Got the AFO finally

This morning we went to have Nates AFO fitted to him and have him try it out.
It was early so we were both sleepy.
Bert brought it out and showed us how to put it on. It looked big.
Nates AFO comes in two pieces though. I’m not sure why though.
One piece covers his heel to his toes, and up over his ankle joint with rubber pads inside the sides where the joint is.
Then the big part goes over that whole thing.
It has an ankle hinge and goes from his heel to his toes and all the way to his knee. It has velcro staps at the foot and at the knee.
It also has a thing on the back to tighten with an Allen wrench. That part goes up or down to keep his foot level.
Bert says he won’t wear that one for too long before he will need to make a new one. Their ability to get Nates ankle straight again and his foot drop more level will depend on new AFO’s periodically.
He put Nate’s shoe on and had him stand and take a couple of steps.
It hurt a lot though with Nates knee being swollen still and very painful.
I asked Nate how that thing felt. He say “strange”. He’s glad to have it though. He just needs to get used to it.
His foot has been crooked for over a year now and it feels normal that way.
Bert told Nate his ankle can’t go anywhere so not to worry about it rolling anymore as long as he wears it.
We will need to go back in two weeks to see if his foot is adapting to it and see if his heel is going down any.
He walked a little bit with it on at PT after that and his PT person was so glad to see him walk with it.
I’m go glad he finally has it. Its been nearly 3 mos since he was evaluated for his AFO.
Now if nate can only not get injured so much, he will be ok.
Trudy, Natesmom