kayre | success

I had some problems with my ankle even before last spring, and needed a lightweight brace for it. My podiatrist took the typical route-- made a mold of my foot, and sent it off to some lab somewhere. Months later (seriously, more than 2), a brace arrived.... clearly not custom, but an effort to fit standard parts to my not standard foot. Podiatrist took pictures and wrote notes, and sent it off again, and a couple more months went by. What came then was clearly the same brace, tweaked, and utterly inadequate. I'm not sure if there was one more effort or two, but after 9 months I got a brace that would probably have been adequate. Unfortunately, by then the shoe I'd been wearing, without the support of a brace, had created the sore that landed me in the hospital, and nearly cost me my life or at least that pesky foot.

In September my foot was pronounced healthy again at last, but it is quite deformed and I need an even more supportive device (a CRO boot). I flatly refused to go through the long-distance process again. My podiatrist explained that her insurance setup requires her to go through one of two long-distance companies, but that if I initiated the process with another company she could send them the prescription; and she located two companies right in town that make such devices. I researched them both, picked one, and had the mold made in late October.

The mold was made by the head of the 3-person team who worked on my boot. Last week the same person fitted me with the boot, and apologized that it had taken so long! Today I went back, needing some minor adjustments-- and the same guy fixed it while I waited. Finally I feel like I have a chance to move forward (literally) in a healthy way!