Well, July 14th came, and went. We arrived for her appointment only to find out that not only was her orthotist out sick that day, but her brace wasn’t ready. They had called and left me a message, but I hadn’t checked them. Boooo.
Anyway, we were able to reschedule delivery for today. We arrived to find that our orthotist was still out sick. (More than a week?) So Spenser would be seeing us. (Nice!)
The first thing that I noticed was that it was BIG. Like, above-the-knee-big. But we can always trim down. Then he put the front shell on. Then it was like FLAG ON THE PLAY!!! It was waaaaaaay too short.
It ended completely before the bow in her leg. Not cool. (When am I going to learn that I have to advocate more strongly on the first visit???)
.So Spenser asked us to make a decision. Reject the brace, and have it remade? or we could try and make it work. We opted to try and make it work, and he made us an anterior shell out of a thinner plastic.
I’m a little concerned about a large gap at the bottom where her bow is, but he said that the plastic may mold to her. Man! Her bow looks CRAZY!
She has declared it to be comfortable, so we tried walking.
Final look at the brace, as we ended our appointment:
Brace is in 3 pieces, as before. main brace, anterior shell, and boot. (Must ask for the chip to be sewn in next time.)
Another difference is that the back is a LOT more open than before. I’m not sure if that is a good, bad, or indifferent thing, but it’s very different. (I need to ask about this.)
No build-up on the bottom or sides, so that should make shoes easier… but I don’t really like the straps. They’re too… I don’t even know the word. They just don’t feel nice, and we have had a lot of problems with the strap over the top of the foot causing problems on her last brace. But, we will see.
The non slip grip is really nice though! Next time I need to ask in advance, so they aren’t spending patient time working on it.
Overall, it looks really nice. Spenser and Amy both gave me the thumbs up, so we have an appointment set for 8/13 for a follow-up, should we need it. Hopefully, it won’t be necessary! 🙂
