Hey!

A month or so ago I started working with a different kind of brace at Physical Therapy.  Its called a protonics brace.  Basically its a brace that is suppose to be used with people with hip problems but my PT is using it with me with my feet. This brace is different but I love it!! This brace goes from just below your hip to your ankle and wraps all the way around. It looks like a lot of the knee braces you see but is functional.  The thing about this brace is that on the sides of it are dials that you turn that change the resistance that you get and so you turn both sides to the same number and you get a set resistance.  The point of this is that then when walking in this brace you are then forcing your muscles to work at all times because they are fighting against resistance at all times. Its like walking around with a gym machine on your leg. 

So you probably don't care, but really I just want to put this out there because it has been so so helpful for me. As you guys know I usually have to wear AFO's or ankle foot orthotics. Basically these are plastic braces that go from just below the knee to all the way under my foot. It's like a plastic cast that I can remove. My profile picture is of one of my braces.  However with this brace I don't need them anymore, which is huge!! It means that I can walk normally. When I have this brace on my ankles don't give out to the side for some reason that my doctors don't quite understand they just know that it has something to do with the fact that I have some undiagnosed neurological disorder, that causes muscle weakness that this brace over comes.  So yea that is why I am so crazy about this brace. It is giving me back a normal life.  I can put on my shoes and slip out the door. I don't have to put on braces first thing in the morning. I don't have worry that once I take off my braces I can't go anywhere without putting them back on which is a pain in the butt. It's just so nice not to have to do that anymore.

Ok so I am going to end my rambling now.

brianna