What a difference a year makes!

It just hit me today on our way in to Children's that is a few days short of a year since our consult with the orthopedist. I was terrified and determined. Now a year later we have a 19 month old toddler with a straight spine going on her second brace. We got measured for the brace and they took half a mold because E wasn't cooperating for a full mold. Big Sis got her magic coloring book. She expects them since the 3rd cast when I forgot her activity bag and she got to discover the wonderland of the hospital gift shop. We also picked up a new dolphin balloon since we lost our balloon somehow last time and she was so upset. She ran around the hospital hitting not only us but strangers with it.

Our new bribery hospital food is mini marshmallows. I know, I know they are not healthy but when it comes to these kinds of situations the kids have the power for sure (kind of like how I will feed them anything they want to keep them quiet on an airplane). The marshmallows didn't get us through the mold. She was only able to achieve half of the mold since she started to fight once we turned her on her tummy. I picked out a teddy bear pattern for her though Big Sis was trying her best to convince me that E needed the skull and crossbones pirate pattern. :)

We pick up the brace in 2 weeks though the front desk trying to make me wait 24 days which I was emphatic was not acceptable. If these braces only last us 3 months before E can't even eat with it on and she's grown more than 2 inches then I refuse to wait more than 3 weeks for the brace. They said there were no appointments and I pointed out I waited 3 weeks for this appointment and if that is a problem they need to make the measurement and brace pick up appointments AT THE SAME time and not wait until we get measured. Sigh. My logical thinking is lost on most people/organizations I know. We will see if it is actually ready. Last time they called us the day before and asked us to come 3 days later. I could tell they were kind of pissed off at me but they charge over $2k for these things so tough! I can say that everyone who has worked directly with E has been great just their background stuff that I deal with that is frustrating.

Almost time for a new Boston Brace

We've been having some troubles with E's brace causing some serious crankiness lately. She also seems so big all of a sudden and she can't wear it during dinner or she will hardly eat. I was finally motivated to call NOPCO on Sunday when I put E's brace on after dinner and then she promptly threw up all over me. I figure it was either that she ate something she is allergic to that we don't know about yet (entirely possible) or the brace smushed her tummy and I got the results. Turns out that NOPCO feels her brace is fine around her but they also noted how she looked much taller than last time. This has caused the brace to be a bit on the short side. We made an appointment for the end of the month to get new measurements. If you time it from measurement to measurement E lasted 4 months in this brace. It is much sooner than Dr. K had expected but it is in line with what other scoli parents have told me. We forgot the camera so no pictures this time. It is getting weird that we now have a routine set for our visits to children's including buying a balloon and getting some au bon pain for the road. That's all for now. I suppose we will check back in with the next visit.