[Erin524]

and it's actually, very stylish...in a medical sort of way.

They used my SAS Shoes sneakers. So they cut my right shoe up a little bit to attach the AFO to it.

The lady who sold me my sneakers would have a heart attack if she saw how they defiled my shoe to make the AFO. I should go down there to buy new sneakers while wearing this thing. The SAS Shoe people have a cow if you dont use a shoe horn while trying on their shoes, they'll freak if they see the giant pieces of metal sticking out of the sides of my shoe now.

The AFO is supposed to have a Dorsi Flex (springs) in it to allow my foot to move up and down, but the orthotics guy that made my AFO took the springs out of it for right now. Said if I tried to walk in it with the Dorsi Flex engaged right now, I'd be on the floor. Said I've been walking with a dropped foot for two months, and I have to slowly get used to walking with the AFO before he'll put the springs for the Dorsi back in. I have to go back in about two weeks to have it adjusted (earlier if it becomes uncomfortable)

The orthotic guy said he saw definite improvement as soon as I started down the hallway with this thing once he allowed me to get up. I took my mom's rollator into the office with me, along with my cane, because I wanted to see how cane walking and rollator walking was with this thing while I had the orthotic guy there to observe. I noticed the improvement right away too. I have to step down on my heel. When I do that, the top of the AFO (where the velcro holds it on my leg) pushes my knee forwards a little bit. Feels so much better, because before when I tried to walk without this thing, my knee felt like it was bending backwards in a direction that knees are not supposed to be going.

Oh, and we also got a new stair lift today. Had the company we got our old stair lift from over yesterday for a safety check and to see if we needed a new one because we'd noticed the old one was becoming a little...rickety. Found out the seat was cracked in half, and the thing that makes the chair beep if it's not charging no longer worked...and there were times where it wasnt charging. Oh...and the right arm of the old stair lift was broken. It would slide all the way out (over the long drop down the stairs) and wouldnt stay...and that's where the paddle switch that controlled the chair was.

The guy who fixes the chairs drilled a hex head screw thru the old chair yesterday to keep the arm from moving so I could still use it last night, and then he arrived at 830am today and installed a brand new stair lift. I'm impressed with how fast they got the new one here. (less than 24hrs!)

The new one is so much nicer...for one, this guy today knew what he was doing installing it. (the first guy who installed the old one 8yrs ago was an idiot, and installed it wrong. We'd had to have them come out again a year after it was originally installed to fix it because it was bad...they'd fired the guy who screwed it up and then called us to say they had to come make sure it had been done correctly because the guy had screwed up so many installs. They went down the list of everyone he'd installed a lift for and went back and re-did them)

The new lift looks a lot nicer than the old one. It's got more safety features, AND it just looks so much better, more like a fancy leather bucketseat for a car than the old one did. Seat is much more comfortable, and doesnt feel like it's going to toss you out of the chair halfway down the stairs. Matches our paint on the walls even. (our house is Beige-Land) It's quieter too. (going to have to put a bell or something on it so my parents cant sneak up on me now. Old one was noisy, I always knew if someone was coming downstairs on it)

It was an expensive day, getting an AFO and a new stair lift, but I feel so much safer now! Not scared to ride the new lift up, and the AFO is making me feel like I can walk better. I'd been worried it wasnt going to do anything to help, so I was really surprised when I noticed an immediate improvement. I'm all excited, I want to go for a walk...(I'm not going to, I'll just walk around my basement)

I'm just happy that I feel safer now and not as afraid that the stair lift is going to fail halfway down/up the stairs. (oh, the new one holds more weight too! That makes me feel better. I just finished those steroids a few weeks ago)