Gait Lab

Jake had his appointment for his gait analysis on Wednesday. It was a really long appointment and he was exhausted by the time we were done. While he spends time outside of his leg brace on a daily basis, it's for pretty limited amounts of time, and this was the most he's had to walk without it.

On Wednesday, he had to do several laps back and forth so his walking pattern and muscles could be measured. He had a pretty lengthy exam where we talked about different things we've done for treatment, then they took measurements and checked the bending/flexibility of his knees and ankles. After that, the hard work for him really began. Due to to the significant difference in his walking with and without the brace, they decided to film him both ways. He had reflectors attached all over his legs and on his hips, they bounced off lights in the room and were captured on film. He also had electrodes on several points on legs which measured what the muscles were doing. We were told this is the same technology used in producing animation in films. If you watch the video below, about half way through you'll see how much his left foot rolls out to the side and how he can't get it flat. He doesn't do the traditional heel then toe walk with that foot that most of us do. (Sorry for the choppy edits, he had to be shirtless due to the hip reflectors and I was trying to just focus on his legs).

The final piece was a very thin wire was inserted into his calf muscle so they could get even more precise measurements of how his muscle is reacting when he walks. He wasn't a huge fan of that, but was a trooper.

The team that will meet to go over the results will include his PT, rehab doctor, orthopedic doctor and the PT who did the analysis will review all the data to make a recommendation on what to do moving forward. We won't hear back for a few weeks but are very hopeful we'll get direction on how to best help him.