Amputee Clinic + hands

Can you believe it - it has been a year since Cav had his surgery that ultimately led to his first steps.

Last week we had 3 appts - 2 hands and the amputee clinic all scheduled within an hour.  Talk about a JOKE - except it was on me.  What a mess.

We must have seen 20 people - someone in their infinite wisdom decided to put us in a room, and then jsut had the Dr's come to us - no schedule nothing.

ANYHOW, boys hands look great!!

Cav's will never be "normal" yeah not sure what I was thinking with that one.  He had splints made, as he now holds the hands inward in a very typical Radial club hand manner.  He will wear them at night in hopes it will straighten things out.

Tao's hands look fabulous.  You have to remember that the surgeon had to chisel away the extra bone and then attach the muscle.  His right thumb is appearing to act more like a finger.  We are not sure if this is something we will even consider fixing in the future (wouldn't at all except he is right handed).

That baby was SOOOO excited to take a shower.  It was ALL he talked about for the ENTIRE hour car ride home LOL!

Cav's amputee clinic.  I love clinic whether it is skeletal dysplasia or Amputee.  ALL of the specialists from the hospital a represented and they come up with a plan TOGETHER!!  What a novel idea -really the days of he said she said are hashed out in the room (albeit tiny room with 15 people crammed into it).

Cav has a odd new walk - we call if the hoopty walk.  He looks like a cross between a stork and a puppet.  We were thrilled to have everyone weigh in - adjust his leg length a tiny bit, and ultimately were told NOT to worry about it.  Of course he blew them away.  And truly when you remember how long this kid has walked - he is amazing.  EIGHT months, that's it.

Since we had a little time before our appts we also bought him some FLIP FLOPS!!  The kids have been waiting all year and we finally found some reefs at Nordstroms that still have the backstrap in his size!!

We also got to go down to the Gait clinic and have teh specialized video taken of him - it will help us remember how far he has come.

I almost forgot the most special moment.  Their was a girl about 10 that had a severely clubbed foot.  They asked Cav to show her how well he walked on his legs.  We answered their questions through a translator.

My heart broke when I saw her walk out slowly pushing her walker.  The one thing we were told before accepting Cav was that some kids go through years of surgery and ultimately choose to amputate as teens.  We were lucky in retrospect as there was nothing that could be done for Cav's shorter leg.  However, I sometimes wonder should we have tried harder on the longer leg?  Today I got my answer. I knew without a doubt we could not have subjected him to surgery after surgery.