Saturday, February 24, 2007

A New One

Clare is getting a new doctor. During her OT session this week, her therapist noticed that Clare swings out her right hip frequently as she is walking. She mentioned it to Clare's PT, Kelly, who also picked up on it during Clare's PT session a couple days later. Kelly was unsure whether Clare's hip was swinging out on its own or Clare was doing it herself for more stability. Kelly suggested it would be a good idea to have Clare seen by a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. Not just for the hip but to get a general baseline of how Clare's bones and joints look through clinical evaluation and x-rays, especially due to Clare's extremely low muscle tone and flexible joints. Kelly recommended a doctor who works out of Children's Hospital Boston, so we have an initial consult scheduled with him for the end of April.

Clare's walking is coming along. As I've said many, many times before, her progress is just so slow. But at least it's progress! She does great in her new shoes. They provide more ankle support, and we've noticed that she does not walk as pigeon-toed in her shoes. Kelly discovered the power of lollipops, and her and Clare worked on walking the entire session with lollipop incentives. Clare did really great - she practiced cruising along the couch and taking a couple steps by herself towards the couch (and falling into the cushions) until Kelly wanted her to work on crawling. Clare deemed the session over by throwing a huge temper tantrum. That's my girl!

4 comments:

Nancy said...

Good luck with the new doc. It's nice to have fresh eyes and ears now and then.

Erik's toes turn in, and he is up on his toes. They put crazy straps all over him at therapy now but haven't been able to get his pigeon toes out. I don't know why these do these things when they walk. It's a mystery to me, so keep me updated on what they tell you.

Nance

Anonymous said...

If it is not thing, it is another! Like Nancy said (above), it is always good to get a fresh opinion sometimes. I am sure you all are tired of Dr. visits, but it will give you an insight to Clare's orthopedic status. Good luck, and GOOD JOB, Miss Clare!! Love to all, Joan

Kerry said...

We get to meet an orthopedist out of Children's too next week for Brady's radioulnar synostosis (say that 5 times fast). His name is Dr Bae. Who are you seeing? If it's the same I'll give you the full scoop... although we've only had one doctor out of 497 we didn't like (well, it seems like that many!).

Lisa said...

Can't blam the girl she just doesn't want to crawl...My dad tells me that I never did...I did some wacky belly thing and then right to walking. Gotta love a girl that knows what she wants!!! Look out Mom your gonna have your hands full with that one :)