Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Noah's Doctor Appointment Recap

A few of you knew that Noah had a Doctor's appointment today with an orthopedic doctor about his feet so I thought I'd update you. This appointment was set up through the school and the Doctor saw multiple children while he was there so that the parents and physical therapists could all discuss the child with the Doctor. (This is not the first appointment we have had this way and I have come to love this format!)

We hadn't checked Noah's height in awhile so I was floored to find out he is 5 foot 3! I am only 5 foot 4ish! He just doesn't seem that tall since he is always sitting! He also ways 71 lbs. I'm lifting a 5 foot 3, 71 lb child on a daily basis! Holy smokes, people!

The Doctor said Noah's feet are pretty flexible but thought he would benefit from the type of AFO's (braces for his feet) that are made from casting. (They make a cast of each foot and then carefully cut it off and they use those to make the braces fit exactly to his foot.) The goal with the AFO's is that it will help Noah be able to at least stand with support while transferring which would be nice since he is getting so heavy and all.

As luck would have it (or good scheduling on the part of the PT dept) the casting guy was at the school too. So we had the casts done and picked out his new braces right then. The kids can choose a "tattoo" that goes on the back of their braces to make them more fun so I handed Noahie the sheet and pointed out a few ones he might like and even suggested the butterfly just to make him laugh. He was having a hard time choosing and then we found out that he could choose two different tattoos - one for each brace. The space shuttle was a close runner up but ultimately he (predictably) chose the tiger head and the tiger paw.

Then it came time to discuss his new wheelchair. For Noah this meant picking out a color. The seat will be black but the frame will be a color. I personally would have liked all black because it would go with everything and look nice in pictures but this is Noah's chair and he spends so much time in it so he needs to choose it and be happy with his choice. I thought he would choose the orange but he chose purple instead.

Getting new equipment is always just a tad bit exciting I think.

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