The Spasticity Won

 I spoke too soon last week when touting the laurels on my newest AFO. It worked as advertised. Finally! It needed some tweaking, but that wasn't unexpected. A nonslip pad needs to be placed on the heel, the bottom strap (across my toes) to hook tape half of the closure was too long, the and something about the top strap was causing shin pain. The shin pain is alleviated by loosening the strap just a hair. The nonslip pad on the heel enables me to walk to the bathroom without having to wear a shoe without slipping. For me, this is very important to keep me from peeing the bed. I flood the pad otherwise. Just putting on the AFO is pushing the limit. Nothing seriously wrong with this AFO. No undue pressure anywhere, my foot was almost straight, and I could walk without constantly watching my foot placement. In other words, it worked like it was supposed to unlike the other four AFOs they tried to fit me with.

The AFO worked so well that my PT mentioned starting balance training after I come back to therapy after the new series of Botox kicks in about the second week in March. To save rehab hours, we suspend treatments and stretches until then. The pain in between is only about a 5 or 6 so it's manageable. Unlike before when I hit 8 or 9 between sessions.

That lasted for almost a week. I felt confident enough to fill a 55-gallon trash can with kindling. Not only that, but I dragged the filled container up the ramp and into the back porch. Between my AFO woes and my T-CAR procedure, it had been over a month since I felt like I could do that. I got up one morning at 4 AM and had to pee very bad. I donned my AFO over my socks and headed to the bathroom ten steps away. I just barely made it. It took a minimal clean up. I noticed my AFO strap was kind of wonky. It still held me up, but it wasn't right. While seated on the toilet, I tried to correct it when I noticed the problem. The fuzzy side that was supposed to be fastened onto the plastic side of the AFO was still attached to the strap. I half-assed affixed it back into position and hobbled back to the bedroom where my old (#3) AFO was. I sat on my desk chair and tried to no avail attempt to fix my new AFO. 

I ended up telling and giving it to Mel to try with some Gorilla glue later. After she got the old adhesive off the piece of Velcro and the AFO, she was ready to try and fix it. EXCEPT her cat found that small piece of Velcro was something neat to play with while Mel scrubbed the adhesive off the AFO! When Mel returned to the table, it was gone! Her cat had gone outside. So much for a quick fix.

My Hanger rep had the foresight of scheduling a follow up appointment so I'll have to wait another two weeks before I can get it fixed. HARUMPH! I'm not a happy camper, but at least I won't have to wait a month and all my issues will be taken care of. I actually got to wear the same shoes for almost a week and I'll get it fixed in time to do my physical therapy again.  And, in this instance the spasticity won.

Nothing is impossible.