A serious fracture, shin splints, sprain, or damage to ankle or foot injury leaves you with hardly any option but to put on a medical boot. The walking boot protects your injured parts and also facilitates the healing process, enabling you to walk on your legs soon, without any difficulty.
Whether you have had a severe sprain, broken leg, or injured foot which made you undergo a foot surgery or you are relying on crutches, walking can be a real challenge. And in the scenarios, where you need to hop upstairs, simply gallivant on the premises of your home, or perform other normal activities using your legs, it can get irksome at times.
Why do people want to avoid crutches?
There are countless reasons why people who wear walking boots do not want to employ crutches.
For instance, they are uncomfortable with the sense of having a hard and rough thing underneath their arms. Although, certain crutches come with more padding compared to others, still, people are not at ease using them. That’s the case especially when they need to walk over short distances.
In addition to this, those who wear crutches face an increased risk of injuries to the hands and extreme tension in the upper body. This can bring about issues like sore and tight shoulders and back, underarm pain, and blisters on hands.
People who wear crutches with a walking boot for additional support also face difficulties in jumping in and out of cars.
All these hassles and pains compel them to look for ways of walking wearing a walking boot without crutches. Now, some good news for you. You can do away with those uncomfortable crutches with a walking boot to skip from one place to another and live life normally.
Do you need to use crutches with a boot?
If you have had foot surgery, shin splints, foot injury, ankle injury, injured foot, injured leg, broken bones in the areas around the feet and ankle, or tendon injuries, and you are wearing a walking boot through your healing process, you will need to rely on some type of crutches with a walking boot to get back on your feet again.
So, do you actually need to use crutches? Although you shouldn’t normally put weight on walking boots, other mobility aids can be utilized as a substitute for crutches to rule out this possibility. Such alternatives include a cane, wheelchair, walker, etc.
Before delving into these alternatives further, let’s first understand the basics.
How to use a medical walking boot should be used?
Before you express your frustration and desire to do away with a crutch with a walking boot, you must ensure that you are putting it on properly, in the first place.
One crucial role of this walking aid to ensure comfort during the process of recovery is that the shoe you are wearing on your healthy foot is about the same height as your walking boot. This will make sure that your body weight is uniformly distributed on your feet. Fortunately, nowadays, some walking boots come with adjustable heel lifts, that can help you in the scenario.
Furthermore, in order to prevent discomfort and stabilize your foot, use the arch support available inside the walking boot. This will create a sleek contact surface which will facilitate healing and decrease pain.
And lastly, take curt steps with a walking boot, as they usually have a rocker bottom. That means it won’t be possible for you to push yourself to take big strides with this medical shoe/ walking boot as you do with regular shoes. A doctor recommends short strides as it precludes unnecessary strain on your walking boot.
What’s the purpose of using crutches?
The main purpose of using a crutch with a walking boot is to provide adequate support to the person with an injured leg, broken ankle, severe sprains, etc., and facilitate faster recovery.
The design of the crutch is inspired by a walking stick. A crutch works by transferring all the weight and pressure from one’s legs to the upper body. The arms of the person offer upper support.
Since the invention of crutches, innovation in their design has never stopped. Many modern crutches boast several advanced features, for instance, certain crutches come with height adjustability features for needed heel lift.
How to walk in walking boots without crutches?
The crutch and walking boot usually complement each other’s functions and go hand in hand. In the cases of severe injuries to the ankle, foot, legs, tendons, etc., crutches enable one to take weight and pressure off your foot and walking boot. Thus, they help in relieving pain increasing mobility, balance, and rapid recovery. However, note that crutches are not a permanent solution, instead, they are only meant to expedite healing.
One of the best alternatives to relying on crutches is to use a cane. Now, how can they help? The design of canes is created such that they offer the maximum possible comfort to the user. You can choose from an impressive variety of canes with different innovative features available in the market. These features make sure that you get a proper grip, balance, and adequate traction when using your walking cane. Some canes are lightweight and come with solid handles as opposed to crutches that are relatively heavy. thus, you can move around with more freedom and ease.
One thing you need to bear in mind is that in the initial stages, walking without crutches may trigger some pain. However, that should gradually fade away with time.
Another mobility aid device you can consider to substitute crutches is a wheelchair. Or you can use a walker as well. Walker involves a lightweight structure that is about waist the high and is wider than the user’s width. The user moves around by slightly lifting the walker and placing it a curt distance ahead.
Although, employing a walker or wheelchair is not very common, but’s it not a hassle at all, as is the case with crutches with boots. Using these mobility aids comes with an extra benefit. While using them for your walk, you have no or barely any weight exerted on your foot. Furthermore, it also enables the person to elevate his/her foot, thereby helping minimize pain and discomfort levels.
However, these mobility aids may end up extending your recovery period as your injured foot would not be trained to resist and learn to balance and walk from moderate pain. And, it must be mentioned here that walkers and wheelchairs cost more than crutches and walking boots.
In essence, if the user is okay with gradual recovery from the injury and does not have a high pain threshold, wheelchairs and walkers are an ideal choice compared to crutches with walking boots. Moreover, walkers and wheelchairs can be employed with walking boots as well.
In a nutshell,
The answer to, “can you walk in the boot without crutches?” depends on various factors. These factors entail strength, pain threshold, and the extent of the injury.
However, generally, both crutches and walking boots walk hand in hand. The former is meant to prevent the full weight and extra pressure from getting added to the walking boots, while the medical boot secures the injured leg, foot, ankle, or other injured part from further damage. Re-alignment of the leg and feet, to aid recovery and mobility is also facilitated when you walk in a walking boot.
Crutches are a helpful mobility aid that can be used with walking boots. You can choose walkers and wheelchairs as per your condition and what the doctor told you to do.
