Dallas had a big appt today. We met with the Pediatric Orthopedic for the first time to discuss options for fixing his toe walking. Dallas has pretty much always walked on his toes. I noticed it, but honestly didn't think he did it all the time until my girlfriend Val kept gently pointing it out to me when Dallas was 2 years old. Finally I took notice and it's actually what took us on our journey to finally discovering that Dallas has Aspergers and Sensory Processing Disorder. So I'm very grateful for Val's persistence! The Dr we met with today was actually the same Dr who performed Boston's surgery on his elbow when he broke it in Dec of 2007, Dr Knapp. First we met with his resident who, after examining Dallas' feet, thought he would require surgery to fix it. But when Dr Knapp came in he thought we might be able to fix it by casting both of his legs for 6 weeks and hopefully stretching his heel cord. He didn't think that normal everyday stretching of it was going to do any good. We were beyond relieved to hear that there might be another solution other than cutting the heel cord itself. There could be some long term effects for Dallas in sports and what not if he had the surgery.
Sean and I still aren't thrilled about the casting option. With Dallas Sensory Processing Disorder this could cause some serious anxiety and stress for him. But if it's the only option we will do what needs to be done. In the meantime (they want to wait until it's cooler to cast....too darn HOT in Florida right now) we will do what we can to try and stretch it out with massaging, stretching and exercises daily.
(you can see in this picture that Boston's feet in the front can go 90 degrees while Dallas, pulling his back as far as possible can't get even near 90 degrees.)
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