Re: Balance Problems & surgery

[Guest guest]

,

I had better balance after completing the physical therapy for foot

surgery (tendons) and spending time walking on the beach, also swimming.

Gretchen

[Guest guest]

,

I think that the surgery doesn't make a miracle occur. It will depend on the

degree of existing muscle atrophy, how much muscle tone you lose during

recovery, and the speed which you are able to build new muscle to match your

new walking style.

I had foot fusion surgery for a Charcot joint condition that developed. The

fusion changes your gait, and post surgery I was especially unsteady as I

just didn't have the muscle tone to stay balanced. After two years I am

finally able to walk short distances with confidence, as opposed to plotting

a course from support to support, though anytime I try to do more than once

around the shopping mall I slow down and get very tired. The muscles in my

'good' leg are still not recovered from the changes and the leg with the

frankenfoot is still noticably atrophied, and I'm not sure that it'll ever

recover.

I view my surgery, and ones to come, as positive attempts to correct a

deteriorating condition.

O

[Guest guest]

For balance problems, B12 (2 cc) injections, once a week is great! I can't

begin to emphasize how much it helped me when I first started losing my balance.

With-in one day I would no longer bounce off the walls! :-)

Kay~Seaside Oregon

[Guest guest]

and :

In addition to the potential benefit of walking without AFO support, and

appearing " normally-gaited " , the change in stride also affects how your upper

leg joints articulate (hip especially) just as an orthotic would.

Do you use AFOss currently? And if so, what kind? Changing to a " Blue Rocker " ,

from a carbon fiber/anterior splint type helped improve my forward sense of

balance, lessened the muscle fatigue in the upper leg, but my lateral sense of

balance sucks and the loss of feeling in the foot still contributes to

imbalance, something an ankle fusion won't undo.

What kind of benefits do you expect other than the ability not to trip?

Dennis

CMT diagnosed 1975

[Guest guest]

Being a computer geek, I always phrase it this way.

Surgery, especially ankle fusion and the like, is a hardware fix for a

software problem. The problem is we are still going to have 'buggy software'

after surgery.

I guess, perhaps, the correct answer to your question depends on what you mean

by 'balance.' For instance, I have a 'soft' ankle (it twists easily). Fusing it

improved my 'balance' because it decreased pain and increased stability.

However, I still have a very poor sense of 'balance' because my fine motor

skills can't be improved by any surgery. I can't spin a basketball on my finger.

So, surgery should improve your stability - but not your fine motor skills.

Shaun

[Guest guest]

I had much better balance after my surgery.

[Guest guest]

My balance was improved because my whole foot was touching the floor not just

the side of it.

[Guest guest]

After my TT I had more feeling in the bottom of my foot as well. Now my balance

issue is lack of feeling.

Citicoline and vitamin C have helped me so much. To some degree I always felt

like the floor was moving under me. I still have bad balance but its a heck of a

lot better.

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the comments. Sounds like people usually experience some

balance improvement.

Gretchen: I'm not sure there will be much improvement of tendons. The

doc will decide if he'll do tendon transfer when he's there, but says

it can be a mixed result and that more incisions = more risk and

longer recovery.

: I don't expect a miracle cure, but the tendons are already

pretty much shot. Sure did take you a long time to see improvements.

Doctor is telling me that there will be improvements as soon as the

casts are off.

Dennis: recently got an arizona AFO, but am not finding it very useful

except to keep me more secure on uneven surfaces. I don't know if a

blue rocker would do much since foot drop-tripping has not been much

of a problem. My problem is the foot is turning in because the ankle

joint is pretty much shot and coming apart. Benefits? Surely not to

trip more than before, but mostly be able to walk/stand longer, & go

further, faster without " tipping over " from balance. Hope to be safer

in that I'm not feeling I'm going to sprain/break my ankle at ant step

--- especially on unven surfaces. Hopefully then won't have to watch

every step for fear I'll fall stepping on a crack or rock. Being able

to handle 1-2 steps w/o a handrail would be nice.

I'm at the no other options stage, so have to do the surgery. It's

just a matter of of they do more than fuse the ankle and if the

outcome will be any better as far as the things noted.

[Guest guest]

Great analogy except software is easier to change so they don't look

for hardware solutions unless there's no other option ... which I

guess is my case. Then too, no matter how well things are fixed, our

hardware and software keeps changing on it's own at an unpredictable

rate. I've heard of computer software that does self reprogramming,

but don't think the world of physics is ready for that in hardware.

>

> Being a computer geek, I always phrase it this way.

>

> Surgery, especially ankle fusion and the like, is a hardware fix for a

> software problem. The problem is we are still going to have 'buggy

software' after surgery.

>

> I guess, perhaps, the correct answer to your question depends on

what you mean by 'balance.' For instance, I have a 'soft' ankle (it

twists easily). Fusing it improved my 'balance' because it decreased

pain and increased stability.

>

> However, I still have a very poor sense of 'balance' because my fine

motor skills can't be improved by any surgery. I can't spin a

basketball on my finger.

>

> So, surgery should improve your stability - but not your fine motor

skills.

>

> Shaun

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

,

That's exactly my wife's theory and what the doctor said should help,

but as others said it somewhat depends on how the tendons come out

...... though I guess the ankle tendons become irrelevant after a fusion.

>

> My balance was improved because my whole foot was touching the floor

not just the side of it.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

I may be wrong, but I don't think my balance problems are related to my

feet. I think it is in my inner ear. I have had labrynthitis (severe

vertigo from inner ear inflamation), both my sisters and my dad have

been tagged with Meniere's disease (vertigo from too much fluid in the

inner ear), all three of them suffer from mild-mod hearing loss and

last summer I had a bout of " stillness sickness " . That's when you are

in motion for a long time (on a boat for 7 days) and your inner ear

insists you're still moving after you stop. It lasted for 3 weeks. If

you look at the symptom list, dizziness and deafness are included and I

believe they involve the same mechanism of nerves in the area of the

ear.

Holli