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)

Picture of my AFO.

Cool!! Glad it's working for you.

How much does a stair lift cost. We live in a bilevel so it would have to make a turn and go up and down two different levels.

What does afo stand for?

@Doydie Ours cost $2495.00. (no tax on medical equipment here) It's just a straight run down the stairs. No turns. I think one with turns would cost a bit more. Our stairlift is made by Bruno. Glad that we live in a ranch with one set of steps. Our old house was a tri-level and had at least 5 separate sets of stairs all over the house.

This is the new one we got today http://www.bruno.com/stairlift-electra-ride-elite.html

Our old one looked like this http://www.bruno.com/stairlift-electra-ride-ii.html and it's no where near as nice as our new one. The picture in the ad, where they show how the arm swings out for people in wheelchairs to do transfers, that's the arm that was broken and exactly what it would look like with it swung out, but it wouldnt swing back and stay in place. (I had to hold it in place) The thing that locked it into place was broken. Several months ago, I went to get on the chair, and the arm swung out and I nearly fell off. So, I'd been having to be really careful when riding it. (I'd called the repair people, and the lady on the phone was really nasty to me, wouldnt transfer me to the repair dept. Made me mad, and I didnt want to call back and get the nasty operator again)

So, I'd just been really careful when using the stairlift. It had just started to scare me a lot the past couple of weeks, and so I convinced my dad that since I was having to use it the most to get to my bedroom in the basement, we'd better upgrade the stairlift and make sure it was safe. He agreed with me when I showed him how badly things had been with it the other day. So, we're putting off getting him his new flat screen tv for his tv room. (poor dad, he's never gonna get that tv the way we're going)


@Clarkstar AFO = Ankle Foot Orthotic. It's basically a brace that's been built into my shoe. It's two pieces of aluminum on either side of my leg, kind of like a splint, that have been glued into the bottom of my shoe. (or screwed in...I havent lifted up the inside of my shoe yet to look and see if I can see anything from inside the shoe) Then there's a strap at the top of the brace that holds it onto my leg.

When I walk, I have to step down on my heel first. When I do that, that makes the strap at the top of the brace push my knee forward a little bit. The whole thing is to keep my foot straight since I have foot drop in the foot. (means I cant lift my foot up from the ankle...which actually has improved since it got diagnosed, but it's still...floppy) It also keeps my knee from bending backwards in a direction it's not supposed to bend. I was having a problem with that the last few months.

So far, I'm happy with it. It seems to be working great, altho the area around my calf where the strap is at, is feeling a little sore tonight. Probably because I'm not used to it yet. Supposed to wear it as soon as I get up in the morning until I go to bed at night. Only other time to take it off would be in the shower.

Right now, I still have the AFO on, but since I'm sitting down, I loosened the strap. Took my left shoe off too so my left foot could breathe (left foot has been getting numb the past few weeks. Kind of scared I'll have to get an AFO for it too). If I get up for any reason, I'm going to put my left shoe back on, and tighten the AFO strap so that I can walk around.

I'm really enjoying being able to walk around, upright like a human should walk, and not all hunched over, kind of curled around a rollator/walker. Still using the rollator some, since I'm not quite used to the AFO yet. But the guy at the orthotics place said I should figure out my balance with it pretty soon and should be able to just use a cane, or even walk without a cane with it eventually.

Being able to wear shoes and socks again is really nice too. I've been walking around barefoot because foot drop and socks on tile floor doesnt work really well. I also couldnt wear shoes at all for awhile when the flare was really flaring. I'd only put on my Crocs for shoes only if I had to leave the house for any reason. (that was REALLY uncomfortable!!) Which means I havent been out much for the last two months. Anything touching my right foot actually caused me pain. Excruciating pain. It was weird. Felt like my ankle was in a bear trap when the foot drop first started.