"Walk This Way"

For several months, we have been hoping Ayden would be both walking and eating by Christmas. With Christmas Day one week away, it's clear he isn't quite going to make it in either area, but he's really close with the walking (I'll cover eating in a subsequent post).

Because of all the time he spent in the hospital, mostly on his back, Ayden's mobility development was pretty far behind. He's been going to weekly physical therapy appointments since early in the year. It took a while for them to really have an effect, but these visits to Ms. Kristin (his therapist) have helped a great deal. Additionally, once Ayden stopped fighting the process and embraced what Ms. Kristin was trying to help him do, more progress was made. With Ms. Kristin's help, Ayden pretty quickly progressed from crawling to pulling to standing to cruising. After that, the pace slowed back down. Walking has proven to be a challenge to Ayden.

He's faced the same issues that all children do at this stage: strength and balance. After working on those two for a while at therapy and at home, Ms. Kristin brought up a couple of impediments she thought were holding Ayden back. First, his feet are pronated (rolled in). Second, she believes he has calcaneal valgus, which is a fancy way of saying his heel bone is tilted when he stands up, rather than straight up and down. These problems are creating decreased stability and strength in his ankles, neither of which is conducive to walking. She suggested Ayden be fitted for some orthotics that would properly align his foot and ankle and provide the stability and support his body can't give him right now.

We didn't really know what to think about all of this, initially. Speaking for myself, I guess it took me a few days to come to grips with the idea of him potentially having additional physical things working against his development (as if his handicapped cardiovascular system isn't already enough). Eventually, we both realized we were responding emotionally, not rationally. Besides, he always had his toes pointed out when he "walked" and these issues probably explain why. So, we put our own issues aside and ordered the orthotics.

They are probably not what you think. Don't picture what Forrest Gump wore. Instead of leg braces, think of an ankle brace made entirely out of hard plastic. It looks like this, except Ayden's has only one strap. With shoes and pants on, you don't even know he's wearing them. Even without pants, you probably wouldn't notice them right away.

He's been wearing them for several weeks now. As you'll see below, they're helping. His stability and balance is much better when he has them on. He's made a lot of progress at therapy over the last few weeks. If he can figure out how to stand up (he can get halfway there right now), he won't be far away from getting up and taking off running. He'll probably wear the orthotics for 4-6 months, which will hopefully be enough time for the muscles and tendons around his ankle to strengthen so his feet can be in the correct position without assistance.

Regardless, he's continuing to catch up to where "normal" kids his age would be, which is all we can ask for. Ms. Kristin thinks he'll be there before surgery #3 arrives next summer. If so, I'll take it.