We have a brace! And shoes!

After five trips to the orthotist (in six days) we finally have a brace and shoes that work. Not great, but they're functional.

The biggest challenge right now is Jack's knee is slightly contractured (bent) and his foot is slightly in plantar flexion (pointed). He's basically forced to walk slightly tip-toed on a bent knee. The therapists all agreed they did not want a brace/shoe combo that would flatten his foot out, that prevents the stretching that he needs in order to correct the problem. Unfortunately, it hurts for him to walk....which is a huge disapointment for all of us. We are hoping and praying that those mucles, tendons, and ligaments stretch soon! The PTs told us they hoped by the spring everything will be resolved....I can't bear to think of months of this, so I'm hoping by Christmas! I was worried that Jack would be disapointed that he needed a lift, but by the time we got everything figured out he was so tired of being at the orthotist's office that he didn't care what we were leaving with...he just wanted to leave! He is very frustrated with the discomfort and the limping (the limp is really bad, worse than before the lengthening). He told me yesterday when he grows up he's going to invent something that makes people flexible and muscles stretch. I think after all this kid has gone through, he just may grow and create world peace. We can hope, right? :)

Here's the shoe and brace.

And here's a video of him walking. We're going to to take weekly videos so that when this is all over we can watch the progression of his gait.

So that's where we are for now. A lot of hard work in the future, but he'll do it. The hardest part is behind us, I keep telling myself. We're looking forward to this weekend. Jon has a conference in the Wisconsin Dells and the kids and I are tagging along. We're looking forward to the Kalahari water park slides and Jack claims he'll be in the hot tub most of the time. What a nut.