|
Post by castmenow on Feb 7, 2019 11:37:38 GMT
Idly thinking this morning, if you did not have any restrictions, such as money or the approval of partners, storage space or other life factors, what would your ideal brace(s) be, or what would your fantasy brace(s) be or you might like to experience different types of braces to see what they are like, even perhaps if you actually have no plans in reality to obtain / try them. From my perspective, I have been able to buy a new set of my ideal fantasy braces described in other posts as a full chest down HKAFO. With the addition of some other bits such as an abduction bar between my ankles they are completely restrictive, to the extent that I would never actually go out in them. However, I would to see what the braces would be like if there was also a cervical section attached to the back brace so that the braces immobilised be from my head down to my toes, this would then be my ideal fantasy brace. I would like to try a KAFO with a patten end and ischial ring on (along with the large raise on the other foot) as I find it hard to imagine how it must feel to guide your leg around for walking but not actually have any sensation of weight being transferred through it. I remember seeing such a brace on a boy at primary school and it has always intrigued me. Keeping to the theme of Perthes braces, I would also like to try out one of the abduction type braces as per the attached photo. Finally, I would also like to try a Milwaukee brace. Of these three last items, I doubt that I will ever get around to buying such braces to try them out, mainly because now I have the HKAFO, most of my bracing desires have been answered, but also because my wife would see it as a creeping obsession. Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by deejay on Feb 7, 2019 21:54:21 GMT
Absolutely the one I would like is the patten-ended brace with ischial ring and other shoe built up with metal plate. I too saw one when at primary school and have never forgotten it. I am fairly sure I have seen it with a moulded"ischial seat" as well. Perhaps I imagined it but I think there was one with formed leather or plastic top which was more comfortable to 'sit' on. Sounds good to me. Perhaps two!! No sensation apart from sitting on top of the brace. This seems to be one of the few pictures. Attachments:
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2019 11:52:12 GMT
I think there may be a trend developing here. I too would love to try a patten-ended brace so that my leg was just left dangling with no load on it whatsoever and, surprise surprise, my first sighting was also a boy at my primary school who had to wear one for about a term. Like Deejay I have never forgotten it.
There are one or two pretender videos on YouTube which show young women wearing load bearing braces on one leg and a high heel shoe on the other. They don't quite work for me as it is obvious that they have to hold their 'bad' foot up to stop it touching the ground! But interesting nevertheless - and the women are quite attractive! These braces seem to be described as Thomas Braces. Not sure what the difference is between them and a Perthes Brace (or was Perthes the disease being treated by it?).
I guess my desires tend to be constrained by practicalities. As my other posts have already revealed, I'm only interested in bracing my right leg and I already know that I can get away with wearing a KAFO. However, I would very much like to achieve some level of 'weightlessness' and Castmenow's original post has got me thinking whether I might be able to achieve this without a colossal (and very visible) build-up under the other foot. I fully intend to specify an internal footplate when I eventually go to VB and I'm wondering whether this could be positioned about 25 mm or so lower than where my right foot should normally rest. With an Ischial ring or similar at the thigh top, I would have thought that I could achieve some load-bearing with only my toes making contact with the footplate. I already wear a 30 mm heel raise inside my left shoe when wearing my current KAFO so it may be that I could get away with some load-bearing design without a conspicuous build-up.
There is another way to experience a 'weightless' leg which I discovered by accident. If I tighten the straps on my brace - particularly the one around my calf muscle - and then sit in front of the TV (say) for a couple of hours with it unlocked, I lose all sensation in my foot and it is then possible to walk around for about 5 minutes with no feeling. I don't recommend doing too often or for too long but I do derive some pleasure from the brace having to do a little bit of what it was really designed for. That's probably too much information!
|
|
rk52
Junior Member
Posts: 79
|
Post by rk52 on Feb 8, 2019 21:00:04 GMT
Thomas / Perthes braces don't do much for me but I'd really like to try a HKAFO, maybe combined with a CTLSO for the full chin to toes experience! I think the patten-ended brace is called a Thomas brace, intended for treating Perthes' disease.
