Bye Bye Boot! Post-Op Update

Mason had his checkup today at the orthopedic surgeon's office.  A short reminder: Feb. 12th Mason had tendon surgery on his right foot.  He wore a cast for 6 weeks.  There was still a lot of swelling from surgery when the cast was removed so he went into a boot for 4 weeks.  Today was checkup. 

The swelling is gone.  Yay!  Mason is healing beautifully.  We go back in 3 months for another checkup.  Dr. K said to continue wearing the boot until we could get Mason in to his orthotist to have his AFOs adjusted or new AFOs made if needed.  I was expecting this and asked him to hand me the prescription instead of sending it to our orthotist. 

When we got out into the parking lot I called Mr. B, the orthotist, to see if he could fit us in today while we were in the city (we live about an hour from the orthotist so fitting this in today would save me a drive).  He had just had a cancellation so we went to his second office.  I knew that this was a possibility and had already printed directions from the orthopedic surgeon's office to each of the two orthotist offices so I could find them.  Yay!  AND I had packed Mason's AFOs (Ankle Foot Orthotics, short bracing coming to just below his knee) and his HKAFOs (Hip Knee Ankle Foot Orthotics, tall braces that hold Mason in a standing position so he can bear weight in his dynamic stander to strengthen his bones and bone density, no walking for Mason). 

At Mr. B's office Mason got his AFOs adjusted to fit (heated, cut, molded).  Yay!  That means no more walking boot.  Mason does need to wear his AFOs pretty much 24 hours a day.  He can take it off for a few hours when it makes activities easier (ex: at the swimming pool, bath time).  In a few months we may be able to move to wearing the AFOs for just 12 hours a night.  We'll see. 

The longer standing braces are much too short as Mason has had a growth spurt, so Mr. B will keep those to lengthen them and in a few weeks we will go back to get them fitted. 

After these appointments we went looking for shoes.  It is hard to fit shoes over AFOs.  The pair we special ordered over a year ago still fit for now, but they are heavy and difficult to crawl in as Mason has to drag them and often his legs twist in ways that could cause leg breaks.  We didn't have any real luck at the four shoe stores we went to.  When we came home we got online and ordered shoes from a different company that are supposed to be lightweight and work with braces.  We'll see!  I'll share about those when they arrive, especially if they work. 

Phew!  Other than Mason's weekly physical therapy there aren't a lot of appointments on the horizon medically.  In early May he goes back to the developmental opthomologist who did Mason's double eye surgery in March.  We'll find out then if Mason needs a new glasses prescription now that his eyes have healed.