How to Evaluate for a Walking Cane
Evaluation for a walking cane is largely a matter of assessing needs. If you want a cane as part of a costume, evaluation is easy. If you need a cane to help ease walking with a minor injury or disability, evaluation become a bit more complex. If you need a cane for daily walking, your assessment becomes both more difficult and more important. Finally, for serious injuries or disability, you need to assess if a cane is the best ambulatory aid or if you'll need to move up to a walker.
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Instructions
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Assess your ability to walk on a scale of 1 to 5. A 1 rating means you don't need help walking, while a 5 means you can't stand up without some kind of extra support.
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Seek the help of a physical therapist if you rate yourself a 5 . In most cases, you'll want to use a walker rather than a cane. A physical therapist will help you make that judgment and help you with exercises to facilitate recovery or retraining.
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Use two canes, preferably with wrist braces, if you rated yourself a 4. As these will be very important to your basic daily function, it's best to have them fitted by medical professionals, such as your primary care physician or physical therapist.
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Use a four-point cane if you rated yourself a 3. Four-point canes provide a wide base and multiple points of contact with the ground. This gives you not just support, but stability.
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Use a one-point cane if you rated yourself a 2. A one-point cane is what most people think of when they think of a cane: a simple stick with a handle on the top.
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If you rated yourself a 1, you're using the cane cosmetically as a prop or accessory. Your main decision point is if the cane looks good with the rest of your outfit. You may even want to consider a sword cane or other fancy walking stick.
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Tips & Warnings
When rating yourself, keep the following parameters in mind: 1-Can walk and stand without difficulty or assistance; 2-Can stand without difficulty and have good stability, but some pain or fatigue; 3-Some difficulty standing and walking is painful or fatiguing and sometimes difficult due to instability; 4-Sometimes needs help standing and walking more than short distances is difficult and frequently risks falling; and 5-Extreme difficulty standing without help and walking unassisted is more or less impossible.
Always keep in mind that a cane is there to help you not fall down. Have somebody available to help support you as you try different aids for walking.
