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Post by deejay on Jul 29, 2018 21:44:40 GMT
Particularly aimed at those who have braces but do not actually need them in any way..... If you have worn them out of the house, where did you go and how did you feel when you went out in them for the first time? Was it near home or did you make arrangements to be further away/
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Question
Jul 31, 2018 15:49:36 GMT
via mobile
Post by kafokid on Jul 31, 2018 15:49:36 GMT
I have not plucked up the courage yet, but I’ve often dreamed about it.
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Post by misterfingers on Jul 31, 2018 22:17:39 GMT
I often think of wearing the one Kafo I have in public, not done it yet. Practicalities of putting it on are difficult in a car having travelled some distance. Like I said in my introduction, I have worn plastic Afo's inside boots, as they are not visible! This works quite well. Kafo would be better I'm sure. Happy to possibly meet up with like minded persons.
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Post by jimmijo on Jul 31, 2018 23:32:28 GMT
I often think of wearing the one Kafo I have in public, not done it yet. Practicalities of putting it on are difficult in a car having travelled some distance. Like I said in my introduction, I have worn plastic Afo's inside boots, as they are not visible! This works quite well. Kafo would be better I'm sure. Happy to possibly meet up with like minded persons. Hi misterfinger, your story sounds really similar to mine, im in the midlands also and would be happy to try and meet up, or contact you through my email, jims96@aol.com
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Post by alexr1 on Aug 7, 2018 19:11:37 GMT
I've been out in various neck braces (Miami J, Malibu etc.), Minerva and my Non-Invasive Halo brace many times and loved the attention. I also ordered (on 3rd July 2018)a Minerva clamshell brace including full encasement of head (except face aperture of course) from Vintage Braces and am looking forward to delivery soon!
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dayo
New Member
Posts: 2
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Question
Aug 21, 2018 17:21:40 GMT
via mobile
Post by dayo on Aug 21, 2018 17:21:40 GMT
I have a pair of afos which I am beginning to wear more and more. I wear them locally usually with the aid of walking sticks. But prefer to use crutches as it is easier and more stable when walking. If I am out shopping I usually hire a electric wheelchair. Which is much easier to get around especially when using my cane.
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Post by tobebraced50 on Apr 15, 2019 3:42:21 GMT
My first exposure to public was on the second Saturday in June of 2002. I was taking a trip across the state and had placed my recently modified left KAFO on the outside of my pants in full visibility. There was a small town having a town-wide sidewalk sale and I decided to locate a parking place. Just as I started to climb out of my truck, I noticed a fellow in a wheelchair approaching my area and I decided to drive father away. The next town was also having an event and I managed to put my feet onto the parking-lot surface before feeling threatened by Col. Sanders --- I became a 49 year old chicken.
Some distance down the road, there was a sign to a garage sale at a residence on a side road off the main high-way. My feet landed on the gravel driveway surface and there was indeed a fellow and his wife sitting at a large table displaying items for sale. As I approached, the lady left and went inside the house while I walked, hobbled, around the table. Then my eye caught sight of her watching me from the kitchen window. I completed my complementary lap around the table making small talk with the fellow but nothing mentioned about the obvious. I re-entered my truck driving back to the high-way.
A few miles later, there was another sign for a sale on the high-way and I made my second appearance as a disabled person. I was headed up the driveway as a lady came around the corner of the house and imedietely spotted my brace and audibly gasped for a her next breath as we locked eyes. She kind of smiled and lowly said "Sorry" as I returned a smile. I sure felt good about that impression made. Again I looked over the wares with several around but no further comments or reactions. On the way back down to my truck, I made my first discovery of a limitation provided by a brace. It was slightly down hill and I almost lost control of my legs trying to recover from a stumble. That was an eyeopening experience that more caution was going to be needed after donning and wearing a brace if I was not going to make a total spectical of myself.
After driving off, I was nearing my destination and had to sadly remove my brace after only about 3 hours of my first time. I knew then, the feeling was so very special and satisfying that I could not wait to do it again and again. It was a first but not the last.
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Post by rowland on May 7, 2020 21:28:33 GMT
Before I got an AFO and then a KAFO for medical reasons, I couldn't own up to wearing braces because they were only "homemade" and I didn't medically need them. In my teens I only wore them in the house when no-one else was there. When I left home I wore them when I went out in the dark late in the evening. When I got a car I drove to an area where I was unknown. I would walk around or go to a pub. I would wear one brace, easily rigged up with an ischial ring, no knee locks and mock caliper attachment to holes drilled into the heels of my boot. I would usually put my leg under a table or stand at the bar with my "bad" leg in the shadow. If the lighting was very dim I would risk having my leg in the open. No one ever commented. Sometimes people behaved kindly, though I was not looking for that. But the gesture of kindness was also a sign of acknowledgement that I was wearing a "leg-iron". I got immense satisfaction from these outings and continue to do so now that, for the last ten years, I wear a leg-brace for medical reasons. Thanks for this question. It enables me to take stock. Ironically I thought that it was not right to have a leg-brace that has no knee-locks. I was ashamed that my "leg-iron" was not good enough. I now know better. The only caliper-wearer I have had a conversation with happens to wear a caliper that is just like the braces I used to make for myself, only properly engineered.
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Post by castmenow on May 8, 2020 19:20:17 GMT
The first time I wore a KAFO out in public was shortly after I had moved to a new house, it was in a town away from where I worked and I did not know anybody there at that point in time and none else from work lived in the town that I new. I needed new tyres for my car so I went down to get them with my KAFO on and had to sit around in the waiting area for an hour whilst they were done. I could get from my house to my car without being seen by the neighboring houses, and even so, only the little bit of the uprights was visible at the bottom of the shoe. I enjoyed the trip out and nothing was said, what made it enjoyable was not needing to be concerned about being seen by anybody I knew. Since then when I have been out in braces it is nearly always away from were I live, I currently live in a small town and know a lot of people. I did go out one winter with a back / neck brace on and wrapped my scarf well up around my neck so it was hard to tell I was braced as nothing was visible. You would have had to watch how I was rigid from my hips to my chin. The first time I went out in my current pair of KAFOs and crutches I was quite apprehensive even though I drove about 20 miles to another town, I know that people I formally worked with prior to retirement lives over a large swathe of the area. To really relax being out I would want to drive perhaps 40 miles away to really reduce the risk of being seen by someone known to me.
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