Hey everyone, I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I’ve decided to order myself an ankle support brace. Does anyone else use one of these or anything similar?
If you mean something like a “foot up” they work perfectly well, as long as the problem is not too bad. Otherwise I would get assessed for the ingenious “FES” as they can also build muscle strength.
Personally, I would avoid a traditional splint, because they tend to isolate the foot and cause muscle wastage.
Thanks for the reply. I had to look up what a “foot up” was. It’s not that. The Ankle support brace, that I’m thinking about, is one that you can wear at home. It has Velcro on it and you can tighten or loosen it however you want it.
To me it feels like my foot is turning in -maybe it isn’t but that’s what it feels like -and the only trial and error solution I can come up with is an ankle support brace.
Rainbow,
I’ve used a SAFO for the last 10 years and for me, it’s been great. Google it to find out more. Unfortunately, despite trying a few times the FES didn’t help me at all. Although it’s intended to combat foot drop, it certainly stop the also stops the foot from rolling in and also stops the ankle from rolling.
Many, many years ago when I played football, I had a couple of bad injuries to my ankle. After that, I was only able to play if my ankle and foot were bandaged to stop my ankle from rolling. Effective, but probably too cumbersome if you want to do this every day. Hope you find a solution that works for you.
derek
Hey Derek, thanks for replying. I did Google it and found it informative. If it continues to get worse (I think it’s just a blip) then after seeing my nurse I’ll look further into it.
I ordered a brace/strap off eBay. Just to see what it’s like and if it works. Having MS is like trial and error -finding stuff that works and helps and what doesn’t.
There are a large number of devices available to help with foot drop. If you find that what you’ve bought doesn’t work, then don’t give up. You can get a referral to your local NHS orthotics department, they can provide you with some standard AFOs (stands for Ankle Foot Orthotic). Mine gave me a device called a Neurodyn, it was made of stiffish nylon stuff and did up with some rather complicated Velcro straps. It wasn’t really as helpful as I needed, plus when I first wore it, it gave me a really sore heel. I later tried some more traditional AFOs, which weren’t really suitable for me either.
What Whammel mentioned were the Foot-up by Ossur, that does a fairly simple job of picking your for up when you fix it to your shoe, with a strap round the ankle. It helps lots of people and is fairly low cost, you may also be able to get one from your local physiotherapy team.
What tends to work better for many people (Whammel and me included) is the FES (Functional Electrical Stimulation). If you’re interested, the best thing to do is to contact your physiotherapy team and see if it’s available on the NHS in your area.
Sue
Hi Sue, thanks for replying and telling me about all that. I was discharged from the Physio after only seeing her once -she said she can’t tell me to do anything different because I’m already doing what she’d suggest. It’s really good to know that there are other options out there if Plan A doesn’t work.
Discharged from physio after one session doesn’t sound too helpful!
In my local area, we have a multidisciplinary community neuro team, they include physiotherapy and OT.
I should think you could get re-referred (unless you can try phoning them to see if you need a new referral) simply to look at options for foot drop. Certainly there are some foot drop solutions that are available on the NHS.
So when you’ve tried out the device that you’ve bought, if you decide you need further help, it’s worth trying to get a referral straight to the orthotics department of your local hospital or see if OT or physio can help further.
Foot drop generally does not improve apparently, once you’ve got it, that’s it. And in order to avoid further problems which can be caused by for example ‘hitching’ your hip, or swinging your foot out to the side, you should try to get the best available product for you.
Sue
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I have a leg support which goes around the foot, mostly on the ankle then up the calves. The hospital provided me with two. It helps when I have really bad foot pain or dropped foot and you know when your bones just feel like they are weighing you down? I sometimes wear this on the bed instead of getting in bed for a while, to ease my legs. I also have two excellent foot strap sock things, tight with a whole for the hell. They are martial arts supports and were only about two pounds. These I can wear when my feet hurt, when I am travelling on a train or driving a long way that type of thing. They all don’t look very nice but I don’t care. They help.
The leg support things are a bit awkward to get used to and I wear them with sandles as my shoes won’t go round them.