I am know I am behind, but bear with me as I seek to catch up on the last few weeks and document all that has been going on in our little world. Saturday, April 21st, Parker had an awful night….I mean BAD! Park had been sleeping for 4-5 hours at a time, taking a bottle and then going back to sleep for another 4 or so hours (he is such a great baby!) but this Saturday night was different. He still had his cast on, the cast that was put on after his surgery and after Scott & I eliminated all other possibilities, looked to the cast for the source for the discontentment. The only way he would sleep was on our chest. He was able to position himself in a way that allowed him to relieve some pressure off that leg and would allow him to rest. The next day was Sunday but I called Dr. Hydorn (Moore Ortho). When he called back, I told him I thought Parker’s cast was too tight and needed to come off right away instead of waiting until our scheduled appointment Wednesday afternoon. He said we could head on down to the children’s hospital Sunday but it would be a big ordeal, long wait, etc. but if we waited until Monday morning, his office would take it off first thing (NOTE: always listen to mother’s intuition). Parker had another awful night Sunday and was in downright pain. When I took him Monday morning to get the cast off, I felt like I should be handed the “Worst Mother of the Year” award. Thankfully my mother went with me to the appointment and was a great support but bless his heart….that little leg was very “angry” in the words of the doctors. His skin was white in some places, red in others and very irritated. The cast was WAY too tight.
I left feeling upset at the doctors, mad at myself for letting him go an extra day in pain and just frustrated at the whole situation. They sent us right away to the Brace & Boot place in downtown Columbia which turned into over an hour of waiting for nothing because the AFO brace he was fitted for wasn’t ready so they asked us to come back in a couple of hours. So we did but when we got back and they showed me the brace, I knew right away it was too small because they measured him for it on the day of his surgery (did they not get the memo he had just been cut out of the cast early because it was WAY too tight?). Doctors frustrate me sometimes. So, after 2 failed trips to downtown Columbia, one very unhappy baby with severe acid reflux on top of everything, we finally got home close to 4 that Monday.
The plan was to wait for Wednesday to give his leg enough time to calm down. The swelling was so bad and of course the skin irritation, so Parker and I just rested at home until our appointment Wednesday morning. He was given the green light by Dr. Hydorn to go into his boots & bar Wednesday and to be fitted for a new brace so we drove back to the Brace & Boot place and over the next couple of hours, we were fitted with his new shoes & dobbs bar. He was also casted in a fiberglass cast so they could make his new AFO brace. We went back Thursday to pick it up and here is the finished product.
Parker will wear his new shoes 23 hours a day for the next 3-4 months. The AFO brace (fits on his foot up to shin on the left foot) holds his foot in a 90 degree angle which reinforces the surgery we had on his Achilles tendon. With clubfoot, he naturally points his foot down and until the surgery, could not move his foot up in a bent motion at all. The shoes ($100/pair and not covered by insurance…hope you like your first pair of Air Jordan’s Park! 
) are basically just a device to hold him on the dobbs bar. The purpose of the dobbs bar is to hold his feet the proper distance apart (currently about 8 inches) and to hold them at certain degrees out. Park’s clubfoot is set to 60 degrees out right now with a goal of 70 degrees out soon and his other foot is set to a neutral position of 30 degrees out. If all goes as planned after these first few months and we do not run into any setbacks, we will just wear these at nap and bedtime for the next 3-4 years.
I will not say the adjustment period has been easy. Parker had a hard time figuring out why he couldn’t kick his feet the way he used to. Also, this contraption is heavy! The shoes have plates drilled to the bottom of them so they can attach to the bar so each shoe weighs about 1/2 pound and then the bar weighs about 1/2-2 pounds so this isn’t the easiest thing for him to tote around. Our logistics also changed a little bit too because he no longer fit into his Chicco infant seat because the bar was too wide so we had to go ahead and purchase a convertible seat with a really wide opening (it will hold him until he is 70 pounds!). So no more popping the seat in the Target or Publix cart. Lots of toting him around….holding him at restaurants, church…..waking him up every time you get him in or out the car. Fun stuff!
As I mentioned, this hasn’t been the easiest to figure out. From the time Parker was about 18 hours old, he has had a cast and then surgery and now this brace/boots/bar. I was so upset during the week of these doctor’s appointments but my mother gently reminded me as we were driving back home one day how wonderful God’s plan was for Parker and for Scott and I. That God knew exactly what he was doing as he knitted our stories, our lives together. Scott has the knowledge and the skills to assist Parker with all his rehab and I have had the flexibility in my work schedule to be there for Parker for every doctor’s appointment, every weekly casting, everything he has needed. None of this has been inexpensive but we have had the resources to provide for him everything he has needed and I do not know if that would have been the case with his birth family. Even as I type this now, a few weeks later, I still feel that emotion coming back because I know how perfectly God designed this plan of adoption. I love my son so deeply, so dearly and I would not trade him for anything. He is my son. I thank my God that he knew him before he was born, knew his needs and knew that we would be his parents.
