re: New Cane

Care must be taken when using a cane, that you won't see as much from with a walker. this was lesson #4 when I went through rehab a while back. If you have a cane, and bring body weight down onto it, you also short circuit the nerves in your hand holding the cane. This can cause pain, numbness, loss of control, and or use of the hand, doing the holding. With a walker it's displaced evenly across both hands at once, so it lessness's the effect by half, or close to it. This doesn't cover the stability you gain being centered within the confines of the walker, instead of leaning with a one sided cane.

Consider a lot of that was being a total train wreck like I was entering rehab. Being mostly upright, and under your own steam you reduce the lean substantially, and probably the hand issue at least partially. But if you have hand issues with a cane, be mindful of the nerve thing.