Thomas Fetterman, Inc.
Home of Performance and Tornado Tips

My Disability Made Me Do It, Thomas Fetterman
This article is about my disability and how it spawned inventiveness. Looking back on the 43 years that I have had polio it is clear that my disability prepared me for my vocation as an inventor. My dependence on crutches and braces for mobility caused me to become 'handy' so I could maintain and repair my own equipment. My disability clearly defined my mobility needs. Lack of mobility motivated me to create solutions. The solutions were immediately put to the test. Poor solutions were frustrating, successful solutions were their own reward. MORE

Jack Riemer, Houston Chronicle
On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. MORE

Eileen Ogintz, Los Angeles Times Syndicate
If the DeVault kids had any gripes about last summer's big cross-country car trip, they couldn't blame their parents. They'd helped work out all the logistics. That 10-year-old Colin DeVault and his 8-year-old sister Bethany were born with spina bifida, a birth defect that left them partially paralyzed, only makes their parents want to encourage their independence more. "We want them to figure out how to accomplish what they want to do so that when they're older they'll be able to do it themselves, " explains Elizabeth DeVault. "Travel helps foster that kind of independence." That's true for any kid. MORE

Crutches Anyone?, Thomas Fetterman
Walking sticks have aided bi-pedal man since the dawn of our evolution. The walking stick has served us well as an assist to climbing, an aid to steadying ourselves, as a probe, a reaching tool, a weapon, as an artistic expression, and for some, as weight-bearing device to facilitate ambulating when debilitated. MORE

How to Use Crutches on Stairs
Climbing Mount Everest is not the issue here. Simply getting to the upstairs bathroom may be your only goal to learn how to become vertically agile with crutches. MORE

How to Walk with a Cane on Level Ground
To walk with an assistive device can be a bit taxing at times. Does one use a cane like a pirate? Absolutely, not! Walking should be smooth and not like our one legged pirate friends. This guide will help clarify simple use of a cane. MORE

How to Use Crutches to Walk Safely
Do the fine balance act with crutches on level ground and on stairs and conquer the challenge of walking with the help of axillary crutches. MORE

Cure Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Ten years ago, carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) was most often seen in factory workers, secretaries, and supermarket cashiers whose jobs required them to repeat the same hand and wrist movements thousands of times a day. Besides experiencing ordinary soreness, CTS patients progressively suffer a weakened grip, stiff finders in the morning, and crippling pain in the hands and wrists. With the widespread use of personal computers, the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome referring specifically to an injured nerve in the wrist has soared among people in a much wider range of professions. MORE

Shoulder Pain and Weakness
Over the years I have been very active crutch user starting when I was eight years old. After college my wife and I bought and renovated pre-Civil War houses for 20 years and we did most of the work ourselves. I climbed scaffolding, did brick laying, installed roofs and roofing, built chimneys, and everything else. Then for adventure we traveled around the world 4 times and explored Third World countries for months on end traveling on local trains and busses and sometimes even horses and elephants. Wow it's no wonder my shoulders gave it up! MORE