PT recap: Walking around AFO-less

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but Elena has a leg-length discrepancy. Her right leg (femur, I believe) is a little longer than her left. With her tone/weakness issues, this discrepancy is practically larger. To remedy this, Elena needs an insert in her left shoe to help equalize the functional length of her right leg. She can't wear an insert inside her shoe; the AFOs take all the room. So, we have her orthotist put the shoe lifts in-sole. That can take time...so we used her old summer sandals while her shoes were in the shop.

She did a pretty good job--kept her heels pretty low. Her gait looked a little funny, more of her feet outwards, and her knees up high...but the big deal was, it looks a whole lot better than I thought it would. Check it out:



She has been trying to walk at home in her bare feet. She used to be able to take 3 steps and fall, that was the maximum. Now she'll try to go across the room (10 steps); sometimes she can make it. On her tip tippy toes. Who knows if we can get her bare feet down.