It's A Wrap

We had our very last class party last week, what a great year it's been.  We couldn't have asked for  better teacher for Riley and it was a really great group of very sweet kids.  I loved being a class mom, I only wish that I could have spent more time in the class.  In honor of summer, we moved the party outside.  I even cooked hot dogs in the crock pot, which came out surprisingly well.  I am super sad that the school year is over and the class must move on, the moms volunteering today all tried to convince Riley's teacher to move up to 1st grade (she used to teach 1st) and to keep the kids together, while she agreed it would be a great class to move together, it's not going to happen.  So sad to move on from such a great teacher.  Fingers crossed that Jacob gets her!

Open House

Riley's class had Open House a few weeks ago and Riley was SO excited to show us around and show off her work.  Her teacher also had a "Guess How Many Starbursts in the Jar" and guess who won...little dude!  He sure does love his Starbursts!

Hoops

We signed both kids up for basketball through the YMCA this late spring.  Jacob's old coach originally approached Marc about playing on his new team since he left the program that we had Jacob in so we signed him up.  Jacob has a hard time making connections with people and he loved Coach Ernie so we decided to follow him to this new program.  Jacob was in WAY over his head as he was on a team of mostly 5 and 6 year olds so being 3 was rough developmentally.  But he came around.  After we signed Jacob up, they needed more girl players for Riley's age group and she's been asking to play so we got her involved, it overlapped with softball a bit which made for long days (especially on the rare Saturday that she had PT).  Riley was the youngest on her team also and the shortest by at least a head but she was super into it. 

And In Jacob's News

Lots going on with my little man too...

let's see, he moved into the pre-school room.  He thinks he's hot stuff now.  Seriously, he walks around with an air of confidence not typically found in Jacob and when we ask him how he knows something he says "I bigged now, I in pwe-school."  I hope his little toddler accent never goes away, ok, I hope it does eventually because that'd be awkward in Middle and High School but I love his little toddler voice.

 

 

We also got Jacob to give up his much beloved "ba" (pacifier).  It was a rough first week but after 5 or 6 days he stopped asking for it, he's still not sleeping great but it is getting better.  As a reward, he got a trip to Build A Bear (two pacifiers are in there) and a big boy bed which he's been wanting for a long time!

 



And, finally, Jacob got asked to join his old basketball coach's new program at the YMCA.  So we drove up to Danville for 2 months for him to play, he was by far the youngest on the team but his coach is moving back to the Dublin program and told us to sign him up for the 4-5 year old class.  Jacob love basketball!

Finally A Break

We finally got a break from the clubfoot saga, I think we all needed some good news as I know I was getting pretty beat down and discouraged by our recent set backs.  We went to Dr Hoffinger two weeks ago (don't ask me about time flying by, I seriously don't know where it goes...oh yeah, to the 3 and 6 year old!).  I was seriously expecting the worst, I was well prepared to have to talk Riley down off of a ledge when he said she needed a new night brace or AFO.  I was convinced we were headed down that path, because while we have been fairly diligent about her PT (ok, we skip some nights, it's a lot), he feet are still really tight.  We were there 2 months ago and Bev, Allison (his nurse practitioner), and Dr H both made comments about how tall Riley looked.  I made a comment that perhaps that's why were having these issues and Dr H nodded enthusiastically.  She's really tight, like really tight but...she's also perfectly aligned when she walks and runs so Dr H doesn't want to intervene right now.  He thinks intervening right now isn't necessary and he's going to watch it closely (like every 2 months).  In addition to continuing our PT stretches (insert groan here), he prescribed lots and lots of activity, I think we pretty much have that covered here!  Both kids are in a perpetual motion!  Soooo, we finally got a break on this rollercoaster ride, a much needed break...especially for a certain little 6 year old!

It was sports day at school so she wore her softball uniform

We celebrated with lunch in Walnut Creek

Eat up buttercup!

