For the patient
As our son’s ALS worsened, he lost all muscle strength everywhere. He could not sit up straight, which gave him a terrible slouch (much worse than the faked slouch in the lefthand photo below). His back was horribly arched forward. He could not sit up in his power chair. He could not lean back and put his head against the powerchair’s headrest. There was more than 12” between the back of our son’s head and the head rest. To overcome his poor posture, he purchased the back brace in the picture below because the web ad promised great posture. The wearer in the photo is definitely a “fake” patient. Even if that guy had a real slouch, he is just forcing himself to stand up straight with the brace on, because the brace will not correct a slouch. I know this brace didn’t work, because I wore the brace myself and I could still slouch very easily.
https://thenaturalposture.com/products/magnetic-corset-back-posture-corrector-for-men-and-women
It was too difficult to get the brace on my son, so I tried it on. I have somewhat of a slouch, but not as bad as the guy faking it. I was able to slouch more than I usually did very easily; the brace did NOT hold me up at all, nor did it give me any kind of support whatsoever. Even worse: after wearing it for a short while, I began losing circulation to both arms because the armpit straps were very tight. We gave up on putting a brace on our son. We returned it.
For the caregiver
It is extremely important that the caregiver take precautions to avoid back injuries while lifting or transferring a patient. I injured my back a number of times while trying to lift or position my son and I actually fell down in pain once while trying to move him. I bought the back brace in the photo below for my own benefit. It wrapped around my abdomen; there were no shoulder straps. The brace had an unnecessarily hard, stiff, non-removable “Sparthos” rubber sign on it. Whenever my son called for help, I had to put my brace on in a hurry. I sometimes had trouble figuring out which end was up so I wrote the word “TOP” on the inside of it with a paint pen containing yellow enamel paint. I could then just grab it, see the word “TOP”, and put it on correctly. The brace was comfortable for me and it did help stiffen my back, but just a little. Its presence always reminded me to be careful. I got to wearing it all day so I didn’t have to waste even a few seconds putting it on when my son needed help, but my son said my back muscles would weaken over time because the brace was doing the work of my own muscles. So I only wore it when my son needed help. It was hot to wear because it didn’t breathe. The massive Velcro area quickly wore out from the strain on it during use, and eventually wouldn’t stay closed well, so I had to replace the brace.
