I plan on following up with my PT / ortho, but in the meantime I’m looking for some advice with regards to the angled setting on my boot.
I had my third PT appointment today, and there was a marked improvement in my dorsiflexion vs my last appointment last week (7 degrees vs 15 degress pre massage, 3 degrees vs 8 degrees post massage). The real encouraging part is that it appears to be joint stiffness that is preventing me from reaching the goal of 0 degrees, and I’ve been able to get a lot of strength back quickly (blue colored thermaband and #3 setting on the Orthotron if these mean anything). So really, it seems I just need to work on a long of stretching drills for my ankle joint.
My boot has settings in 7.5 degree increments. Since I’ve started FWB, I’ve stayed at 7.5 degrees. My PT today suggested that I try to go to 0 since I’m getting close in my sessions, and I won’t progress with it set at 7.5 degrees. I tried 0 degrees tonight, and while I’m still able to walk on it, my foot really starts to hurt after a few minutes. So I decided to drop it back to 7.5 degrees. When I was putting it back to 7.5 degrees, it occured to me that I could set the front setting at 0 and the back setting at 7.5 degrees to allow the boot to flex between the two. (Does that make any sense at all?)
My question is, does anybody have any thoughts on whether or not it is a good idea (safe?) to allow for flexing in the boot?
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