Read Delquan’s Story

My name is Delquan I am 25 years old and I was diagnosed with foot drop in 2021. It all started on August 27th, a day that I will never forget. It was my senior season of college football at Averett University and we had a scrimmage against Guilford College. It was a great day for football, clear skies and perfect weather but little did I know it would be the last time I take the field as a player ever. I got to play one last drive of football, but on my second drive in the game is where my career ended and my soon to be foot drop journey started.

On this drive I dislocated my left knee, all I can remember is just laying there and telling my coaches “it’s all over coach I’m done” All of my teammates came and surrounded me as I was put on the stretcher and into the ambulance and on my way to the hospital. I was so in shock that at the moment I could not feel any pain. The first thing that I did in the ambulance was call my mom and dad and tell them I had been injured in the calmest way possible. This was my worst injury out of my whole career and the scariest one just seeing my leg go backwards.

I arrived at Cone Health hospital in Greensboro NC, I was put into a room and while waiting this is where my pain began. Finally the doctor came in and told me one thing that I already knew was that my knee was dislocated. I then went back for X-rays, after they had put my leg back in place but this was just the beginning of a long journey ahead. I was placed in a leg brace and given crutches.

September 1st is when I headed to VCU health sports medicine center to speak to the doctor that would be performing my surgery. I got in and only waited around 15 minutes, at the time I did not notice I could not move my foot. I went back and got to my room where I was greeted by a nurse and answered a few questions. The doctor got in and asked me how I was feeling and I told him not too well.

The whole injury was very mentally draining for me because football was a big part of my life. The doctor examined my whole leg including my injured knee. I then went to get my MRI done for everything that was really going on from my knee dislocation. After waiting for a few hours the MRI came back and it was finally time to go over it and get all of the news that I was dreading to hear. I already knew that I had a dislocated left knee but I also had a torn ACL, torn PCL, sprained MCL and a high grade peroneal nerve injury. The high grade nerve injury is what led him to his last statement “Delquan you have complete foot drop”. I was so confused and scared and did not want to believe that my foot would not work the same ever again. At this moment he also wrote me a prescription for an AFO brace, I had no clue what that even was.

So I left and did not want to believe anything that I was told was true and it was just a bad dream. I had been away from college and my apartment with my roommates and teammates for weeks. It was a very tough time in my life, also very hard being that I still had to do school work to graduate in the next couple of months. The next couple of days on September 8th I went to the Hanger Clinic in Lynchburg, VA where I was fitted for my AFO brace.

When she brought the AFO out I instantly got even more sad with me still being young 23 at the time to be exact I thought about all the judgment I would get for having this long metal brace coming out of my shoe up the back of my leg. But I will say the AFO makes a huge difference for drop foot. It was good to see that I could walk normally again while wearing my AFO brace even though I still had to use a crutch. I returned back to college to begin physical therapy/rehab with my sports trainers who helped and cared for me alot and I am forever grateful for them. Rehab was actually going better than I had thought. I had begun to walk without crutches and using just my AFO. The only thing that i did not like was that i still could not use my foot, I was still in doubt and did not believe i actually had a foot drop and i would be able to walk normally again soon.

So then in November I went to get an EKG test done to see if my nerve injury had gotten any better and if possible I would be walking normally again. The EKG in my personal opinion was painful. It was sad to see how on my working leg and foot it would get a reaction and my foot would move, but on my injured leg the shock would do absolutely nothing. This is where I simply accepted that this is my life now. From that point on I would only wear pants when I go out because I was embarrassed of my AFO.

I only had one month left until my college graduation so I tried not to think about my foot drop and instead enjoyed myself with the time I had left with my friends. It was a blessing that on December 11th, 2021 one day after my birthday despite all i had gone through with foot drop i walked across the stage to receive my Bachelors degree.

Fast forward and this is the positives that I took away from my foot drop. Do not let it change the narrative of your life. After graduating college I got the chance to go back to the thing I loved and coach highschool football. Despite having a foot drop I could still be an example for others and help people, something I love to do. I love fashion and sneakers and now I make sure despite my AFO showing to still dress as nice as possible and wear all of my sneakers that my AFO brace fits in. I have recently got down on 1 knee with my AFO brace and proposed to my now fiance. I am living a young fulfilling life with foot drop and I can finally say I accept and embrace my foot drop. I even make sure to include my AFO in my social media posts now and I am finding ways to customize it with stickers and even paint in the future.

Lastly If you made it this far I just want to thank you for caring enough about foot drop to read my story, and for all people young and old who are just getting diagnosed with foot drop I want to tell you personally it will be okay. Just lean on the people around you. If it wasn’t for my teammates, family, coaches and fiance, I don’t know where I would be. #FOOTDROPAWARNESS

Many thanks to Delquan for sharing this story and helping us to raise awareness. If you would like to share your story to help others, please get in touch via our contact page.