Tag: orthotics

Let’s have a catch up

First off, I need to start off by saying sorry that there wasn’t a nice new post for you all to read on Monday. I meant to tell you all on Friday that there wouldn’t be one but I forgot. (Silly me). I’ll try make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

Now, onto today’s topic which I suppose is kind of a round- up of all that’s been going on the last few days. Things have been pretty busy.

As you might recall, on Thursday I had somewhere to go on the train and I was wondering how easy it would be for me to manage alone while I was undergoing my serial casting treatment to release some of the tightness in my muscles. I am very happy to say that all went fine and it was just the same as always, which is nice to know. The only real difference was that I’m walking even slower than I usually do (speed is not my strong point at the best of times), but I managed to set off early enough that I still got there ahead of schedule.

It just so happened to be a dry day too which made the trip a lot less stressful because I was a bit worried about getting the pots too wet, so that was a relief.

On Friday, I went back to the hospital to get the air of pots that I was wearing taken off and get cast for some new daytime and night time splints to wear once the serial casting process is done. I was happy to see that even though was only two weeks into the treatment at the time, you could already see some improvements. We’re not quite where we want to be yet I don’t think, but there’s still a couple of weeks to go yet so there’s room for more changes.

When I went to see the man who was in charge of taking casts for my splints, he told me that the ones that I will be getting for during the day time will be like some that I have had before. For some reason, I thought they were going to be different, but I must’ve got myself confused somewhere along the line. I think because I personally have always just called them ‘fixed AFOs’, the word ankle made me think that they were something I hadn’t tried before and now I feel a bit silly. Either way, I don’t mind having those again. All the posts where I said that I hadn’t had them before have now been edited so that they no longer say that and I’m sorry for any confusion that this may have caused.

I’ll post pictures when they arrive rather than trying to explain them all. I thought I might have some already, but I spent a lot of time where them under my jeans or trousers so I don’t actually have a photo where they are visible. Sorry about that.

I was allowed to choose what colour I wanted, and usually I’d go for something bright and bold but this time I thought I go for black, just for a change, and I can jazz them up with stickers or something if I fancy a bit of a change at some point.

The night splints that I’ll be getting (which I think are called resting spring splints,) will be made from the same cast too. I don’t think that I’d had this kind of thing before, but I guess I really won’t know what they are until they turn up. It might be something that I have used in the past bit with a different name to what I’m used to using so I’ll let you know.

Then I went and had more pots put back on my feet. It will take about two weeks for the splints to arrive so they will stay on until I go in and get them fitted, all being well.

Time for change

So, yesterday I took a trip to the hospital to have a discussion about my callipers and pick up some new boots that it’s hoped will help them stop cutting into me a giving e blisters quite so much. I went in there knowing that we’d also be looking at some of the other options that we could try. More on the new footwear in a minute, I promise.

A couple of weeks back, I went to a clinic appointment where someone suggested that we could try using something called Spring Splints at night instead, which I’ve never had before, but  they said I should discuss that further when I went to pick up my new shoes. I  go to a lot of my appointments on my own these days, (don’t you love being a grown up), but this time I asked my mum if she could come along for the ride to offer some insight into things that had worked well for me when I was a child.

After a bit of a debate, it was decided that we could give these Spring Splints a go when I’m resting, and also cast me for a pair of ridged ankle AFO splints for during the day. I’ve had AFOs before . There’s also discussion of using another course of using another method to help release some of the tightness in my ankles. It’s something that I had done a few times as a child and it worked really well. However, that is only at the discussion stages right now so I’ll mention that later on if it goes ahead.

My callipers
My callipers

Anyway, back to the shoes. They look pretty much the same as the ones in this picture, only with one extra strap, and not worn down, obviously. I’ve hunted high and low for a picture of my old splints, but I can’t find one because I used to wear them under trousers or jeans most of the time. Sorry.

When I got my new pair of boots that the callipers slot into, I found that they had an extra strap on the back that should make a difference to the position of my foot so I’ll keep trying to wear them for now until the new stuff comes through. I tried walking around in them for a bit and it’s so far, so good, minus the usual feelings of having to break in any new gear you get for your feet anyway.

I’m nervous about trying the new splints but I’m excited too. I’m willing to try anything that might help in the long or short term so I’ll just have to keep an open mind and see how it goes.

If you or someone you know has tried any of these types of splints, I’d be really grateful if you could leave me a comment or tweet me.

And so, let’s hope that today’s appointment with the occupational therapist goes as well!