Marcia's Story

Marcia has two medical corsets for daily wear. Her day brace is rigid and protective, holding her spine in place and helping her to function with less pain. The night brace is softer and more flexible, designed to support her while resting in bed and sleeping but not restrict her mobility when she transitions from lying down to sitting and standing.

Marcia has overlapping chronic conditions that have caused her a lot of pain and problems. Custom medical corsetry has been the answer to improving her quality of life. She now has longer periods of time without pain, and has been able to gain strength in a way that wasn't possible before. 

Most physiotherapists do not work with braces, to avoid the possibility of muscle atrophy and over-reliance on the brace. However, when it comes to conditions like hypermobility, patients find success with medical corsetry. 

"if you can't get that pain managed, it's only going to get worse, and you will start doing weird [things to compensate], as I do.. I like to banana. [...] the [compensation] is causing other muscles to be weak, but when you can straighten up, you can strengthen in a balanced way."

"Its always a trial and error, it's the nature of the beast. How you wear it is super important, and that can't be known until it's on your body. For me, the twist in my spine is about hypermobility, and so that creates a whole different kettle of fish for them to deal with, and there's a lot of other parts of my body that are playing into it. Its really important that you don't just go home and say 'oh it doesn't work'... you have to tell [them]. There's a limit to what they can know until you wear it. Make sure you wear it every place you are going to be wearing it during the tweaking process. [...] it's understanding the trial and error.

For me I had to learn to communicate. What am I feeling? Neither the Lace Embrace team or my medical provider can be IN my body... I have to articulate how that pain is sitting. [...] when you start this process, you may not know until you fix one area and another area highlights itself. That communication between the Lace Embrace team, your medical provider, and you taking notes when you wear it."