Friday, May 21, 2010

Serial Casting

We are still waiting for "little sister" to arrive. Could be any day now!

While we wait, Addy is going through serial casting. This is a series of casts that will be put on her feet to try and stretch her ankles out. Each week a new cast is put on and the ankle is given just a bit more of a stretch than when previously placed in the cast. The end result is hopefully looser ankles with more range of motion. The doctor is thinking that 3 weeks worth might be good, which I am fortunate for as many children need about 6 weeks of casting. We decided to start now to get it over with before the weather gets very warm. The downfall is the weight. I could barely lift Addy before having the casts put on and now she's even heavier. She's sweating like crazy with them on and we can't give her normal baths so we have to do the sponge bath at the kitchen sink. With little walking boots put over them, she is still able to get around using her walker, just a little bit slower than before. We have tried to talk very positively about them and she was excited to go to school/daycare and show them to her friends. She's been a trooper so far.

Today we also had Addy's IEP to begin attending a POHI preschool program in the fall. This will be a program for students with physical and health impairments. Yes, exactly the type of program I have worked in for 8 years. It still seems surreal to me. It was very strange sitting on the "other" side of the table. I am fortunate that we have such a wonderful program in our county right around the corner from our house. Our goal is to have Addy attend the preschool portion for 2 years and then transfer back to her home school. That's our goal, but we know that we have to take it a year at a time and see how she progresses.


3 comments:

MoonDog said...

oh those squishy arms and legs! and OH! those cheeks!she is just so doggone cute! Ben is serial casting too. down to one foot and one shoe/afo. only a few more days and its back to two shoes and letting him get wet again! I cant even count the times his casts have gotten wet. try and keep two rambunctious little boys from water when its 80 degrees out!

Melanie said...

She is so darn cute!! Daniel was so much more heavier with those casts on too! He loved getting them most of the time so that we could color on the casts after wards. The therapists did the casting and then put the colored kineso tape on it after to have different colors.But boy o boy did his feet smell each week when we took them off--and it wasn't even warm out! Can't wait to hear when the baby comes! Keep us posted!

If you need anything you know how to get hold of me! :)

Melanie said...

so is Addy a big sister yet?!