Brace Yourself!

Yesterday we traveled back to Children's South to visit Dr Conklin. Due to issues with their scheduling system they recently migrated to, we were not on the schedule :) So we had a little wait while they worked us in.

Carter weighed 23.5 lbs this time. Thankfully we WERE on Bill's (the orthotist) schedule. Will cut Carter's casts off for the last time, and Bill promptly slipped on Carter's new AFOs to make sure they fit correctly. He was pleased, and explained to us signs to see if they are rubbing, etc. Dr Conklin made a quick appearance and cut off both buttons, and gave us our wear schedule (full time, basically, besides bath and pool time) and asked us to come back in 6 weeks to follow-up on his progress.

We had to stop by and see Meemer so she could see his new braces, and his new shoes!

He's been doing really great with the braces so far. His legs are super sensitive and all of the stitches are still working on dissolving/healing. He's losing dead skin like it's nobody's business, and he's itchy if his socks/braces are off. I've been scouring the internet to find suitable socks, as our normal socks are not tall enough. Thankfully Bill brought us two pair of AFO socks that will get us by for a little while. Carter is back to scootching all over the place... he's a little faster now that he can bend his knees again. Today we went over to mom's and he saw Greyson eating an ice cream cone, so of course he had to have one.

We received a letter in the mail today from our neurosurgeon, Dr Wellons, saying that he was taking the position as Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is a wonderful doctor, and Tennessee will be lucky to have him. Thankfully we frequent neurosurgery the least, and all of our replacement options at Children's are outstanding. I think our next visit with them is September. Next up is a trip to the downtown campus on Monday for a renal ultrasound and urology appointment. We'll also be dropping by nephrology clinic to have Carter weighed now that he's got his casts off... hopefully he'll show a decent gain this go-around. It'll be a long day for little man - so keep him in your prayers!