AFO braces

[Guest guest]

Someone asked about AFO brace and another option yesterday on the list.

I haven't used the second option, but I did use an AFO brace for my right

ankle for 7 years. The brace went from the ball of my foot to just below

the knee. It is two pieces of plastic and is shaped for the indivdual and

is held in place by velcro.

Good thing about an AFO brace is that you can wear it with your shoes , I

usually had to get a half size larger shoe to not crowd the toes. The AFO

brace will keep your foot and leg in one position with less movement than

one of the metal braces that go on a shoe. You can take it off at night etc

Drawback is that they can be hot in summer time. The calf muscle can

athropy a lot, just as if you were in a cast for several weeks. Being in

one for several years , I lost a lot more muscle tone and fat on that leg

than when you are in a cast for several weeks. It did take me over a year

to get the right leg back to looking more normal after getting out of the

brace. Now aprox 4 years later and lots of walking, bike riding and for a

couple of years regualr gym membership and workouts , my right muscle is

close to the strength of the other , but still looks a bit smaller than the

other leg. At the time, I was not able to do any exercises without the

brace to strengthen the calf muscle any flexing of the ankle joint caused

too much nerve pain.

If you can do some rubber band exercises with the foot and do the exercise

where you stand on your feet and go up on tip toe then back down to the

floor with the heel. And stand on a two by four (or use bottom step of

stairs) and flex the heel down (use something to hang onto with the hands

to keep balance) you should be able to keep muscle tone in the calf and

still wear your brace all day.

I did find something more comfortable(thiner and more fitted) and a bit

cooler than the cast sock they sell to go under the brace. I would buy to

pairs of the cotton 'slouch' sock or crew sock from wal mart . The second

pair I would cut off just above the heel. Put the first pair on and put the

top portion of the second sock on over the first sock. Leave a bit of

overlap at the top of the whole sock. This allowed me to wear socks that

color coordinated with my outfits.

Getting a good fit with the AFO brace depends on your ortho person. We

live an hour from the ortho place and was hard to get back for adjustments

when the fit wasn't quite right. Getting a good fit can take more than one

or 8 visits to get right.I won't tell if you won't but finally hubby and I

set down and did the final adjustments ourself. We realized they used heat

to soften the plastic before adjusting.

I still wear my AFO brace, every time I have surgery! they have to cover

it with a cloth booty. But I tell them how much trouble it took me to get

out of it and I don't want someone falling against, bumping or hitting

during transfer back to hospital bed causing more damage.

Debbie and Ian McKinley (13 yrs BMD)no litters from Kansas

http://home.hit.net/~dimck/ Brighteye Bushy Tail Gretchen CD,CGC

11/11/92 - 10/07/03. Swiss Stars Harvest Moon CD,CGC, DD 6/l8/93-

5/9/04 Swiss Star's Maximum Risk 09/15/02 Sammy (rescue/rehome)

(rescue)