Third Casting

In and out very quickly today.

Grace's measurements show continued improvement. Her feet are both corrected to the range Mary wants so they are no longer casting her for dorsiflexion problems while casting for range. Her measurements continue to get better. (Note: I accidentally corrupted the measurements excel file so will put it up later.)

We are to continue with the same three exercises we were told to do in our second casting session. Mary is very happy with her progress. Grace's arm is down when walking except when tired. I mentioned Gracie is losing her balance every so often while doing the practice walking. In fact, she did it while we were there. Mary says this is a sign that her center of gravity is changing. Hooray!

So all around good news today.

AHHHHHH.... 15 minutes between casts...

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Early Return To Children's

Grace complained of her right (unaffected) foot hurting her last nite. I wasnt sure if it was related to her not wanting to do exercises so I promised to revisit it in the morning. This morning it was hurting her when she walked. I called Mary who told us to come in today and get the cast cut off and put on again. Since she couldnt reach anyone to help her, she told us to just come in whenever and she would take it from there. If she couldnt find someone to help we might end up having both casts off.

We left when it was time to drop off Allegra at school. Poor Grace was sad because she was going to miss a morning field trip to Peck Farm to start learning about insects. I asked her if she knew of anything that might make her feel better. She thought a trip to ToysRUs to pick up the Pegasus Grooming/Styling Head would help - she would pay what she had saved so far and I would pay the rest. Bribery I know. But, I agreed and she perked up immediately.

It took two hours to get there even though it was late rush hour. Took an hour and a half to get home. Guess its being at 2500 North really does make a difference to the travel time as compared to going to downtown Chicago. And we couldnt find parking when we got there. Luckily I caught someone coming out and glommed onto her space.

Issac was there immediately to cut off the cast. He is so very nice to Grace. He found that one of the pads had a wrinkle in it - Grace had caught it right in time to keep from getting an open sore there. Mary came up from clinic with Dr Sarwac and had Brigid help her cast Gracie. We were out of there by 12:30 or so.

Second Casting

It rained this morning so it took us 2 hours and ten minutes to make it from the driveway to the parking lot. Phew!

The week went by relatively fast. Gracie settled on three 20-minute sessions per day. Those are LONG 20 minutes! But we are well seasoned and slog our way through it.

Comments for today on the Gait Sheet:

Heel less high - knee flexed until conscious of gait then hyperextended

At first the measurements were disappointing. The first measure of the left side was showing no change. Then Mary had her walk to check her gait (See Gait Comments above.) and remeasured her. Measurements at that point showed a change of 5 degrees. Changes on both feet were found. Mary felt the first measurements on her left side were less than they could be because she believes Gracie was locking her leg when she felt her reaching her previous R1.

So G was recasted after having a brief lovely ten minutes without the casts. I washed her feet and legs in the sink and she was in heaven. Then Issac set us up again, G went with red and blue, and she was redone.

Our exercises are to double the walking (she is doing exceedingly well with that), continue with the up and back exercises and add one where she leans out to the left side with her hip then brings it back to standing straight up.

Gracie decorated her cast boot with puffy paint and "jewels":

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60-Minute Daily Exercises

We are doing 60 minutes of exercises per day as prescribed. Originally we began with six 10-minute slots but Gracie wanted to do 20 minute slots instead. So did 20 minutes this morning. I have to keep refocussing her on watching her feet until they land. And she wants to kabitz with me. I have to also be careful that when she does the stomach/back exercises that she doesnt sway as opposed to push them out which is waht she is supposed to do.

She is having an easier time of walking with the casts and I've seen her attempt to do some running. My predicition is by the end of the week she'll have it all under control.

Casting Begins Today

It took us just five minutes shy of 2 hours to get there tho we left before 6 a.m.  Our appt was for 8 a.m. Unlike RIC (which has a great cafeteria) and LaRabida (which has a horrible cafeteria), this location does not have a regular cafeteria - it has vending machines and some cold stuff tho they are not open as early as we needed them. Instead, Gracie ate my lunch for her breakfast.

The appt was as expected. Mary went over the program and had me initial each item as she discussed it with me. Then she took measurements of Grace to baseline her. They have a great team with Brigid, Mary and Issac doing casting together. They also video taped Grace walking in the hallways and took some photos of her foot. They wrap up pads in the cast to even out the walk. Grace gained around 2" from the padding on the left foot and pads stuck into the right boot.

After she was done (she had a choice of something like 10 colors) Mary showed Grace how to do her practice walking for this week and then had me do it with Grace. 

The instructions for the walk were to make small but equal steps, keep her foot far enough to see whole foot before it touches the floor, make sure to watch each step and to start with ten steps and work our way up. In addition, she has to do an exercise with her feet together, bring her stomach forward then back (bowing helps to facilitate this.)  Then we were done.

Total appt time was 4.5 hours - which was 1.5 hours longer than I was told to expect.

They use cast boots instead of cast shoes and only bring her to her R1 as opposed to stretching her as much as they think they can get away with.  The boots are so ugly Grace and I just had to laugh. We bought paints and iron ons (didnt work very well) and jewels and she decorated them. Believe it or not, they look much better.

She is having trouble getting used to walking in these casts. Maybe because there are two - maybe because they are quite different from what she is used to. She cried and made a big deal about going to school but cheered up after I hand fed her pancakes. She was okay once we got there tho I could see all the kids staring at her as they noticed it. Teachers were great and she glowed with the attention. At the end of the day she reported it was a good one.

So far we've done exercises twice. Once in the morning and once when she got home. I had to bribe her with $1 a day if she doesnt complain (she already lost the dollar for today) and chocolate covered raisins as a bribe whenever she finishes walking up and back once. 1 raisin per up and back. Small price but she is happy with it. That always worked with her. We are goign to do our thrid now and then another one when my other two are cleaning the kitchen after dinner. That will leave two more. 10 minutes at a shot is a piece of cake.

As long as I dont run out of raisins.

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Casting Begins Tomorrow

We saw the OT (Audrey) on Friday. She took some videos of Grace walking to serve as a baseline. She told me Mary Weck did a presentation on the program and the results shown were astounding. Audrey was not much of a believer in this beforehand so that is good. Grace has to start wearing her hand night brace again and doing some inhand manipulations.
Casting starts tomorrow at 8 a.m. Have to be out the door by 6 a.m. to make sure we get there on time. I'm not sure what the traffic looks like at that time. Two hours when we used to leave at 7 am to get to RIC by 9 was just about right.