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Ankle-Foot Orthoses (AFOs): Your experience?

Neuropathy | Last Active: 1 hour ago | Replies (13)
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@chawk

Hi Ray--I'm in the process of getting a Richie brace--a device that's designed to help my right foot stay up a second or two longer than it normally does these days. The idea is to avoid falls caused by foot drop. I also hope it will even out my gait, allowing me to walk straighter than I can now.
My balance has been bad for two or three years. I've managed to avoid falls in the last year by walking less. I still am part of an improv comedy group and I have serious concerns about hopping on and off stage, not to mention playing anything but a nasty old man or a punch-drunk fighter.

My podiatrist recommended the brace a year or so ago. I just went to the orthosis specialist in mid-April. I'll let you know more with each step, so to speak. I'm looking forward to walking with more assurance, even if I still have to use walking sticks! Hang in there....

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Ray Kemble | @ray666 | 2 days ago

Good morning, chawk (@chawk)

Thank you for your reply. I'd never heard of a Richie brace. A good deal of my puzzlement is because I don't have foot drop, at least nothing so impairing that my PT has ever suggested foot drop. And I know what foot drop is like. I had a bout with foot drop about 20 years ago. It was attributed to pinched nerve in my lower spine. I wore a Velcro strap on my foot for … for, as I recall, only a few weeks before my foot was functioning normally again. Today's balance issues have all to do with weak legs, the result of almost a year in sepsis recovery.

Improv comedy, eh? You might know from other posts I've left on Connect that I made my living on stage until first my neuropathy and then a septic infection wreaked such havoc with my balance I had little choice but to go into semi-retirement. I call it "semi-" in hopes that I may one day be able to perform again, but I've become accepting enough of my neuropathy's incurability to live my life in other ways. You mention being limited to playing nothing but "nasty old men" or "punch-drunk fighters." I know how you feel. I keep hoping one of these some director will call and ask if I'd like to play Captain Ahab. I might be able to manage a whale-bone leg if only the sea doesn't get too rough. 🙂

Cheers!
Ray (@ray666)

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