, squats and other awkward one -legged maneuvers. We had to get 2 more (cheap ones) for the kids, though.
How do you get kids (2yrs / 4yrs ) to listen to you from a distance, so that you don’t have to hop 30 yards accross a playground to keep big brother from dragging little brother through the dirt under the slide? Getting a 2 year olds attention is especially hard when you can’t just run over and pick him up. This worked for a week: “Hey, Kepler, I think I hear a Zebra in your jammy drawer! Come look at the Zebra in your jammy drawer!”. Now, I try silliness: I scoot on my butt like a crab in the direction I want him to go. What will I do when these tricks wear off?
Hopping. With the knee walker, my left leg is much less tired, and I have plenty of energy for a short fast hop when needed. I have two very roudy spirited kids, and I sometimes need to get to them fast. ( If I had a legal department, they’d want me tell you that I strongly recommend against one legged hopping while in recovery. Therefore, I strongly recommend against hopping as a mobility solution. Hire a nanny to chase the kids with all the money you save from having your surgery in at a medical tourism resort Cuba / India / Mexico. If you can’t afford a nanny, keep your kids on a tether and indoors at all times, well away from anything that might tempt them to run around and squeal with delight. There, you are warned against hopping. )
Scoot on butt: I unpacked all the groceries today on my butt. I chase the kids to bed on my butt. They think it’s even funnier than hopping.
Insurance? It was pretty easy to convince my doctor to write a scrip for the knee walker. Now we’ll see if I can get my insurance to pay for some of it. I’m renting it, but it’s not horribly cheap.
Thoughts only peripherially related to this post
You really can get anything on Highway-99. (except books). For the last 6 years, we’ve been laughing at a silly quaint shop with a wheelchair hanging over the front door a ways up the road on Aurora Ave ( Highway 99 has many names ). It’s an effective gimmick … when I needed mobility assistance I knew where they were. They have knee walkers for loan and I got some instant gratification.
Anyway we’ve often attempted to come up with something we can’t find on Highway 99. I’m pretty sure I can get everything I need Highway 99 ror achilles tendon rupture recovery,: Groceries (and delivery services), a hospital, crutches (or walkers), and enough pawn shops that I’m certain I could get anything else. I could even get a cat to keep me company. There was an all night diner to eat at after a late night in the E-R the first night. The only think I can’t get on 99 is a good fiction book to read while resting my swollen calf.
Stuff I’d like to know from others
How do you manage busses? I manage them awkwardly.
Experiences with other ways to solve mobility problems?
Is there a normal bookstore on Highway 99 (in King County)? There are several a few blocks off 99. is a Christian bookstore, but they wouldn’t carry Ursala LeGuin or Kage Baker.
19 comments ↓
Thanks for the great tips on the knee walker! I too, have a 2 yr old and 2 dogs…I need to be able to move around and have free hands. Not even being able to bring a coffee to my desk at work stinks. I checked out your links on the “one crutch” ($50) and the “I walk free” ($370!!!) and althought the I walk free looks like the best one, the price is not worth it, so I might just do the one crutch, or even the knee walker.
Not all knee walkers are the same! But the biggest problem with the knee walkers are that they put pressure on your knee - at times your whole body weight. I used to work for a company that manufactured a brand of knee walkers and am quite familiar with them. I found a company called Forward Mobility that has a “Freedom Leg” knee/walking brace - it’s been getting a lot of attention since they won the Newpreneur of the Year contest a couple of weeks ago. They also have the Voyager Seated Scooter that is far more comfortable. These are cutting edge devices engineered for simplicity and solving the complications of other devices. Your insights and experience are very helpful for people! Thanks for the great information.
nice piece of reading here….i really like it….This stuff is really very useful for crutches..
All great information. There is a great resource for making a better informed decision: Knee Walker Buyer’s Guide>/a>. It goes over to RENT or PURCHASE, compares all the models for safety and comfort, and explain why you should NEVER PAY A DEPOSIT
The one crutch from onecrutch.com is a cheaper alternative to some of the other scooters / rollers. It attaches to a standard crutch for people with below the knee injuries. It’s about $50. helped me take the pressure off my armpits and was easier to stow, i.e. on the airplane and in the car.
