New Orthotics

October 10, 2011

New Orthotics

Oliver had another successful day with the blue chewy on Friday. He went the entire school day without a pacifer. I am incredibly proud of him and his teachers. Hopefully, we will be able to incorporate the chewy at home this week.

I took Waverly & Oliver to Children's on Friday to meet with their physical medicine doctor. Thankfully, she didn't see any changes in Oliver. This is wonderful news. All of his physical therapy, stretching and shoe inserts are working. Waverly is a different story. Her heel cords are incredibly tight, even with daily stretching and PT. Her walking has deteriorated - she is walking on her tip toes, with her feet turned in. The doctor recommended we use orthotics during that night that can stretch that heel cord as she sleeps. She didn't think AFOs would be helpful and would only serve to impede her walking. I hope the new orthotics will help keep her on her feet for as long as possible.

Comments

Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.