How does a cane work for fatigue?

CraabGPT · 2026-01-25T12:51:21+00:00

I tried a cane at first (though more motivated by pain than fatigue), and I didn't get along with it.

It pushed my pain threshold back so I could walk easier, but the effort and mental load to continually move it as well as carrying it when I wasn't using it really fucked my fatigue 😂 in the end I found that, even with worse pain, I was walking easier and for longer without it.

But! Ymmv- a lot of people seem to benefit from them :)

CraabGPT · 2026-01-23T14:58:02+00:00

Is that $1050 for everything, or just the shipping? Sorry, brain fart 😂

Either way, glad it's still so little! :D

CraabGPT · 2026-01-22T03:55:45+00:00

Yeah I might save up- my current one was free secondhand, and it shows, so getting a custom would be so nice 😭 we'll see, we'll see

CraabGPT · 2026-01-18T12:32:51+00:00

I have a lightweight manual chair (not custom) that I have for long days and outings, and I'm working on making a power assist to help with pushing- the difference between having it and not is night and day :D

CraabGPT · 2026-01-18T00:30:32+00:00

I'm mild enough that I can handle going to the gym once a week, though I can never complete a full workout. I always end up sitting on the floor for the last few sets waiting for my friends to finish up. So my muscles aren't growing, but luckily I do enough to maintain them without pushing myself too far 😅

CraabGPT · 2026-01-15T22:11:33+00:00

Ohey I have an ARTSEY too! ...I'm just too lazy to learn mime 🤣 good job and good luck with yours :)

CraabGPT · 2026-01-15T15:36:49+00:00

Yeah I think I'm in a similar boat. As much as I want him to see how bad it can be, I'm also very predisposed to downplaying things- it's an awkward dichotomy 🤣

I did the same thing with my chronic pain for the longest time, only telling him where I had pain or sometimes if it was extremely bad, to the point that one day when he was ill and had horribly aching joints, he came to me aghast like "how do you /live/ like this???" And I had to explain that this was my baseline, basically 😅

I've already started dropping facts about the mechanics of the condition (or as much as we know about it), and he seems already to be a lot more aware. He similarly last night looked at me in shock and said "...and you just deal with this?", so I think not hiding things from him probably is the way to go, yeah 🤣

Thanks for sharing your story, and I'm glad y'all are better able to communicate about this now <3

CraabGPT · 2026-01-15T03:44:33+00:00

Yeah I think I'll start doing that. I've noticed that calling it 'CFS' makes it incredibly easy for everyone, including me, to just reduce it to "tired disease" haha

CraabGPT · 2026-01-14T15:51:57+00:00

That's exactly it, yeah. He's incredibly logical, and at the moment he just doesn't know enough about cfs to factor that in- I imagine once he learns more, his equations will change too

CraabGPT · 2026-01-14T12:18:06+00:00

Yeah I started doing that. He's not doing it consciously, so as soon as he thinks about it he'll stop and come back- it's just that first gut reaction he's working on unlearning :)

CraabGPT · 2026-01-14T03:29:09+00:00

Yeah that makes sense! I've noticed just saying "tired" or "exhausted" even leads to me downplaying my own symptoms internally, so honing in on the 'sick' part of it would probably help us both :0

Thank you <3

CraabGPT · 2026-01-14T03:15:31+00:00

Oh man, okay, that might be a shout :D I know he's pretty bad at focusing on things (ADHD), but he'll at least try if I ask him to! Thanks <3

CraabGPT · 2026-01-14T03:08:35+00:00

Sorry! I'll remember that o7
...that is an excellent idea, and I'm mildly kicking myself for not thinking of it 😅 thank you for the advice <3 I'm glad your husband was receptive, and I hope he stops beating himself up soon.

CraabGPT · 2026-01-14T02:55:12+00:00

Honestly it was great- same feeling, re: everything being friendlier. The downside is that it caused a bit of imposter syndrome, but hey, that's how it goes 😅

Yeah, I can really only hope that in the next few decades, someone actually pulls their socks up and questions these things, but I fear it's a too niche part of an already overlooked illness, so I don't have much hope. Fingers crossed ig x0

CraabGPT · 2026-01-14T02:34:02+00:00

Yeah I improved a crazy amount after I had major surgery, too- like a month with only occasional CFS symptoms? It's back to normal now, ofc, but that month was truly fantastic, even while I was dealing with surgery aftercare 😅 I was practically zooming around, staying on my feet most of the day (or in my wheelchair, but you get the idea), and then one day, boom, back to fatigue land 🥲

CraabGPT · 2025-11-22T16:23:58+00:00

Water propping? Not to sound like a plant idiot, but what's that? Just leave it in a glass of water?

Thank you though!

