New foot

When I went to the Prosthetics Clinic this week I was offered a new foot, as I'd expressed an interest in getting back into hill-walking, and my current standard one is not up to the job.

It's a brand new design, and is supposed to be the nearest thing to a real foot you can get so far, in terms of natural feel. It's called the Epirus foot from the Endolite institute. You can google the two terms, or follow this link for more information: http://www.endolite.co.uk/products/feet/epirus/epirus.html). Check out the image at the bottom of the page: there are a number of clickable points on it that run animations showing the features, etc.

I'm very excited at the prospect. Walking with a standard prosthetic lower leg like mine requires 20% more energy than when walking with two good legs. This is because you don't get the push that you'd normally have from using your calf muscles and your toes, and this foot claims to address this issue. There is a spring blade in the heel of the foot that compresses when you step firmly forward onto it, and as the weight is transferred forward when you continue your stride, the energy is released into the heel assembly to give you a natural forward impetus. The design also allows the ankle to roll naturally with rough terrain, and makes walking up and down hills easier than with a relatively stiff foot such as I have at the moment.

The other thing is that instead of just a flat plate, there are two carbon blades in the main part of the foot, to mimic the natural difference in stiffness you get across your foot. Your big toe provides a lot of strength and stiffness, taking your weight, while the rest of the foot provides balance and distributes that weight. It is the relationship between these that determines how much your ankle rolls when you're walking or running on a level surface (google pronation and supination - Wikipedia is a waste of time). This, again, is designed to make walking more natural.

My fitting appointment for this is in a couple of weeks, so I'll let you know how I get on.