One Year Post Surgery

Holy moly, time simply flies when kids get older and their needs change and their activity lists grow.

Last week, we took the whole family down for a trip to Portland for Darsie's one year follow up post surgery. Since we had to be there at 8am, we decided to head down the night before instead of getting up at 4am to drive down. The kids loved staying at a hotel with a buffet breakfast (what is it with kids and buffets? They go HOG WILD) and it was definitely nice to be close to Shriners instead of a long drive away. While Darsie and I went to Shriners, Jeff took the littles to the zoo. For anyone heading to Portland, there is a baby elephant and an otter right now. They all loved it.

At Shriners, we did our post year surgery study paperwork and then headed up to the Motion Lab for a gait analysis. They hooked her up to all these little balls and had her walk and recorded her with a camera. Think special effects for movies sort of thing.

Afterwards, we went to see her surgeon. They are super pleased with how she is doing, so much so, that she is graduating to a new AFO. She was casted for a leaf spring AFO instead of the solid heavy one she has been in for the past year and a half. It worked great for allowing her foot and leg to heal but now its time to to get her leg to develop and work. She still has a bit of a toe drop and knee extension, so this style of brace seems to be a good fit for her.

We finally headed home about 2pm and everyone was exhausted, barely making it through lunch before crashing hard in the car.