This gentleman is a 85 year old who presented to his doctors after his wife had noticed a loud foot slapping sound during his walking. The first thing that was noticed was the different sound of his walk when compared to the other leg. The left foot slapped hard against the ground when he walked because the muscles that hold the foot up were very weak and therefore as soon as his heel hit the ground, the ball of the foot would slap against the ground instead of slowly roll to the ground when the muscles are normal. Also he reported starting to notice that there was numbness and tingling to the top of the foot. The bottom of the foot was normal.
He has a work up to evaluate his back and the peripheral nerves. The spine was normal, but his outside physicians ordered an EMG that demonstrated a pinched common peroneal nerve at the outside of the knee at the typical site where the nerve can become entrapped.
Because of the severity of the weakness in the muscles that hold the foot up and move the ankle upward, it took about 5 months to see the excellent improvement that he currently has. Prior to this he had minimal to no movement.
We are very excited to see his gait very close to normal. He was able to walk over 14,000 steps a day on a recent trip out of the country on vacation!
New Update!
Not long after speaking with us about being able to walk 14,000 steps, we got an update on this patient's recent record: 22,000 steps!