Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Braces

And I don't mean the kind for your teeth.  We are about to enter the world of AFOs and KAFOs and I am just trying to go with the flow. Kaitlyn is now 14 months and at our last neuro appt I mentioned to them again about her weak ankles and not being able to stand for long periods of time without them giving out and or walking on the side. They gave us a "script" for physical therapy and told us we could use any PT in our area. So I talked to some friends and we called Early Intervention to see if we would qualify. Of course their response was that because of the SB she automatically qualified for free services. If our ped had listened to me months ago, we could have already gotten this show on the road and she could possibly be walking. I am soooo MAD. That's a story for another day.

So we had our initial appt, then our 1st PT appt this past Monday. She watched her play, stand up etc and determined she would need braces. She will get 1 for each leg. Her right foot, the least affected will get a AFO and her left one, will get a KAFO ( I think....) on the site she gave me, it really doesn't connect to the knee, but it has a piece that comes up the back/sides to help her from hyper-extending her knee apparently.

She did say that she didn't think she would need any other type of assist devices and she may not always need the braces but for now until her muscles strengthened she would. We are doing PT for the next 3 weeks and then in Aug, once a month. They showed us some stretches to do with her and also correct her "W" sitting as she does quite often.

Our PT will be back on Mon, to measure her for her braces. I am kinda sad but I am glad we have an answer and a plan. We go back to UAB in Oct for a clinic day (first one) and see 4 drs, plus she'll have her renal ultrasound recheck and a urodynamics as well.

Just wanted to update, since it's been awhile. She's doing amazingly well outside of the not walking and honestly I wasn't worried if she would be a late walker, but worried about her ankle/leg weakness. I am very irritated our ped wouldn't listen and he'll get an ear full from me soon.

3 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you guys are getting the help now! I hope everything goes smoothly for you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ugh, that is furstrating on the pediatrician, but at least you know and can get her what she needs!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Definitely let your PED know how you feel. That's not cool that he wouldn't listen when you talked. Not a very good PED if you ask me (I'm going soley by this post).

    I'm glad there's a plan in place and you qualified for free services.

    Sending love your way.

    ReplyDelete