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Thursday, December 6, 2012

Fashion advice in hand, Dan marches on


One style of blade was a possibility.
 
Fashion advice from Plainfield' Today readers firmly in hand, Dan spent Wednesday at the prosthetics lab stomping around on two possible new feet, trying to decided between them.

It was amazing to me that the plaster-of-paris cast taken Monday had been transformed into a clear plastic model of the final device, allowing the team to observe both stump and prosthesis interacting as we walked and tweaked, tweaked and walked.

At one point, we seemed ready for a march down the long hall, which I negotiated to the team's satisfaction though it seemed to me as if I were lurching like a drunken sailor.

Both of the new feet are different from the current one and stiffer, which is going to take some getting used to. But the whole assembly seems lighter and I am able to raise my affected knee nearly as high as the right one, which will certainly improve the gait on stairs.

Though the latest computerized feet are whiz-bang, I decided against one. First, they are VERY expensive. Second, they are one more thing to break or malfunction. Third, a step off a curb into a deep puddle would be the death of the circuitry. Good enough will be good enough.

Finally deciding between the two different feet, the whole shebang was consigned to the lab for fabrication which should be done in about two weeks. At that point, with a final tweak, I'll be sent marching off.

Will let you know what pattern I chose when I get the new gear.



-- Dan Damon [follow]


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