Foot Drop: Creating Conversations About This Paralyzing Condition Can Help Someone You Know

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Feb 24, 2014, 04:00 ET

GREENSBORO, N.C., Feb. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- It's hard to put yourself in the position of others, but, imagine: You've woken up from what promised to be a simple surgery, except you can't move your foot. Your doctor is telling you there was a complication and your foot is paralyzed. Your foot won't have to be amputated; however, you may never walk again without the aid of a walker or a brace.

Or maybe you've been dreading the time when you'd begin losing the control of your lower leg because you've watched your mother suffer from a hereditary disease that causes this type of paralysis. And while you understand you can't move your foot, you're still not sure what to call it or how you might regain your mobility.

Foot Drop, the paralysis of the foot and ankle, could affect you or someone you know because it can go undiagnosed. With adequate education, finding an effective treatment to manage foot drop becomes much easier. The Mayo Clinic defines foot drop as difficulty lifting the front part of the foot. It's not a disease, but, a symptom of an underlying neurological, muscular or anatomical condition. It can affect one or both feet and result from stroke, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease, spinal cord injury, and, a variety of other causes. Patients who've been diagnosed describe a feeling of pain, weakness, numbness or difficulty moving their lower extremities.

Faces of foot drop: http://bit.do/TeamUP

National marathoner, Beth Deloria, experienced a spinal trauma leaving her with foot drop. Not willing to surrender her favorite activity, Beth spent hours researching a treatment that would make running possible again. Now, Beth is back on her feet and completed a two-year tour of 50 races that spawned a national movement.

Treatments for foot drop depend on the circumstance that caused it and the physical condition of the patient. Some patients respond to nerve stimulation or physical therapy. Beth found her solution in a brace, the most common treatment, made by Allard USA. The brace fits inside the shoe and stabilizes the foot and ankle by keeping the joint at a 90° angle as a patient moves.

Beth's courage is proof that when more conversations are had with our communities and doctors, more people can find their answer to mobility.

Learn more at www.AllardUSA.com.

Contact:

Ashley Watkins
For Allard USA
336.217.4270
[email protected]

SOURCE Allard USA