DO YOU LOVE YOUR BRACES,You Should!! - The real worth of keeping walking with good braces - Personal - http://maxpages.com/happymspage/Do_you_love_your

Update Jan.17 2008 As I said usually only very seriously disabled will need braces on both legs to both prevent drop foot,weakness in knee muscles and hip muscles.Once you are fitted with them and you have time to get used to them as full barces are not easy to master,especially on steps ,getting in and out of the car,sitting down or getting up.They are a new chalenge even to put on in the morning.Your pants have to be sort of baggy to make them easy to pull over the braces on your legs.
With MSer only us with primary progressive MS are the only ones I have ever seen needing them

Update July 25,2006 they will save you energy because the deterating gait or
gait ataxia will take place in most of us regardless what meds we take.I have
had four neuros tell me the same.Slow progression will creep in.
My braces have won my approval as they have made my walking distance greater
that I could acheive with just crutches.Its not cool to try walking without
braces. I have tried it and everytime found I got tired sooner, didn't
sleep as easily since I usually had uncontroled clonising in bed and required
more drugs just to keepthe spasums from getting wild.
New Foot note. I met the woman in the picture above.
Remember braces don't make the person,nor should they destroy your personality!!!

I recently saw some so called shadow braces made by www.beckerorthopedic.com
they are light weight and will be the ones i choose with the repaacement of the present ones.

UPDATE March 25,2007 I was recently told that because I have good braces and shoes
that fit the braces good I have slowed down a deformity that was happpening to my
left leg bone and joints He (the Doc) wanted me to love my braces even more I guess.
He also advised me to strat using my wheelchair more every day to give my legs and
body even more rest as he put me in the catagory of "Clinical deteration"
It alarmed me at first when he said it as he was writing in my very thick medical
record. But after 26years of MS I 'm very surprised I'm not more deterated than
what I'm presently .I expected to be 100% wheelchair user several years ago.
I'm thinking of actually requesting the Shadow braces made by Becker Orthopedic.
They are light weight and I was impressed with a MS friend living locally after she got
her new shadow braces .They are much light weight than my metal and leather ons and she being about the same degree of MS deteriation is doing more.

Actually my doctor is agreeable to get most of his SPMS patients into braces and
crutches to forstall off the eventual need for a wheelchair he says.
It also lets you take fewer pain pills which is great for your liver and kidneys.
One thing I always keep in mind about us SPMS patients is we have really a very different chemistry all over our body that even the beginners in MS and vastly
different to the person on the street who has no MS.
This will also change things as most of us with long term experience with destructive
MS.

Recently a survey was done among long time braces users:
the following was discovered with their answers in an open forum
1.If you need braces there is no way out. Without them you will be sitting life out in a wheelchair.
2.While most orthosists try to sell you on the plastic style braces,those that accept them usually end up eventually being sorry they didn't get the calliper style. The usual argument the orthosist or for that matter the prescribing doctor was," with calliper style braces you will have to have every pair of shoes equipted with caliper plates.It will limit your shoe wardrobe"
While this is true for a while eventually you build up enough shoes with the caliper plates added you will have enough variety. One advantage you get with caliper braces see #3
3. They really only touch your leg at one point,about the calves of your legs.Plastics braces will be a greater leg area covered hense you will find them much warmer in summer and even in warm days in the rest of the year. with MS most of us are heat sensitive any how.
4. Those like myself who unfortunately started with plastics braces will now that we have the stainless steel caliper style braces never change. That says basicly you are satisfied.
5.While caliper braces cost more if you stick to your demands the physician will so prescribe and your insurance company will pay more$$$$ and they will also pay for caliper plates atted to a new pair every year. its a long term issue any way.
There is a degree of actual comfort I get with stainless steel braces attached to my shoes so said nearly all that responded to the survey
6. Most of us also needed crutches also to aid in balance.
7. You get so used to them(steel and leather braces) that you sometimes forget they are still there.

If you are still interested in plastics or lightness then proceed to www.townsenddesigns.com or www.campscandinavia.se
The Swedish braces I used for a while and still have them as backups. But my orthosist says they have been known to break easier that the company would like to admit.
The Townsend designs are nice but you will end up paying for them as usually insurance companies will Not pick up the bill.

