Hi there, long time no see. My wife has MS, and since contracting Shingles about 18 months ago it is much worse, walking any distance is now a real problem.
She recently tried an orthotic device which we need to know the name of, or better still the manufacturers name There are obvious reasons that we don’t want to ask the original provider.
.At the time she wasn’t sure if it helped or not, (too much walking whilst testing etc etc) and at over £500 decided not to purchase one. We would now like to try and find out what it is called or who makes them and to try and find something similar at a more sensible price.
The orthotic consists of a wide waistband, to which, roughly 6" apart are attached two thick bungee cords. The bungees go down either side of the leg and are attached to the top of the shoe, there is another strap which goes around both bungees and behind the knee.
Thanks Boudica, I’ve already spent a large part of this afternoon googling every combination of " orthotic, knee brace, leg brace, bungee, elastic, foot drop, toeoff " that I can think of, on the images side of google too, the best I’ve come up with is a thumbnail pic of the item whose link goes to some sort of Chinese/English translation website. The name with the image takes me to a web development page.
I’m sure my wife knows a physio we can ask. I’ll try that if I get no further myself…
Success at last, although I can claim no credit for that: the orthotic specialist that we saw wrote to my wife’s GP (copy to my wife) suggesting that if the NHS would like to fund the “Becker hip flexion assist device” she would be happy to take the referral for supplying/fitting.
The Ayjay Mk1 is already through the planning stage, the preliminary test device yesterday was encouragingly effective and it only needs sourcing the bits and putting it together if the NHS can’t find £562.
Thanks Boudica, tbh, although I think over £500 is expensive for what it is, ($230 + p&p direct from the mnfrs - approx £210 in total) I’d have bought it there and then cos I could see how much improved her gait and balance was, not to mention the speed of walking and the length of her stride but she was too tired to appreciate/comprehend the improvement.
Funding is a strange thing to get to grips with - I saw a news item a couple of weeks back about a new drug for kids affected by Motor neurone disease, it was £200,000.00 for each patient, but there’s only about 50 of them - so just £10 million then!
I don’t begrudge them the treatment any way but can’t understand why one treatment for one group is thought worthwhile and another equally deserving is not.
Anyway, she has to see her GP first, that appointment is three weeks off yet, and who knows from there?
The components for the Ayjay Mk1 are on their way and will be in use within a week, £11.69, all from eBay and a couple of bits and pieces from the garage.
I had to make a couple of changes after the first trials, so technically speaking it’s now the Mk3, but it works, she managed a 400 yard round trip walk this morning, that’s double what she has been doing recently , the outward 200 yards was uphill, not steep but uphill all the same, and she was less tired at the end of it all.
