Walking with Braces

For the past four sessions I have been working with my orthotist and my physical therapist to get the braces to work properly. For the first time today the orthotist did not show up. I was allowed to put the braces on by myself, a difficult but doable operation. One serious issue is that once I am in the braces, the wheelchair I use is slightly too narrow to allow my legs to sit comfortably. Fitting the leg and hip components together required some delicate timing and positioning since once the legs are tight it is difficult to fit the bars into the hips. Eventually we had the whole package together.
Standing required me to straighten my leg, lock the knees leaving my legs sticking straight out, move a lock on the hips to the locked position, place my feet firmly on the ground, raise myself to a standing position and finally lean back to lock the hips. We immediately discovered that the lock on the left hip refused to move into a locked position. What followed was a frantic search for a screwdriver to smooth the aluminum slide followed by a file for the same purpose. After about 30 minutes we were ready to give up when we found that a lot of force could move the slide far enough. (The brace goes back for further work).

 At last we were ready to go. In the previous session I had started to use a walker within the confines of the parallel bars. Now the therapist was ready to allow me to leave the parallel bars and (with a spotter) wander around the room. I was able to go back and forth a number of times. By the end of the session I was sweating  but did not feel I would be unable to get around the house - especially after I had more practice. I was in some danger of toppling over backwards and it is something I will need to work on. The other thing to watch is that once my leg is unweighted, it is easy to take took long a step and get off balance.
  It is still hard to tell what walking will mean to me. What is very clear it  that I will have to make a serious effort to use this capability and to hone it. There is no question that getting around with braces is going to be harder than getting around with a wheelchair but it is an effort I want and need to make,