iWALKFree Week 1 Review

About a week ago, my iWALKFree arrived and I began my relationship with my peg-leg. I ordered it from Goodbye Crutches, a company that sells and lends various mobility aids. The promise was that I would get so used to it that I would be inclined to take dogs for walks and enter into abbreviated marathons. Well, so far, neither of those things are true, but I do think that it is worth the rental fee of $125/ month.

It took me a day or two to get used to the thing and to not feel like I was putting my life in danger every time I used it, but now I'm pretty comfortable with it. I still don't use it to go outside because I feel nervous about taking away the controlled environment of my apartment, and frankly I just think it's easier to negotiate the bus and transitioning between sitting and standing when I use my crutches instead.

However, I do use it everyday and several times each day, and it has really helped with some of the more frustrating things about crutches. For example, in the morning, instead of carefully strategizing how the heck I'm going to do all that morning stuff--making coffee, fighting with the coffee filter, brushing my teeth, etc--I just put on my peg-leg and move around my apartment with relative ease. Similarly, it makes taking the trash out, getting my mail, cooking, and cleaning my apartment much, much more pleasant. In fact, I might be covered in garbage right now were it not for ol' peggy.

But, if you're expecting to enjoy long walks with the thing, your expectations might be a little high. Walking is never really natural, and I usually keep a hand on the bar of the peg-leg for stability (during which I like to imagine I am preparing for a role as Dr. Gregina House, M.D, a medical drama that I am pitching to Fox). Also, the walking is slow-going.

But as I said, I think it is really helpful and worth its rental price. I live in a very small studio and I can imagine that the benefits would be even better if you had a bigger space and needed to move around more. So marathons? No. Cooking and cleaning? Yes. And frankly, the latter is more important than the former anyway.

Oh, and they say you can shower with it on, but I'll stick to my shower stool, thankyouverymuch.