She's Twisted

Rachel had twister cables added to her  AFOs yesterday at Hanger. Twister cables are metal bars that attach to a waist piece (belt). The metal bars are located on the lateral sides of the hips and extend down to the ankle. The knee portion of the twister cable is hinged. The purpose of the twister cable to prevent inward leg rotation. Rachel is able to still crawl, pull to stand, cruise and use her walker while wearing the twister cables. Her legs are in correct alignment and she now needs to relearn how to crawl, pull to stand, cruise and step while wearing them. Needless to say she is alittle whiny about this today.

Rachel waiting while the orthotist attaches the twister cables to her AFOs

Her robo legs as Alicia calls them attached to her UFOs (more Alicia)

My unthrilled model

Place the waist piece behind your child while they are sitting up with the twister cables extending down each outer side of the legs.

Help your child lay down- you may need to pull the whole set up either up or down to align up the AFOs with your child's feet prior to applying. Put one AFO on at a time.

After both AFOs are on- apply the belt on the waist piece. Put on their shoes and they are ready to go.

Side view of the twister cable while standing

Good view of the hinged knee portion of the twister cable

Short video of Rachel trying to walk with her twister cables on. She moves her right leg really well with them on but the left leg she hooks onto the back of the right leg at times. She also seemed to do better after we locked the front wheels of the walker from swivel to straight.

Rachel had a good day in therapy yesterday. We were able to take a few pictures of her standing up with her wooden platform shoes on.

Rachel was registered to be paired up with a runner from I Run for Michael. I think this is a great organization and idea. We are currently waiting to be matched up with our runner. To our future runner: thank you for sharing your heart and your physical abilities with Rachel. We look forward to cheering you on and getting to know you. We are working on a special picture to share with you.

Rachel sitting on her hopper pony.

Her hopper pony helps work her core muscles and she thinks it is just a toy.

Breanne on her first day of school. She is on the track team this year. She would like to have some spina bifida awareness tee-shirts to wear while she runs. I will have to look into that- the only one we have is the brady steps one we showed in a previous post.

Alicia on the first day of school.