Equipment

My rehab is going very well, so we are thinking and talking about my return to snow! Still planned for the end of this month.

Skiing is an equipment sport but when you are skiing the way I am it’s even more. Besides the regular equipment I need a good orthosis and that’s probably the most complicated item to obtain. I’m probably the only one skiing (competitively) with an orthosis like this so it had to be invented for me. Luckily there is an orthopedic technician, Frank Jol, who can invent stuff like this.

I started skiing with an orthosis without knee function, since I have no knee function it was ok and worked. Frank invented a new orthosis which will simulate knee function. So that’s great! The only downside is that Frank is this good that everybody who needs prosthetics or orthosis for sports wants one from Frank Jol. So you have to wait a while…. I had my first talk and measurements taken in May 2010! Off course it took a while longer because I broke my leg and we couldn’t do fittings with the cast. I finally got my walking orthosis in the end of December and it was totally worth the wait! I was supposed to get my skiing orthosis in the end of January but unfortunately that isn’t going to happen anymore,  I should have had a fitting last week but he wasn’t ready. And now Frank is going to the world championships with the para-athletics team and he won’t be back till February. I was really disappointed, worked so hard to be ready to ski but without a proper orthosis I can’t. But like with most problems there is a solution for this one. They are going to mend the joint of my old orthosis so I can ski with a fixed knee with that one. And when Frank gets back he will finish my ski-orthosis asap.

Except for training and making arrangements for the orthosis I have been pretty busy studying.