Hi, I am waiting to have my op on a stale ATR, which didn’t heal, the conservative way. I found almost twelve weeks on crutches difficult and am looking at alternatives. Have seen IWalkFree appliance which seemed good: however my orthopod surgeon does not recommend it ‘puts pressure on muscles that need to be immobile, as they support the AT. Thoughts ?
Roger, I think many or most crutch-alternatives are convenient, and I’m a bug fan of wheeled chairs (for sit-scooting or kneel-scooting) and padded stools for kneeling at sinks, etc. if your protocol is WAY too slow (like my first, post-op one), your bad-side knee will eventually start complaining.
My main beefs against ALL the alternatives are these:
(1) With a good protocol, full-weight crutching (NWB) should only last 2 weeks, which isn’t long to suffer AND isn’t long to benefit from an alternative.
(2) Most suffering on crutches can be fixed with better adjustment and better technique and a bit of practice. There should be NO pressure on the armpits!
(3) The period of PWB — a bit over 2 weeks in bit.ly/UWOProtocol — is probably very important to a good outcome. It can ONLY be done on crutches, and most people with scooters or other alternatives will be tempted to keep using them and linger too long NWB rather than gradually retraining their leg to bear weight and walk.
(4) a little creativity with stools and wheeled chairs (at sinks and in the kitchen) can duplicate almost all the benefits of a scooter, at least at home.
I’d be surprised if any crutch alternative that puts your weight on your knee and upper leg (while your injured ankle is hanging in the air pointing back) would do harm by working the wrong muscles. Just another non-medical opinion from some supposedly scientifically-trained guy on the Internet, of course!
Many docs used to use full-length casts to treat ATRs, but that’s considered malpractice now, encouraging us to kneel and scoot and use other upper-leg alternatives if we want.
More a big fan than a bug fan, really. I doubt that we can get Cliff to come back 5 years later to turn on AJAX Editing on this page!
Thanks for this blog. I broke my tib/fib and have a long leg cast, but getting a short one soon and my doc told me about knee walker. How do you bring crutches and knee walker to work though? I think I need both (knee walker to go from one place to another and crutches for moving around other places at my work. I have a 4 and 3 years old! There is just no good time to break your leg.
These crutches have to go. I, too, ruptured my Achilles, had surgery 1 week ago, go for post op in 2 days and if doc says I have weeks with these things. I’m ordering the knee walker before I leave his office.
Btw, I saw knee walkers on Amazon starting at $150.
I just wish I could go to a store, try all the alternatives, and then choose which one is best. C’est la vie…as is this injury.
Amber, I am an ATR patient at 10-weeks post-op and I used a knee-walker I bought on Amazon for my NWB stage. The one I bought was the Drive Medical 790 Steerable Knee Walker (nearly $200) and I was very happy with it. It has lockable hand brakes that were very useful when stopped somewhere and just using the scooter for support. I used both crutches and the knee walker during this phase of recovery and was glad to have both at my disposal. -David
So, not sure how true this actually is, but I was warned by both the ER and the Ortho that those knee walkers and scooters increase risk of blood clots because of the angle they keep your leg at and how much they reduce movement. They called them widow makers. The crutches are definitely evil, but at least they give a good upper body workout and force you to use some sort of motion in the ATR leg.
Best way to walk using the crutches is to do a dip and a crunch with knees up to the chest with each step =-P
I have to agree that the knee walker is so much better than crutches. However, a lot of things are. I know it is weird, but I think having a regular walker, like the one our grandparents use, is a better alternative to crutches. It does about the same job, and they normally have a basket on the front you can carry things in. Or, you could just get a scooter, but that might be overkill, the knee roller works just fine.
Thanks for giving your experience it’s opened a lot of peoples eyes about knee walkers. Knee Walkers are great but for individuals who live an active life style I believe the iWalk 2.0 is a better product now I’am also a fan of knee walkers in certain situations but many knee walk manufacturers today simply worry to much about price and less about usability. Nearly all knee walkers can only be used indoors with the exceptions of the All Terrain models by KneeRover. The problem with indoor knee walkers is if there is any elevated surface or even something as small as a market on the floor they will not be over to go over it. And when you have only one good leg it’s not so simply to just bend over or go around the obstacle.
listen, the only bad part about the iwalk is getting people constantly asking you about it haha. other than that i find it to be an amazing device. thanks for this write up it gave me some tips to consider
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