Re: , Others - Dobbs Brace

January 20, 2006

ee,

I actually have concerns about the AFO's on this brace. If you think

about it, an AFO allows for no ankle flexion, which bothers me quite

a bit actually. I could write a lot on this but and I have

discussed it a number of times already so perhaps you may want to

search posts from say... last summer/spring for Dobbs and look for

and my id's, you may find it. There is question as to if

AFO's are better or not, and also question as to the flexibility of

the ankle and has brought this to Dr. Dobbs attention. Don't

know if it matters, but if it were me... I'd want my child in either

the Markells on the adjustable bar, or Markells on a regular bar as

opposed to the AFO's. Markell does not make a bad shoe, it really is

quite fine. We have problems in these shoes because of three main

reasons, uncorrected feet, user error, and the latest discovery of

complex/atypical feet that just can't use these shoes

effectively. Without these things, I sincerely doubt anyone would

have issues with the Markell shoes.

Now with that said... I think you should go there and tell him that

you want 's shoes on the articulating bar and just get the ball

rolling on that. I know wants to work on this, I am fairly

certain said Dobbs is interested. Sounds like it's time to

push a bit for it to actually happen. To me, this sounds like the

best of both worlds and it so totally has to be done! You could be

the driving force behind this since you've used the PM's, AFO's AND

Markells and at this point in your life... you KNOW what you want

for your CF child and I bet you'll get it or heads will roll lol!

The only thing I would have against this setup would be to trade the

nice flatness of the PM's that make things so simple for Darbi

now... for the weirdness of the articulating bar (not flat on the

floor). however with those toe stoppers it might be a

non-issue. Still, need some time for these babes now using that bar

to grow up a bit to know if it's easy or not. I do know these PM's

are just fantastic for Darbi's mobility.

Kori

At 10:02 PM 1/20/2006, you wrote:

>I finally got to go look at the photos tonight of the Dobbs

>brace. Eureka! haha

>

>I notice at one point he has blocks under the toe portion so he can

>stand more easily - is that a standard feature now, I can sure see

>the advantage.

>

>I also notice they go from Markell style shoes to an AFO style

>shoe. Which will remain the standard, do you know? Using a Markell

>would concern me with my bad history in those shoes.

>

>Is it expected this brace could be worn till Graduation? Like with

>the there is question about fitting a larger child.

>

>The plastic afo shoe - is it custom made or a standard

>one-size-fits-all shoe such as you buy off a shelf somewhere? I

>remember 's afo's were custom formed each time but in this

>application that wouldn't seem necessary to me.

>

>Sorry, so many questions but I do see now. I thought the hinge was

>in the middle of the bar, imagining something quite different!

>

>BTW - great photos of everyone in there! last time I looked was a

>long time ago and it was a mess, I like the new format!

>

>good night,

>s.

>

January 21, 2006

Just so ya know I really appreciate you all getting so in depth with me about it

here.

I'm trying to imagine what you mean about no ankle flexibility in the Afo. I

know an afo doesn't let an ankle bend...but it seems no shoe on the bar really

lets the ankle bend.

On the flip side of that, there are those extreme cases where the shoe

is too soft-flexible allowing a loss of dorsiflexion.

Then Everett who has wonderfully perfect feet at the moment and we tried him in

the Markells's again a few months ago and pulled the plug on that when his heels

started turning red. He cried all the first night in them, had red heels and

fought to put them on the 2nd night and cried, took them off to red-er heels.

He never cries about his FAB, it was a huge red flag to me so we just quit while

we were still ahead (these put awful pressure sores on his heels in infancy

too).

Yes, I'd cut a large portion of the heel area out, but the part that touched

still rubbed.

There's just NO one right answer, I know that.

s.