I rolled my eyes the first time I saw a car cane in a catalog. I am 71, my left knee was replaced four years ago, and I have spent a fair amount of energy since then pretending I do not need help with things. So let me be clear about where this list comes from. It is not a summary of a study. It is what changed in our car after one Sunday morning.
That morning was in the church parking lot. Gene, my husband of 46 years, tried three times to stand up out of the passenger seat and could not get there. On the third try I pulled on his arm and felt my own knee complain about it. Gene is 74 and his right hip is weak. We sat back down, and I walked around and hauled the rollator out of the trunk. By the time we got inside, the opening hymn was over. I ordered the EMSON Original Car Cane two-pack that week. That was 18 months ago, and one still lives in each front door pocket of our sedan.
The thing I wish I had ordered before that Sunday morning
Two canes, one for each front door pocket, so nobody has to remember to bring one along. Forged steel, 350 pounds of support, and it drops straight into the door latch.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →It ended the pulling, which was the worst part
For about a year before that Sunday, getting Gene out of the car meant me standing in the open door with both hands on his forearm, leaning back, and hoping. That is a bad way to move a grown man and a worse way to treat a knee that has been replaced. A car cane gives him something in front of him to push down on, so he stands up on his own timing instead of mine. The first week, he was out of the seat before I had my hand on the door. I did not know what to do with my arms.
My knee stopped being part of his exit
I am not going to tell you what a handle does for your joints. Dana, my physical therapist, is the one who tells me things like that, and she is the one you should ask before you change anything. What I can tell you is what I noticed in our own driveway. When Gene stands up now, my knee is not in the equation. He pushes on the cane. He does not push on me. That is the whole difference, and it took me a year to admit it was worth having.
Two in the pack means one stays where it is needed
Every mobility thing we own has a home, and the home is usually the wrong room. The two-pack solved that for the car. Gene's EMSON cane lives in the passenger door pocket and mine lives in the driver door pocket. Neither one gets carried into the house and forgotten, because the car is where it gets used. That sounds like a small thing. It is the reason this one stayed in circulation while the plain folding cane the hospital sent me home with ended up behind the coats in the hall closet.
Nothing to install, nothing left bolted to the car
The EMSON cane slides into the U-shaped striker on the car door frame and comes back out the same way. No screws, no straps, no bracket left behind on the jamb. I had mine out of the box and seated in the door in under a minute, and I am not a handy person. It also means it travels. If you are riding with a friend, or in a rental on a trip to see the grandchildren, it goes with you and comes back out without a mark.
The grip holds when your hands are cold
Dayton in January is not kind to hands. The grip on this one is soft and nonslip, and it does not turn in my palm the way a bare metal bar would. That reads like a small detail until you are the person depending on it with a bag of groceries on your other arm and a door swinging back at you. I have used it in the rain and I have used it in gloves, and I have not once had to regrip.
It is rated for 350 pounds, which removes the question
The listing says forged steel and 350 pounds of support. Gene is 5 foot 10 and nowhere near that number, and neither am I. What the number does for me is quieter than it sounds. It means I do not wonder whether the thing will fold up under him, so I am not hovering with my hands out like a spotter. He gets to get out of the car like a man getting out of a car, which is a thing I had taken away from him without meaning to.
The little light is the part I use most
There is a built-in LED light, and the batteries come with it. I assumed that was a gimmick and I was wrong. I use it more than Gene does, mostly in the church lot after Wednesday choir practice when the lot is dark and I am hunting for the keyhole with a tote bag sliding off my shoulder. It is a small glow. It is enough.
The seatbelt cutter and window breaker ride along
There is a seatbelt cutter and a window breaker built into it. I have never needed either one and I hope I never do. But I am 71 and I do the Sunday driving, and there is a certain peace in knowing the tool already sitting in the door pocket can do that if a day ever goes badly wrong. It takes up no extra room. I do not think about it until I think about it.
Sixteen ounces, so it does not look like medical equipment
Sixteen ounces is about a full water bottle. It does not drag the door pocket down and it does not announce itself when someone climbs into the back seat. I think that is the real reason Gene accepted this when he would not accept a cane for eleven months. It looks like a tool you keep in a car. It does not look like a verdict about your body.
It works in either hand, so you buy one version
Gene's right hip is the bad one, so he uses his in the left hand, the way Dana showed him. I use mine with the right when the left knee is stiff in the morning. The handle is the same either way, so we did not have to buy two different versions and then remember which was which at the end of a long day. One less thing to keep straight.
What I'd Skip
Skip the idea that this gets you into the car. It does not, or at least it has not for us. Getting in, Gene still lowers himself and slides across, and I still stand nearby with a hand out. This is a getting out tool, and it is a good one at that. I would rather tell you the limit now than have you order it expecting the other half of the job.
Skip it if your car is not the kind it fits. It seats in the door latch, and it does not fit every vehicle, so check yours before you order rather than after the box arrives. Skip leaving it in place while the car is moving. We only use ours when the car is parked, and I would not treat it as a grab handle at speed. And skip buying four of them. Two is right for one car with two people in it. If you want the longer version of how the EMSON pair has held up over a year and a half, that is a separate story, and so is the comparison I did before I ordered.
Gene tried three times to stand up out of the passenger seat that morning. On the third try I pulled on his arm, and it was my knee that hurt.
One in each door pocket, and nobody pulls on anybody
The EMSON two-pack lives in the car where the problem actually happens. Two canes, 350 pounds of support, a soft grip, and a light for the dark lots.
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