Some of us are so in need of our braces we actually need a wheelchair when they are not on us. I was warned that I risked falling easily with just my crutches.In fact my one doctor has said continue to use all your assistive devices as you will in the long run be safer and not as likely to be nursing a broken bone/or bones.My broken bone in 1980 was bad enough . In fact it was from then on ,the leg is now 1/2 inch shorter that the other one.
Richard

Aug 16,2007 Wearing braces and using crutches in an airport will usually make the security people sem to be suspisus that you are trying to hide something.
They always go over me with a "Fine toothed comb" It will take me over 15 minutes to go through airport security,while the average able bodied goes through in about 5 or 6 minutes. so don't let it get to you. RET

Revised May 9,2004 LIFE IN THE Slow LANE ;
Most of us using crutches and braces soon find we are living life in the slow lane.But there are perks for being slow;
1. We have time to smell the roses as the expression goes.
We have time to fish down by the river or lake.we can leasurly sit down
on a bench in the park.I do such and enjoy the speed walkers
flashing by me.I fine it an enjoyable time to sit and eat a lunch
see the birds and occassional a gater near by in the water.
2.I frequently meet some of the nicest people also in a slow mode of life.
3.The conversations vary but usually they are worth while.
4.I get a chance to either take a drawing pad or a camera,or in some cases
a small water color set.I really enjoy the time to do such.
5 Reading outdoors is different some how than indoors
But most of my activies are possible in a climate like Florida.
6. Once I got to the point of not resenting the need of using braces
and crutches my life actually,took on a enjoyable character I never
thought possible and I realize how fast my life was but in some cases
flat and dull.
7. Comments from others who are my friends in clubs and other groups I'm in say,
You seem relaxed and ready for almost any thing.I do feel good about myself and
most of the time,I'm ready to do and go somewhere.
8. My two doctors seem satisfied that I'm satisfied with the braces. Too often theMSer
doesn't want them and goes straight into a wheelchair.I admit there are days when I feel like doing the same but I remember the advice of other long time users of braces
telling me when I first got then and several nurses also told me to don't give up
too soon.

My recent experiences with my braces.(Jan24,2003)
In my recent cruise to the Caribbean islands I was asked by a man
in a wheelchair how I got about so easily.I said its the braces and crutches used together which makes for my vigor of life.
Then he asked me how should he go about convincing his doctor he would do better
with them.
Many braces users are traveling all the time.Its easier for them than the wheelchair users.Believe me I know.

With all the alternatives considered,braces are the best alternative.
Braces are really just enablers to us with weak or tricky legs.

Braces are more common than you think.I the UK the metal and leather style are used
94% of all cases.But this style is making a comeback in this country so I'm told
by my orthosist.

I said just tell him you want braces as you feel you would be better off than in the
wheelchair.If you use the wheelchair too long you may not get out of it if you
stay in it more than a year. He resulved to see his doctor when he gets back home and
put the word to him for the prescription for them.

FEB.8,2003 SATURDAY New letter From post polio affected person.
he is living single,uses braces and crutches ,and also a wheelchair when he gets tired.
He is about my age,69 Just lost his wife to cancer.
His "children" wanted him to go into a assisted living. He gave it fair trial but moved
pot in one month.He says he is still young in spirit and couldn't take those old fogies.

He moved back to his resident hotel,where he and his wife had lived for nearly 17 yrs.
The difference between a person who makes it on his /her own with this degree of disability is one who wants to do it and one who just caves in.
He admits many things take him a bit of time but he has lots of it to spare.But he is doing good on the first two meals a day,and then usually goes out for even dinner.RET

rECENT E-MAIL 1/6/03 eMAIL FROM A NEW BRACES WEARER; Woman with MS fitted with KAFOs now walking further when formerly she was in her wheelchair nearl all the time.She told me she has worked up to walking 500+feet and believes she can do further.She has gotten used to the right swing of legs .
Memo on all my e-mail concerning people wearing braces As of 2 -5,2003 I have over 200 senders of letters concerning their legbraces either short ones or longer ones.There are about 10 AFO wearerers for every wearer of KAFOs.Even among the wearers of AFOs they eventually start swinging their legs and crutches in the same motion commonly associated with KAFOs
In my 200+ responders to me about their braces,only a hand full are down right rensentfull of having to use them The rest have various degrees of happy acceptance.
Near all expected they would continue to need them for a long time to come . Most expected to wear them for life.RET

The remander were either plastic
made
braces or the metal and leather braces.I was among the latter group of 3 people.
We out walked the others in plastic braces because none of them had a hinge at the ankle,
,also the heat factor got to them on a 78degree day where we did do some out door
walking.None of the metal and leather calliper style brace wearers had any trouble
nor

Eileen Lukeman and Richard Tanner

FL.

Eileen(Lobosgirl) and Richard (RET1000) both at aol.com

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Page Updated Wed May 7, 2008 9:45am EDT