I Knew the Day Would Come Eventually

Riley has been a rock star with her Physical Therapy, she has won over the entire staff at the Sports Medicine Facility (no shocker there) and has made friends with the various high school girl athletes that are there for PT for injuries from sports.  In a way it's sort of nice for her to see these athletic girls and she kind of looks up to them.  BUT PT is a chore, it's literally a 1/2 hour of stretches and exercises every night, on top of homework, sports, Jacob's breathing, cooking dinner, making lunches for the next day, etc.  It's rough, but the payout versus the alternative treatments is exponentially better so we muster on.  The other night I was multi-tasking between Jacob's breathing and Riley's PT exercises.  I had her doing her stair stretches while I got Jacob set up with his asthma treatment and Riley turns to me and says "I wish I didn't have clubfeet."  I didn't know what to say other than "I know bubba, me too."  Then she followed it up with "Why am I the only one with clubfeet?  You, daddy and Jacob don't have it, why do I?"  I couldn't give her a reason, we DON'T know why she has clubfeet.  I finally told her to always remember that we are never given more than we can handle and that everything happens for a reason, maybe her reason is to help fix kids with clubfeet or prove that you can be a rock star softball player even with clubfeet.  That seemed to be enough for her.  But it's not for me, why does she have this?  Why won't it go away?  I've always accepted her feet as just a card we were dealt and it's a part of our life, but we're supposed to be done, we're supposed to be past it and were not and I am growing weary of it, especially now that it's affecting my baby girl. 

Where to Begin?

I don't even know where to begin, just when I was beginning to get comfortable and think that we actually had clubfoot behind us, we get hit with another bump in the road.  It started in late February/ early March but I tried to ignore it.  I started to notice Riley's left foot turning in when she ran or took steps down the stairs.  I tried to ignore it since last year's surgery was supposed to be it, no more issues.  A couple of weeks ago, Marc and I were standing at the kitchen table and Riley was walking down the stairs.  Her left foot was drastically turning in and her heel wasn't touching the ground, my heart sank and I literally got nauseous, it was the point where I knew I couldn't ignore it anymore.  I turned to Marc and told him I was concerned about her foot again, that I've noticed it turning in and her heel not completely hitting the ground.  He replied that he's noticed it too, especially at our 5K on St Patrick's Day and when was she supposed to go to Dr Hoffinger.  Her appointment was still 2 months out so I decided to call and see when they could get us in.  Turns out they had availability the Friday before Easter. 

Yet again, I was right about her foot.  Her tendons were tightening up, this time it was her heel cord and it's apparently not a common issue at this point in her treatment or after the tendon transfer (which the Achilles' was the one tendon that he didn't touch because we lengthened that when she was 3 1/2 months old!).  Sigh.  Lucky us!  Our options: 1) Increase stretches, 2) Re-cast (not an option since she's in the middle of softball season) 3) Night-time brace that stretches 4) Another tenotomy (surgery she had at 3 1/2 months) followed by casting and brace.  Grrrr!

We chose option 1, seemed the least interruptive to her day to day activities.  We go back the end of May for a re-check and if her feet aren't looser than we figure out next steps, most likely a night-time brace.   Riley's teacher offered to have her stretch before recess so Riley is doing stretches before she plays, there's a group of girls doing them with her and then they walk a lap before taking off to play.  Plus we do stretches before bed.

In the meantime, on our way out Dr Hoffinger mentioned that if we wanted to do some physical therapy to learn more stretches that he'd write us a prescription for it.  Hallelujah!  I've been asking for PT since her first relapse so I jumped on it.  They recommended the Center for Children's Sports Medicine at CHO Oakland on their Walnut Creek Campus.  So I'm driving up to Walnut Creek twice a week for PT.  I've got to say it is worth it, Riley loves her PT, she's very sweet to Riley PLUS it's mostly high school athletes there and they all love Riley because she's so little and gets right in there doing her exercises with them, no fear with that girl.  Her evaluation showed tight hamstrings and calves and also weak hips so we're focusing on strengthening her hips as well as stretching out her calves.  She gets massages to manually loosen her legs (can I get PT!?!) and then they do a bunch of stretches.  At this point I will do anything to prevent another surgery.

I also ordered a dorsi-ramp from Amazon to get a better stretch out of her.  Seriously, I'm hell bent on avoiding surgery. 

As for me, I am SO over clubfeet, we are supposed to be done with it by now.  Between her age and her surgery we are supposed to be past all of this and living a normal life.  I'm beginning to think that my expectations of her feet are too high, that they are never going to be perfect, and the sooner that I  accept this and move on, the better off that we will be.  And as horrible as this sounds, I am off from work, finally getting a chance to catch up on life and instead of doing this, I am shuttling to a from PT and Speech Therapy (for Jacob).  I know, I feel like a horrible mom for even thinking or saying it because I know Riley deserves all of the chances at having corrected feet that she can get but seriously, when are we going to get a break from all of this!  I want to move on from clubfeet but I'm beginning to think that may not be in our cards at this point.  Sigh.  We'll keep tryng and keep moving forward to give her the best possible future.

First PT session

Strengthening those hips

When did she grow up?  Off to PT one her own while I sit in the waiting room

Post PT treat!

Position still looks good

Before PT