ITA-MED Super Arm Sling with Shoulder Immobilizer and Abduction Pillow, Fits Left and Right Arm

My husband had major shoulder surgery. The sling given to him was pretty flimsy for not being able to move it for 2 months. After checking out different slings we opted on this one because of the different options. The cushion is removable so when you don't want it on you can take it off, it's just Velcro. The cushion has a ball to lay your hand on, and trust me it makes a difference than just letting your hand hang or lay in the sling. The price was great, which made it a no brainer.

Do you know what "forearm" means? I'm sure that you do. But not the manufacturer of this article. The second photo for this product is a size chart, on which forearm measurements are given. Only when you get the product will you see in the box (which doesn't not contain instructions) a slip of paper with a similar size chart which has an extra line that says that you measure the forearm from the elbow TO THE BASE OF THE LITTLE FINGER. Weird? Yes. Google "forearm" and you'll see that 95% of the rest of the world thinks that the forearm extends from the elbow to the wrist with the 5% allowing that maybe you should include the entire hand and go all the way to the fingertips. Thus I unfortunately ended up with an XL whereas I needed a L, and the too-long sling sheath is crumpling up a bit from elbow to wrist now as I try to type, thanks to it's extra length. And that brings me to the other problems, besides the lack of instructions, which concern the straps and their adjustment. Some of the straps go to latching buckles through proper narrow slots with a winding back configuration. Those avoid the strap every being bunched up or becoming involuted inside the slot of the buckle. But other buckles or attachment points have velcro on the strap as the only means of adjusting the length. Rather than put thin velcro all along the last part of the strap (a choice that other manufacturers make to avoid the need for a more costly buckle) these guys put a little patch of velcro on the strap. That means that there is nothing at all to prevent the doubled-over strap from separating near the buckle or attachment point and getting wedged in the corner of the slot rather than lying smooth in the slot. If you're not following, in order to fix this you're going to have to do something like find a lady's hairpin, a stiff one, to slide around the doubled over strap near the point of attachment. You may find the no-instructions complaint to be silly but there is at least one thing that you really need to know. It's the proper use of the short velcro strap that you will see stuck to the sling component. It really needs to be stretched over the top as a closure and RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE ELBOW. That's so as to keep the elbow from slipping forward in the sling. You'll figure out sooner or later what the loop with velcro on both sides is for. You can see it in the first photo if you study it carefully. Your thumb goes in the inner loop and the two outer velcro straps are wrapped around the outsides of the sling sheath as a closure and to attach the shoulder strap to the front of the sling sheath. Then there's a mysterious extra strap the comes attached to both ends of the sling sheath, with the alignment of the slot attachment for it being inexplicably vertical in back and horizontal in front. I have detached it from the front and passed the tag end under the arm opposite the sling, and wrapped the end of the strap around the shoulder strap--- to try to pull the shoulder strap away from my neck. Of course this causes the shoulder strap to crumple up, as there is no proper attachment mechanism. Maybe I'll stitch it on there. You will have tag ends of the straps hanging down, with no way to secure them. Probably I'll cut some of them off. I only opted for a "fair" rating rather than "poor" as I fear, given the state of manufacturing today, that some other products will have similar failings.