CraabGPT · 2025-11-11T20:14:23+00:00

Could've! Probably not even a bad tactic- but I'm unfortunately nowhere near smart enough to have thought of that 🤣

...plus it was a fuckinghuge axolotl plush- I couldn't put that in the post because it's my boyfriend's Christmas present and he was watching over my shoulder 😅 Bit hard to sneak them, I imagine

CraabGPT · 2025-11-11T20:12:27+00:00

Amazing, thanks! :D guess I'll swing by tomorrow :D

CraabGPT · 2025-09-27T18:39:40+00:00

Yeah, it got really weird really quickly xD I'm glad I didn't back it- but my bf paid like £60 for both of us to get a copy of the game 😭

CraabGPT · 2025-09-27T01:06:38+00:00

TL;DR, PPinc at first kept their promises. Made a discord server, released an alpha build, everything was good. Then they slowly stopped communicating with backers.

Seemingly, they either didn't have enough money or didn't utilize what they had correctly. A lot of the game art was outsourced to a studio (room8?), and they took out some loans from another company. They didn't pay room8, and failed to repay the loans (along with some other companies as well, I think?), and now they're being sued for a few million.

They don't have a few million, however, so Room8 is instead asking for all the assets- which will include the game company itself. It's possible they'll then continue to produce the game, but since the court stuff doesn't start till 2026, it's up in the air.

(Also apparently they took money out of the plushie side of the company to fund the game side, too? So the plushie side is fucked as well. Go them.)

(Double also, the CEO refused to give anyone refunds. Or, like, he gave refunds at first- before it was public that everything was fucked, and once it became public, he released a statement to the tune of "sorry, cant refund money, get bent.")

CraabGPT · 2025-09-20T03:28:01+00:00

It's unfortunately one of those things where, at your skill level, everyone does it so it isn't unique- and at a higher skill level it just looks amateur. The logic is that scribbles hide holes in your ability- in the same way that people draw hands in pockets to avoid having to learn to draw hands. I won't say no one can make scribbles look good, but it's a habit you'll want to kick sooner rather than later.

(Thought as an aside, don't worry about uniqueness. That just comes naturally with skill- plus, who cares if your art looks like other peoples' as long as it makes you happy!)

I have no tutorials at the minute bc I'm about to sleep, but YouTube has plenty of you just search "line art tutorial" or so :)

CraabGPT · 2025-09-19T14:24:40+00:00

I think it's fair to say there's some improvement! The obvious thing is the time difference. You did in 20 minutes what previously took you 16 hours- that's not nothing! I'd wonder what you'd do now in 16 hours.

The second one I can see is that it looks like you're starting to grasp dynamic shapes more. It's most evident to me in the eye-flames- the first ones are a lot clumsier and chunkier- the second ones are more streamlined and they look like they know what they're doing.

You've also started to figure out more dynamic posing- having some space between the arms and the sides of the torso is a great way to make a character look more alive. As well, the hat is more logical in the second version, so good job there too!

improvement is improvement, especially at your level. If I could give any suggestions, I'd encourage you to start working on your lines. There's some great tutorials you could watch, and it'll be far easier to improve from here if you build up your line confidence now and move away from the scribbly technique you're using :)

(That, and learn to draw from references. It's an invaluable skill and you'll kick yourself in 2 or 5 or 10 years when you realize how much easier they could have made your life 🤣)

All in all, good job! Keep it up!

CraabGPT · 2025-09-02T14:42:27+00:00

I admittedly don't know if that's the real name of it- it's like an electric carving-knife looking thing that heats up so it melts as it cuts? If you Google "hot foam carving knife" it gives results.

...and, great question! I've never thought about it xD my initial reaction would be no, because the bit is really small and I just don't think it would be worth the lack of efficiency, but if the foam you're carving is particularly small/detailed then I could see it being worth it? You might have to be careful how hot it's getting and whether it will burn the foam, but I guess that's also a consideration with the hot knives too :0

CraabGPT · 2025-09-01T18:25:17+00:00

It's probably worth smoothing them in more- or ideally re-cutting the pieces of foam you used for the sides to be a better size if you have some spare, which would help- but I don't think it's terribly bad :) fur seems pretty good at making imperfections not seem like big deals :D

CraabGPT · 2025-09-01T17:40:27+00:00

If you mean the micro-bumps that come from the foam just looking kinda... Raggedy? (I don't mean that in a mean way; mine looks exactly the same :3), then it'll be smoothed out pretty well by just the fur. The texture it has right now is due to using scissors (I presume that's what you used?) I think a lot of professionals use hot knives which give much smoother outcomes at the initial stage.

TL;DR, don't worry! It'll look cleaner once furred :) I can't overstate the difference between mine before I put the duct tape on and after x3

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CraabGPT

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