Getting away from AFO’s

Anonymous
July 26, 2006 at 6:53 am

Heath,

I’m going to have to go along with racer 13 on this. He talks good sense. I went through the same problems you guys are talking about in the late 80’s/early 90’s. The AFO’s I was fitted with had to be fastened onto the outside sole of the shoe just ahead of the heel. They had two aluminum bars that came up to almost my knees and fastened to a leather covered steel strap that was held in place with Velcro. Talk about uncomfortable! Sounds like the type you wear are not much better. Those devises did the job and helped my drop foot and very weak ankles, but kept them that way until I decided to stop using them. I [U]carefully[/U] started wearing my good ole high top boots and started building up the strength in my feet and ankles. I still have the same problems that racer13 has too, i.e. numbness, foot drop, toes that do not move and weak ankles, but not near the problems that I would have had I stay with those AFO’s. I’ve now progressed to low top shoes too and don’t care how I look when I walk either because I can do it without those AFO’s!

Also, I found that I have more trouble when I try to wear boots or shoes to big. Bought a new pair of boots this spring that were too big and ended up with a very bad sprained ankle due to too much slippage inside. Good Luck.

Jim