Yay for braces!!! We have finally taken a bath without waterproof bags and awkward feet propping and no more stinky toes!!! And the greatest of news is that her range of motion is normal!!! Now the task of keeping it that way...
Wow, did I ever think in my life that I would cheer for my daughter to receive braces. I am so happy to be done with those big, bulky casts. And as you can tell from the picture, her braces came in pretty colors. The dark blue space braces on the left are her to sleep in at night. They fully cover her feet bottoms so that her leg is fully flexed through the night, almost like a boot. She is required to wear this set until she grows out of them. The pretty pink heart braces on the right are for the day. The bottoms only go to the middle of her feet to allow for maneuverability with sneakers. Right now they are a solid brace but when she gets a better range of motion, they will hinge the braces at the ankle to give her even more movement. She will wear these braces everyday for a minimum of 2 months. After we had the braces fitted, we went to Dick's Sporting Goods for some shoe shopping because we had to buy a pair of sneakers that were big enough to fit the braces in. She got a cool pair of Saucony in a size 6!!!! Her physical therapist told us that their sneaker preference for kids are New Balance and Saucony. They tend to be deeper and give kids more ankle support, whereas other shoes like Nike or Reebok tend to be more shallow. Since I have started running, Saucony has been my sneaker of choice, so I tend to be a little biased. She is doing really well and is quite happy to air out her legs. I can't brag enough about how wonderful she was during the 4 weeks of casting. Never once did she complain or need to scratch an unreachable place. She got up every morning and slowly walked those stairs to her second grade class, never once asking to stay home. She even walked the two blocks with her classmates to mass on Fridays even though she could have gotten a ride with Sister Joanne. I can't tell you how much I missed those legs. All weekend I just kept massaging her calves like her body was missing some parts and they reappeared.
Caution...I am going to vent here, so you can skip if you rather not read the bitching...
I can not tell you the stares that we have received in the past month. I have lived with stares from people every since she was suppose to be talking. I can't believe how my sweet, huge-hearted daughter is treated by some people. I know that she loves to talk and most of the time no one can understand her but how is it that people can be so blatantly rude. I have had people stop and stare, I mean blatantly stare, at her trying to walk with two huge, bright-colored casts. Those people should have been giving her a standing fucking ovation. Can you imagine having concrete blocks on your feet and trying to walk and sleep in them?? I just don't understand how it is that in the year 2011, we show such little compassion for those that are different that us. And what does that mean anyways, being different or special? I think I am different from others as they are different from me. My heart is so sad that my daughter will always be treated like someone "special". I can't wait until Claire climbs that supposedly unreachable mountain and gives all those assholes the middle finger.
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