This is the 2nd post in a series. Click here for part one.

The main reason my brace works so wonderfully is because of its customization. For anyone that works with patients via gait training, rehabilitation, physical therapy, orthotics, and orthopedics you’ll appreciate how John Logue at Gait Dynamics worked with me to get me walking again.

The Evaluation

John started out by assessing my strength, spasticity, proprioception and range of motion, with regard to my toes, foot, ankle, shin, knee, hips, back, and core. After taking a ton of measurements he videotaped me performing a variety of functional movements: Reaching, getting in and out of a chair, walking, almost falling, leaning, turning, stepping, and marching while wearing my current brace and without any bracing at all.

After a computerized, frame by frame analysis of my movement patterns he determined exactly how he wanted to design the DBS to reach my personal walking goals.

The Casting Process

To make the perfect brace a perfect mold of my leg in the perfect position for functional walking had to be designed. This meant taking more measurements and creating a cast. Upon removing the cast he used his measurements along with anatomical and physiological know-how to cut into and reconfigure the fiberglass into a”best-case scenario” version of my leg.  

Which he used to make a mold.

Which he then sculpted into an actual ergonomic version of my leg.

Which he used to draw on a brace that would best solve my specific walking deficits.

In other words, you have to be part anatomist, part engineer, part designer, and part sculptor to do this work (which is why only a handful of folks make Dynamic Bracing Solution systems).

My mold was shipped to sunny California where the brace was fabricated. A month later this phenomenal, customized AFO arrived.

 Click here for part 3 in this series about my DBS experience.