The AFO appointment was, er, interesting. Maria hadn’t napped so was a little cranky and to make the molds she has to hold still, but the tighter we hold her the more she struggles and the tighter we have to hold her. It was quite challenging. Plus the bandages she wraps around Maria’s foot to make the mold have fiberglass in them so we have to be careful she doesn’t touch them and get those tiny fiberglass splinters.
The new AFOs will be HUGE compared to the old ones just because Maria’s legs are so much longer. The orthotist told Cathy she can get regular shoes rather than expensive special ones but you have to shop around to find places that sell the super-wide sizes. She mentioned New Balance as a brand her clients have used so Cathy’s going to check them out.
Maria was more cranky when we got home and Cathy figured she wanted to hear Sue’s voice. Sue had called earlier to tell us the surgery went fine, they found the problem and she was home by about 1 pm. She can’t life Maria for the rest of November but we hope she should be fine after that. Anyhow, so she called Sue and put her on speaker and Maria lit up when Sue started talking. She was exploring the phone trying to figure out where Sue was. Then when Sue said “bye bye” Maria pushed one of the phone buttons and it beeped. We all laughed, figuring it was coincidence, then Sue said “bye bye and Maria pushed the button again. She did it four times in a row. It was great!
The other day when Maria was pooping I made the “toilet” sign to her and she made a pretty good approximation of the sign herself which, again, I would have dismissed as coincidence. But then she put her fist up to mine, mirroring what I was doing. Wow! Later when I tried to show Cathy, I made the toilet sign to Maria and she pushed my hand away with a disgusted look as if to say, “I’m not pooping, you dumb grownup.” We haven’t been able to get her to do it again but she is showing glimmers of communication so we are encouraged. I’m particularly interested in how she’s going to do when we get the augcomm device.
She has her monthly feeding therapy later today. We are considering dumping her since the speech therapist comes every week and does some feeding stuff. If nothing else, it’s a long freaking drive and it takes 2.5-3 hours out of Maria’s day for one appointment.
Tomorrow she starts hippotherapy again which is also very exciting. She’s gotten pretty good in the walker. She still goes backward rather than forward, which is normal, but it’s getting more purposeful. She likes getting up near the counter or a table then reaching up to explore what’s on top – just like a real kid! Once we add the hippotherapy and the new AFOs to the mix, I think she’s really going to make progress.