How to walk better with Drop Foot – Testimonial

Video Transcript:
Hi, I’m Bob Eddie and I had hip surgery on March 19th of this year, 2014, at Dartmouth Medical Center. The surgery was great. I had the anterior approach surgery. I was the, unfortunately, the first person from 875 people who had anterior approach surgery. That’s when they come through the front instead of through the back or the side. They do that to avoid the sciatic nerve. Unfortunately, I got foot drop in spite of the fact that the nerve wasn’t touched. Probably from a torquing incident during surgery. And I spent the last two and a half months doing my best to get well.

One of the first things that I realized after the surgery was that I was rapidly turning into Quasimodo, that my body was morphing because I wasn’t able to walk correctly. And I felt like my other joints, my hip was good, but because I couldn’t lift my left foot, my gait, I had high step, and it was a mess. And I could feel my back beginning to go and my other joints going in my other leg. So, I knew that I needed an orthotic.

When I went to get fit for an orthotic, I was given only one choice, and it was a big white PVC plastic orthotic that looked like it was made for the PVC Woodman out of The Wizard of Oz. This huge thing with a 45 degree angle cut on these two half circles, one for the foot and one for the calf, and joined with these big hinges. And I don’t wear white on my feet. I don’t wear white socks when I go out and I looked at this thing and it didn’t look like it was going to fit in any pair of shoes that I had.

And when I asked the fellow who was fitting me for it how soon I was going to get it, I was told it was going to take at least five and a half to six weeks because we’d have to wait for insurance. It had to be customed manufactured and then the parts needed to be put together in another location then brought there and then they’d call me for an appointment.

Well, I already felt like I needed it not five and a half weeks later but the week before. And so I said, “This is really not going to work for me. I’m going to go to Maine and get fit for a product that I found online. It’s made by a fellow named Ian Engelman who’s with Insightful Products and it’s called a Step-Smart.”

And this person, who is a very fine man I’m sure, said, “You do not want to do that. You do not want to go to this fly-by-night organization on the computer.” And I said, “No, no, no, just hear me out.” And I had all the paperwork with me, and I explained that Ian had been to Tufts for his engineering degree, to Northwestern for his orthotics degree, and to the University of Connecticut for his R&D degree. And that he founded this company in Maine.

I said, “Come on, Maine! Who’s going to scam me from Maine? It’s in Scarborough. We’re going to get to go to the shore. I’m going to have an appointment on Thursday. I’m going to get fit for it and I’m going to walk out with it on.” And not only that, how much is this unit that you’re fitting me for? I bet this fitting session and the cast that you’re doing is costing the insurance company as much as I’m going to pay for the entire Step-Smart, which is two hundred and fifty bucks if I get the lift in the right hand side.

And he advised me not to do it. I said, “Do me this favor: just go and look at the company online. If you come back in five minutes and tell me not to go, I’ll listen to you.” To his credit, he did. He came back five minutes later, and he said, “To be honest with you, they’ve got a seven day money-back guarantee if you buy it directly from them. I would do the same thing you’re doing; I wouldn’t wait, I would get it right now.”

I got it and I can’t tell you how happy I am. This is the unit that I have. You’ll see it’s on my foot now. I’m able to put it into, in my, I’ve got these Rockport wingtips and I’m able to put it in here and uh my leg so much stronger now that I’m able to wear barn boots around my property when I’m doing brush hogging without the Step-Smart in there. Now It might not work that way for you but I have been strengthened because of wearing this device and it’s worked fabulously for me. And in fact, I’m here today, just a month and a week after I got my own unit because I’ve brought two people, two more of my friends over from Vermont who both have issues with foot drop and they’ve just, they’re purchasing them right now as I’m making this testimonial. So, I can’t say enough about this product and if you’ve got any questions about it, just call up Ian on the phone or talk to Sean at the office or if they’re not there, somebody else will speak to you. Speak to them about it. Any concerns that you have will be allayed once you get them on the phone. Thanks very much for listening.