Shriners update

enjoying a movie on the ride down!!

do proud of her makeup!!
she said "mama I look like you!!"

Therapy dog - so sweet, Lil Abner, aka devil eyes :)

it is a tough life, but someone has to do it!!

 our followup appt went much longer than we thought it would.
we saw dr vB, went to xray, saw dr vB, went to orthotics, then to pt, then to the car

getting molded for a KAFO (knee-ankle-foot-orthotic)

 Dr vB is just so great! I had a whole list of concerns, he listened and we went over each one. He totally agreed with all my concerns. He talked with Gerri about why she needs to stretch every day, and that she would need to do it everyday for her whole life. He told her that mom's can be tough, but we know best :)
So we get to stop using the Dynasplint at night, it just isn't working for her knee. that is why he had her fitted for a KAFO, it will hold her whole left leg in place and have rachets for the knee to make it bend. He said she will need to have surgery to remove the hardware in her hip, it can't happen till after a year, then he will do muscle releases in her hip and her knee, release scar tissue in her hip and knee and do another tenotomy on her left ankle. He thinks that her lack of range of motion in her hip and knee are a combination of her surgery last year, build up of scar tissue and her 2 big growth spurts this year. she has outgrown the AFO's we just got 4 month ago, but at this point we will wait to remold till after the surgery. He said the tight muscles have gotten much tighter because of the growth spurt and that is why we are not seeing any improvement of her knee and hip even with PT several times per week and stretching every day. I asked if we have been wasting our time on PT for the last 3 months and he said no, it has kept her from backsliding. so now it is making much more sense! so we are waiting on the call that will tell us when surgery is. I asked if it was possible to do it during school break and just got a laugh :) Gerri only heard surgery and then blocked everything else out! And the best of all is that once we have a surgery date we will be spending the 4-6 weeks prior doing weekly casting on her left foot to get it back where it was :( so not happy mama or daughter :(

exhausted by the whole thing

we finally left Philly at 11:30 but the traffic was SO bad our usual 6 hour trip turned into 9 hours!! we did finally stop to eat at Chilis just to get out of the car.
top it off I have a cold and there is nothing worse than a cold in the summer!
One more week before school starts and the kids are so excited!! :)