Day 1093 - May 27, 2011

I have been working on a project all night and just looked at the time. Wow - is it late! I think I am just going to quickly post a video here of Kevin in the Gait Lab at the VA Hospital today. This lab makes a digital computerized model of Kevin's body and how it walks. The skeleton you see in this video is actually truly Kevin's body and how his bones are moving with each step.

In order to create this video, they put him in skimpy shorts and attach these little electronic thingies that pinpoint his motion. There are also video cameras completely surrounding the area that you walk on (an area that has pressure points in the floor as well). It was really cool to watch today and it will be a huge benefit to him.

Due to this process, they are ordering him a Bioness brace for his leg. The bioness sends electric stimulation to the nerves and muscles in his leg and foot and while he had it on during the one walk he was actually able to walk almost normally! His foot didn't drop and his knee didn't hyper-extend. It was amazing!

And the best part? This actually retrains the brain to remember how to walk better. We are also looking into it for his arm as well! There have been cases where someone couldn't use a body part for 20 years or so and got some movement back after using the Bioness for a while. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

So anyway, here is a photo of Kevin in the lab and then it's followed by the video:






Totally cool, huh?