A General Cane Guide For Writers And Artists (from A Cane User, Writer, And Artist!)

A general cane guide for writers and artists (from a cane user, writer, and artist!)

Disclaimer: Though I have been using a cane for 6 years, I am not a doctor, nor am I by any means an expert. This guide is true to my experience, but there are as many ways to use a cane as there are cane users!

This guide will not include: White canes for blindness, crutches, walkers, or wheelchairs as I have no personal experience with these.

This is meant to be a general guide to get you started and avoid some common mishaps/misconceptions, but you absolutely should continue to do your own research outside of this guide!

The biggest recurring problem I've seen is using the cane on the wrong side. The cane goes on the opposite side of the pain! If your character has even-sided pain or needs it for balance/weakness, then use the cane in the non-dominant hand to keep the dominant hand free. Some cane users also switch sides to give their arm a rest!

A cane takes about 20% of your weight off the opposite leg. It should fit within your natural gait and become something of an extension of your body. If you need more weight off than 20%, then crutches, a walker, or a wheelchair is needed.

Putting more pressure on the cane, using it on the wrong side, or having it at the wrong height will make it less effective, and can cause long term damage to your body from improper pressure and posture. (Hugh Laurie genuinely hurt his body from years of using a cane wrong on House!)

(an animated GIF of a cane matching the natural walking gait. It turns red when pressure is placed on it.)

When going up and down stairs, there is an ideal standard: You want to use the handrail and the cane at the same time, or prioritize the handrail if it's only on one side. When going up stairs you lead with your good leg and follow with the cane and hurt leg together. When going down stairs you lead with the cane, then the good leg, and THEN the leg that needs help.

Realistically though, many people don't move out of the way for cane users to access the railing, many stairs don't have railings, and many are wet, rusty, or generally not ideal to grip.

In these cases, if you have a friend nearby, holding on to them is a good idea. Or, take it one step at a time carefully if you're alone.

Now we come to a very common mistake I see... Using fashion canes for medical use!

(These are 4 broad shapes, but there is INCREDIBLE variation in cane handles. Research heavily what will be best for your character's specific needs!)

The handle is the contact point for all the weight you're putting on your cane, and that pressure is being put onto your hand, wrist, and shoulder. So the shape is very important for long term use!

Knob handles (and very decorative handles) are not used for medical use for this reason. It adds extra stress to the body and can damage your hand to put constant pressure onto these painful shapes.

The weight of a cane is also incredibly important, as a heavier cane will cause wear on your body much faster. When you're using it all day, it gets heavy fast! If your character struggles with weakness, then they won't want a heavy cane if they can help it!

This is also part of why sword canes aren't usually very viable for medical use (along with them usually being knob handles) is that swords are extra weight!

However, a small knife or perhaps a retractable blade hidden within the base might be viable even for weak characters.

Bases have a lot of variability as well, and the modern standard is generally adjustable bases. Adjustable canes are very handy if your character regularly changes shoe height, for instance (gotta keep the height at your hip!)

Canes help on most terrain with their standard base and structure. But for some terrain, you might want a different base, or to forego the cane entirely! This article covers it pretty well.

Many cane users decorate their canes! Stickers are incredibly common, and painting canes is relatively common as well! You'll also see people replacing the standard wrist strap with a personalized one, or even adding a small charm to the ring the strap connects to. (nothing too large, or it gets annoying as the cane is swinging around everywhere)

(my canes, for reference)

If your character uses a cane full time, then they might also have multiple canes that look different aesthetically to match their outfits!

When it comes to practical things outside of the cane, you reasonably only have one hand available while it's being used. Many people will hook their cane onto their arm or let it dangle on the strap (if they have one) while using their cane arm, but it's often significantly less convenient than 2 hands. But, if you need 2 hands, then it's either setting the cane down or letting it hang!

For this reason, optimizing one handed use is ideal! Keeping bags/items on the side of your free hand helps keep your items accessible.

When sitting, the cane either leans against a wall or table, goes under the chair, or hooks onto the back of the chair. (It often falls when hanging off of a chair, in my experience)

When getting up, the user will either use their cane to help them balance/support as they stand, or get up and then grab their cane. This depends on what it's being used for (balance vs pain when walking, for instance!)

That's everything I can think of for now. Thank you for reading my long-but-absolutely-not-comprehensive list of things to keep in mind when writing or drawing a cane user!

Happy disability pride month! Go forth and make more characters use canes!!!

was thinking of old retired daud vibing in a pool then remembered an au w @overseermartin​ where he and martin end up in karnaca for their retirements and hang out :)

also bonus:

Researching people who hugely influenced queer community is sometimes very overwhelming. I looked up Alison Bechdel and her thoughts on trans ppl because I've been seeing her comics around lately and they seemed so cool. But bc of the whole Bechdel test obsession in radfem terf twitter circles I was super anxious. So I wanted to check. And found: an interview abt gender that is paywalled and I can't access it, some angry tweet talking about how "idk why Bechdel is so popular with trans people, they probably never read what she created", another tweet sharing her comics that seem to have Good takes on trans people (women and men), said comic strips, a really cool paper talking about her comics and an analysis of who even "qualifies" as a lesbian (pointing out that trans lesbians Do), and a blog post made by a terf abt how afraid she is that Bechdel test might now includes genderqueer and trans ppl and steals the word Women from cis women. Just. Holy fuck that's a lot of different things. I just wanted to know if she is like, a terf or not bc the whole Bechdel test obsession makes me worried. She seems like a smart person tho? I know these things are often complicated. I dunno I like her Dykes comic strips and I wanted to check if she is against my people or if she's normal bc I can't fucking take Not Knowing nowadays. Like I said the whole Bechdel test thing. Kinda gave her a reputation in my eyes bc of all the radfems on my old twitter timeline talking about it. I'm so glad I read that paper and that I deleted twitter years ago tbh

i had a fever dream about hrt gummies

[tip me im broke lol]

Huzzah! Prints!

Reblogs appreciated! (Especially if you reblogged the poll where I asked if people wanted prints of this, because I didn’t think ahead and now have NO IDEA how to find the people who chose yes! 😌)

No lettering:

http://inprnt.com/gallery/onioneyes/the-lovers-the-dreamers-and-stede/

Lettering:

http://inprnt.com/gallery/onioneyes/the-lovers-the-dreamers-and-stede-lettering/

hey y'all :o) i feel kinda weird making such a serious post, but my disability makes it hard to find suitable work and i would like to be able to afford housing, so i've updated my commission info & added some new things to my redbubble page!

please check these things out if you'd like, boosting also helps a whole lot!!! i appreciate you reading this far regardless:)