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Follow-up Appointments

Brace Optional

Last Wednesday I had another follow-up with Dr. Koop. I know I ended this blog a few months back when I considered myself no longer recovering, so I’m mostly just posting about it here to put it as a record in the recovery timeline this blog illustrates for anyone interested in the future.

This appointment had what in effect was the last post-surgery X-rays, as apparently at my next follow-up, a full year from now, we won’t need to take X-rays. Everything looked just fine. Which, to be fair, I expected as I am in zero pain any longer. Usually, Koop said, if there was something awry on the imaging, it’d be more evident from daily pain or the like. That is, I’d expect to see something wrong.

The most surprising thing to come at this appointment was in regard to the AFO brace I wear on my right leg and foot when not at home, and have as long as I can remember. Dr. Koop said that at this point there is no medically-necessary requirement to wear the brace at any given point of time, length of time, or activity. When contemplating having the surgery over the past many years, he always said that the surgery would not remove the need for my AFO. So this was surprising news. But though it may not be necessary any longer, it also will not hurt. So for the moment I have no intention of changing my habit of wearing the brace whenever I go somewhere not at home (as getting rare come winter that is, thanks Covid…). But I am free to change that up when and as I see fit to do so. In effect, the brace is now optional.