|
|
|
Post by castmenow on Feb 9, 2019 13:14:49 GMT
There are one or two pretender videos on YouTube which show young women wearing load bearing braces on one leg and a high heel shoe on the other. They don't quite work for me as it is obvious that they have to hold their 'bad' foot up to stop it touching the ground! But interesting nevertheless - and the women are quite attractive! These braces seem to be described as Thomas Braces. Not sure what the difference is between them and a Perthes Brace (or was Perthes the disease being treated by it?). There is another way to experience a 'weightless' leg which I discovered by accident. If I tighten the straps on my brace - particularly the one around my calf muscle - and then sit in front of the TV (say) for a couple of hours with it unlocked, I lose all sensation in my foot and it is then possible to walk around for about 5 minutes with no feeling. I have seen some of these videos, both on braced life and designer legwear/ mechanical legwear. I think the difference with these is that they do not have the ischial rings and rely on lacing up the thigh cuffs tight to take the weight, often when you see them placing weight on the brace their foot moves down as the thigh tissue compresses. <iframe width="34.180000000000064" height="3.5600000000000023" style="position: absolute; width: 34.180000000000064px; height: 3.5600000000000023px; z-index: -9999; border-style: none;left: 15px; top: -5px;" id="MoatPxIOPT0_7861029" scrolling="no"></iframe> <iframe width="34.180000000000064" height="3.5600000000000023" style="position: absolute; width: 34.18px; height: 3.56px; z-index: -9999; border-style: none; left: 1638px; top: -5px;" id="MoatPxIOPT0_77183576" scrolling="no"></iframe> <iframe width="34.180000000000064" height="3.5600000000000023" style="position: absolute; width: 34.18px; height: 3.56px; z-index: -9999; border-style: none; left: 15px; top: 166px;" id="MoatPxIOPT0_95724953" scrolling="no"></iframe> <iframe width="34.180000000000064" height="3.5600000000000023" style="position: absolute; width: 34.18px; height: 3.56px; z-index: -9999; border-style: none; left: 1638px; top: 166px;" id="MoatPxIOPT0_23145497" scrolling="no"></iframe> The original Thomas splint was designed for traction for leg fractures and consisted of an ischial ring and a long bar that went down the length of the leg to below the heel and back up the other side. The leg would then be placed in the brace and traction applied to the foot to hold the bones straight. Re your dead foot experiments, I am sure you must be trapping a nerve or reducing blood supply doing this, much like lying on your arm when asleep and finding it lifeless when you wake up. Practise caution.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2019 16:24:19 GMT
Castmenow wrote: "Re your dead foot experiments, I am sure you must be trapping a nerve or reducing blood supply doing this, much like lying on your arm when asleep and finding it lifeless when you wake up. Practise caution." (Can't snip your quote for some reason.)
Thanks for the caution. I will. It's only happened two or three times. The first was a complete surprise and I didn't (not) feel it until I stood up and engaged the locks on my KAFO. The other times have been experiments insofar as I've deliberately sat in a similar position to see if I could work out what's causing it. I think it's the top of the lower leg cuff (corset type) applying pressure behind my knee when I bend my leg. It's due to the brace not fitting properly so should be solved in the future. Having said that, my right foot goes to sleep at the slightest provocation!
|
|
|
Post by james on Feb 4, 2020 18:28:32 GMT
I have a custom Milwaukee and k.a.f.o.'s but would really like to experience the Stagnara bracefor a term of 6 to 12 months at my age ,atrophy is not a disagreeable effect it would allow me to wear the brace for a true need
|
|
|
Post by james on Feb 4, 2020 20:00:32 GMT
might anyone know of a fabricator who is capable of constructing a stagnara brace?? I reside in Wisconsin and have limited resources financially
|
|
|
Post by castmenow on Feb 4, 2020 21:32:30 GMT
Stagnara braces seem to be pretty rare, were they ever used outside of Europe and are they even used anymore.
Your comment that you have a custom Milwaukee brace is interesting, I did not realize that you could get adult size Milwaukee braces. Where did you get yours from, assuming it is a recreational brace.
|
|
|
Post by castmenow on Feb 11, 2020 16:28:16 GMT
Just found the attached image of a complete head to toe brace set, never seen this before, certainly belongs in the ideal braces I would like to experience if there were no restrictions category.
|
|
|
Post by dave63uk on Feb 18, 2020 16:54:14 GMT
A very rigid hkafo
|
|
|
Post by jimmijo on Mar 29, 2020 22:50:33 GMT
Perfect !
|
|
rmar
New Member
Posts: 23
|
Post by rmar on Mar 31, 2020 18:25:18 GMT
The Newington abduction brace that is attached to first post is a brace that I would love to try. But, with the current methods of brace making now, I will never be able to since they don't make them like that anymore. If fact I don't think that type of brace is used for that condition now. Ah dreams !! I am content to wear my HKAFOs as they do fulfill my need to be braced.
|
|
|
Post by castmenow on Apr 2, 2020 5:38:27 GMT
............ they don't make them like that anymore...................... rmar, you can say that again. Here is an old HKAFO before it was covered in leather that I really like the craftsmanship on, the TLSO portion is all nicely curved to fit on the bottom band, the upper thigh bands are all contoured, the uprights are all curved to follow the wearers legs. A lot of time was spent making these. When I compare them the the much simpler utilitarian approach taken with my custom HKAFO, all straight bands, little work on contouring the uprights etc I wonder at the lost skills.
|
|
rmar
New Member
Posts: 23
|
Post by rmar on Apr 2, 2020 14:44:01 GMT
Castmenow - I agree 100 % Since the introduction of plastic into the construction of orthopedic appliances it seems that the "art" of making them has decreased a lot. The Polio style required the tech to be able to work in metal, leather, and even shoe repair. The current method of making a leg brace consists of making a plaster cast of the leg, then making the plastic to fit around that model. Then he just rivets some Velcro strips to it - attaching a plastic foot piece and it's done. While I have never worn one of the "new" style I find it hard to believe that it supports as well as the Polio type. I'm sure the new style is lighter but I also have to think it is hot in the summer. Of course I might feel differently if I HAD to wear one.
I am just glad that the tech that made my HKAFOs knew how to do all of that as I think of them as a work of art. If I could meet him personally I would sure tell him or her that !!
|
|