Give me your top tips please for making life easier on crutches

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Looks like I'm going to be on crutches for a few weeks after an injury... argh. I can bear a little weight on the injured leg but best to avoid too much. Please give me your top practical tips. Most urgently: how do I carry cups of tea??

High stool in kitchen for perching on
Little bag, like a swim bag, thin, straps, very light, to put sandwiches and cup of tea (in a carry out cup) (& other stuff) in to carry to another room.

If the issue is below your knee, find out if you can borrow / hire / buy a knee scooter, perhaps just for use at home.

Strap felt/sponge round the handle on the crutch and add more as necessary to stop crutch becoming painful to hold.

Loving these... keep 'em coming. Didn't know knee scooter existed but it's a bit £££

DD has just stopped using crutches after a year on them. Apparently they make your hands really sore, I got her a pair of gel cushioned grips from amazon which she said she couldn’t have managed without.

She had a knee op in September, she was pretty immobile for a couple of weeks afterwards but found a lap table useful especially for school work. Luckily she doesn’t like hot drinks, but could carry an across body bag with essentials (like chocolate!)

I've now stolen one of the kid's PE bags and dug out a thermos mug thing - good tips

If you can spare the £ then I seriously recommend the knee scooter. It was life-changing for me!
Otherwise, you definitely need a cross body bag and a proper thermos flask for transporting hot drinks. Food can be heated up, put in a Tupperware and carried in the bag.

One of those long handled grabby things to pick things up if you drop them? - might be tricky to bend down on crutches!

If you've got stools or empty chairs use them as extra tables so you can move things from room to room (pick up, reach to stool, put down, hop, pick up and reach across to next stool etc). Stool at kitchen counter. And get a grabber (stick with grabby end). Better still borrow two, one for sofa and one for bedroom. Have a swift and safe recovery!

Water bottle for cold drinks. Get used to having water bottle and pain killers in handy bag. (Harder to swallow tablets with hot drink). A massacred wire coat hanger is superb for retrieving dropped sticks/crutches. BBQ grabbers are also handy for other dropped items.

Depending on your family circumstances pull in favours to get meals or just have the children for a bit. In my experience take something to read at the follow up clinics.

If you have a cast then a cast cover may be worth it so you can have a bath/shower more easily. Otherwise a stool or the toilet, but I presume they did an assessment when you got the crutches.

I put a computer chair in the kitchen then I could sit down and whizz around to do the cooking and washing up easily.

Also, wear clothes with pockets so you can carry things from one room to another (doesn't work with cups of tea, you have to drink them on the computer chair in the kitchen if you don't have a handy servant).

Just checking back in. Thanks so much for these. I’m definitely going to get a grabber. And some covers for the crutch handles - my hands are sore already!

Get some Ossenberg crutches if you can afford them. The handles are really comfy. They were a lifesaver when I was on crutches for months

DH wore weightlifting gloves when on crutches for a few months, they really helped protect his hands from blisters ( you can get them cheaply from Sports Direct).

I know this sounds horrific but for downsttairs at home, a zimmer frame might be easier. Wheelchair for longer journeys.

DD smashed a leg badly aged 9 non weight bearing and those really helped.

Try to limit the number of times you’ve to tackle the stairs in a day - make sure you’ve got everything you need before you head down in the morning & if you’ve no downstairs loo see if you can make trips up coincide with other things you might need to do.

As a PP said, make sure you’ve your painkillers & a waterbottle in your wee bag; in addition to that, make sure you take them on time, don’t wait until you’re in pain. (Realise that’s not so much about coping on crutches, but trust me, it’s important!)

If you’ve got someone who can help you with things like washing your hair, don’t be embarrassed to ask.

If you can afford ready meals/things you throw in the oven/pre-prepared salad etc, stick with that for a bit.

Nap if you get the opportunity. Being on crutches is exhausting.

No shame in wearing your PJs if you’re not going out - they’re comfy & easy to get on/off when you’ve a leg injury.

Hope you feel better soon OP

There are 'things' you can attach to the crutch too - I got a fairly cheap and cheerful one from amazon that clips to the crutch so you can put things in to carry around too. Found it invaluable. Good luck.

I use a knee walker (called the iWalk) when I needed crutches for a couple of months. I didn’t trust myself on wheels and this gave me one hand free to carry stuff. I’m in the US and I know that here at least you can rent them from various places, is this an option in the UK?

Thanks to posters... there is some really good advice here. I am finding it really physically tiring which is odd as I feel like I'm doing so little!

Luckily (?) it is not painful and I can weight-bear slightly if I'm careful but do not want to overdo it.

When you're in bed, you might find a frame or box useful to keep the weight of the bedding off you.

I came on to say a grabby claw thing (surprisingly handy to keep afterwards too!) and a little bag so you can carry stuff on your back without unbalancing yourself but see others have beaten me to it!

When my Dad broke his leg we bought one of these.

He could manage pushing it with one hand and a crutch in the other. He did try the backpack but he got fed up of decanting everything into Tupperware/thermos etc.

Will you be in plaster?

If you go out, use a backpack - it won't bang into the crutches like a shoulder bag would. I got a cup-holder for a bike and zip-tied it to one of my crutches so I could have a drinks bottle handy, the other crutch has a small nylon bag with a zip top to carry spare change, my bank card, phone, and a pack of tissues.