My Amazeing Journey: surgery, therapy, foot braces

while i was on break for a couple weeks i needed to get a few post surgery appointments out of the way for ms. molly

first up was dr. wiekert, her hand and foot surgeon

the Chinese stink eye

waiting for the doctor...

everything looked great with her hands and feet
however, she does need to go back into surgery (albeit only for about 10 minutes)
to have a toenail removed :(
he tried to remove it all last summer
but it has grown back and will need to be removed so it doesn't cause pain or infection
it kind of grows sideways
we'll probably do that on my spring break

next up was the occupational therapist and physical therapist
we saw these two therapist right after our return from China and they just wanted to see her post surgery
to make sure she was progressing nicely
everything checked out great with both of them
and they do not foresee any future appointments necessary! yeah!!

stacking blocks

drawing

like this

stringing beads on a string

puzzle making

stacking, twisting, and turning

molly is very precise and focused when doing certain activities. she really loves to imitate you if you are writing or playing with her. she wants to get it right and will ask you to keep showing her how to do it if she doesn't get it right the first time.

i was particularly impressed that she knew how to hold and work scissors because i've never given them to her and mom said they don't use them at daycare either...must be a natural instinct! and when the therapist asked her to draw a square she drew 4 lines...she didn't connect them like a square, but was halfway there. pretty impressive for a two year old! the therapist told me some things to work on and we began having "school" at home this morning! so fun! i wonder if she will hate that i'm a teacher one day?? somehow i don't think it will be as fun to have school when i'm making her do her homework in middle school! ha!

the physical therapist recommended that we get some foot braces that will insert into both of her shoes to help correct her walk a bit.

she turns feet (especially the left one) in when she walks and runs a bit too much. she also is not walking heal to toe correctly.

these braces will help to straighten that out a bit and teach her to use her feet correctly.

since her first two toes on the left foot are short she is compensating for the difference (for balance) by turning her foot in.

which brings us to the third appointment....the foot brace store:

this was an interesting visit for me, and molly loved it too!

they place her little feet into those blue inserts and then form a cast over it

this process makes an exact mold of her foot so they can make a brace to fit her exaclty

in the background you can see one of her brace molds with the x on it

of course, she was very interested in this whole process

the braces will fit into her shoe. she needs to wear them when she is up playing, running, and jumping, but doesn't have to wear them all day everyday. so when i dress her up and want to put on dressy shoes she doesn't have to wear them.