This morning Anna had her new leg cast fabricated during her normal PT session. Like most therapy-related things, Anna took it in stride and didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the entire process. What a trooper! Her PT was able to get her foot positioned a little past neutral, so hopefully she will have a week’s worth of very good, consistent stretching. Next Monday her PT will remove this cast and create a new one.
At first Anna had a little trouble walking around, but she seems to be fine now. We posted a picture of her cast and boot on Flickr. The cast made it very clear that Anna has developed some very bad walking patterns. When she first started walking around in her cast she continued to put her toe down first which caused her to bend her knee. It is exactly the pattern we are trying to change! We’ve had to start cuing her to walk heel-toe. With a little luck and a lot of prompting we hope to break her of the toe-first habit so that when she no longer has the cast on her leg she will continue the preferred heel-toe pattern.
Immediately after getting her cast, Anna had horseback riding. I stole one of Neal’s old tube socks, grabbed a plastic baggy and some athletic tape, and fashioned a plastic cover for her cast. I didn’t want her to get tons of sand from the riding arena in her cast on the very first day! Anna became quite upset as I taped the baggy over her toes and the bottom of the cast. Her remark was, “No Momma, that bag is for snacks – not my toes.” This afternoon we decorated her cast with markers. She now has pink, purple and green polka dots, flowers, a train, and various Anna-creations all over her cast. It was a success! Tomorrow she returns to daycare. I hope she has a good day and all her friends think her cast is pretty cool. Neal and I were remembering how cool casts were when we were kids. I still remember a girl in my kindergarten class who broke her leg and had a full leg cast. I thought that was the greatest thing ever! Let’s hope the cool-factor still exists among this generation!
June 29th, 2009
The title says it all. We’ve been crazy-busy lately! I cannot believe that June is almost over. It seems like it flew by without my noticing. About a month ago, I loaded up the kids and we drove out to visit my Mom and Rex in Luray, Kansas. We had a great time with Granny and Paapa and enjoyed seeing their new house! It was also a proof of concept; I can take the kids on a trip to my Mom’s and survive to tell the tale! Everyone I told looked at me like I was completely insane. It wasn’t bad at all actually. Okay, so time is tempering my memory a little. If I really think about it, the trip home was not so fun: Noah crying because he was sick of being in the car seat, and Anna screaming because…well, pick a topic. Although that leg of the journey was not so fun, I’d still do it all again.
As I sit here thinking of why this month was crazy-busy I really can’t come up with any reason. The first part of the month was spent in a complete haze, as Noah was waking about every 2 hours at night and we weren’t getting a whole lot of quality sleep. We were also sick with colds. Anna started the summer session of her therapeutic horseback riding. This session she is riding Sassy. Anna’s not quite sure about this horse. When asked whether she liked Sassy or not, Anna replied, “She’s really bumpy.” I guess the other horses she’s ridden have had very smooth gaits. Sassy is a faster horse – which makes Anna a little nervous, I think. She’s also entered a phase as of late where she seems afraid of everything. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accidentally knocked her down in the last couple of weeks because she was standing so close behind me. “Clingy” is probably the appropriate description.
Much has been happening on the Noah-front! About 2 weeks ago we started him on some rice cereal in the evenings. He seemed quite interested in the grown-up food, so we thought he was ready to start some solids. For the first 3 nights he was completely unsure of this new substance, and made terrible faces each time the spoon entered his mouth. He seems to like it now and wants to help hold the bowl and/or spoon, which makes for a messy meal. I think we’re going to try some oatmeal next. Yum.
It may be the cereal or it may be coincidence, but about 2 weeks ago Noah started sleeping through the night a bit better. It could also be that I was completely exhausted and ready to try anything to get some sleep, so I let him cry it out to get him to sleep. I think he was just so exhausted after all the crying he slept through some of his “normal” feeding times. I also think I finally came to the realization that he wasn’t waking because he was hungry every time, so I decided not to pick him up every time he cried. Anyway, long story short, he’s sleeping from about 7:30 to 4:30 now. This means I not only get a solid block of sleep, I also have a few hours before I head to bed to catch up on all the things that I wasn’t able to do during the day. We’re going to start working on naps next. He’s still pretty resistant to being in his crib for naps, and will scream and cry until one of us gives up. We also plan to move him into his own room in the next week or so.
In the last few days Noah has hit quite a few milestones – it is almost like a floodgate opened. Although I had witnessed him rolling from his tummy to back a few times (accidentally), I had yet to see him roll from back to stomach. On Thursday he started rolling over in both directions intentionally! He’s also started saying “Da da da da da” on a regular basis. And in the last two days or so, he’s been sitting up without falling over! This was a real surprise because it seemed like it happened over night. We hope to post some pictures of him soon. He’s still as smiley as ever.
This last weekend my Dad came out to visit us, meet his newest grandkid, and buy some beer. I think the kids enjoyed having him here, and Anna finally stopped calling him Grandma Sam on his last day! He’s leaving in the morning with a truck bed full of beer, and hopefully good memories of time with his grandkids. I’m actually quite proud of him! He survived the chaos that is our home/life. I’m sure his fingers were itching to straighten the place, but he refrained! 
Tomorrow at her normal physical therapy appointment Anna will be fitted with a cast for her left leg. This last growth spurt has left Anna with an extremely tight Achilles tendon, which has completely screwed up her gait. She’s having difficulty achieving a heel-strike on her left side due to the tightness, and is beginning to adopt a classic CP walk. The casting is part of a process called “serial casting.” The PT will stretch Anna just past her current “natural” state and maintain that stretch by casting in that position. Anna will wear this cast for one week – all the while stretching her tight muscles. Next Monday, the PT will remove the first cast. Again, she will stretch her leg just past her new “natural” state (which should be further than the previous week) and cast her again in that position. Her PT and physiatrist believe that Anna will respond well to this therapy and should need only two rounds of casting. Here’s hoping that’s the case. This is not a waterproof cast, so she won’t be able to take a full-fledged bath for awhile. Yuck.
I’m a little sad about this casting business. I’ve been very much in favor of doing it because the stretching regimen we’ve been doing since she was itty-bitty is just not cutting it. But as the day approaches I’m less and less enthusiastic about it. I’ve been trying to prep Anna by telling her that this cast on her left leg will help reduce the tightness in her leg. I was asking her today if she understood why we were going to be getting a new cast tomorrow, she answered very seriously, “So that I can walk better.” I don’t know why that struck a chord with me, but I just felt so sad for her. It’s just not fair. Some would counter – life’s not fair. But I would argue that a 3 year old shouldn’t have to learn that lesson so soon. I can already see the tears that will flow when I tell Anna that she’s not going to be able to participate in “splash day” at her daycare on Fridays. Yes, it is only for 2 weeks, but you try telling a 3 year old that she’s *only* going to miss 2 “splash days.” I’m going to be praying for rain on those Fridays. Today we bought some colored Sharpie markers, so that we can decorate her white cast. We made sure to get the pack with pink and purple markers. I want to try to make this experience a little less traumatic for her. I honestly don’t know how Anna feels about this. I’m probably making a mountain out of a molehill.
For any trial your child has to go through I know that you can find many who are having a worse time of it. I know this is true, but it doesn’t diminish the sadness I feel for my child. I just love her so very much and wish that she didn’t have to deal with all this. ‘Nough said.
June 28th, 2009
