it's hard
I've been on both sides of it. Was on and off crutches for years after a serious accident when I was 13 and in a wheelchair (albeit only for a couple of months

Yes, the stares (people really do stare at you in a wheelchair, you'd think they'd never seen one) and constant jokey comments are irritating, but people do quite reasonably assume that crutches are just a temporary thing - that you've had a recent accident and you need help - cos that's what they're mostly used for.

So yeah, I get it. It's grating. But people mostly are just trying to be nice and maybe you should give them a break. It could be a lot worse (like the boy at school who thought it would be funny to loosen the screws on my crutches during a lesson, so when I got up and tried to leave they collapsed under me and I went crashing to the floor, dislocating my knee. That was the one and only time I've ever cried just out of despair at the pointless mundane cruelty of people.)

Got a bit emo at the end but I hope you get my point.
(jennymnemonic, Sun 4 Apr 2010, 22:25, Reply)