Orthopedic Evaluation Complete

Mike did it again - he couldn't stand watching me struggle to comb out Raquel's long mane after her bath. Sometimes she doesn't mind, sometimes she does. It's just hit or miss. This night, she wanted no part of it - at all - so he decided it was time to get out the scissors and do a little "trim". He ended up cutting off about 7 inches of her curly locks, which I, of course, saved and plan to donate.

I have to hand it him - he does a GREAT job cutting her hair!!!



And now she has bangs again. I'm told they are "in" now. :)



Regardless, she looks super cute, and her hair is so much easier to manage. In this house, I really need to choose my battles, and brushing her hair shouldn't be one of them.

Last week, Raquel met with an orthopedic doctor. We've always been concerned about her low muscle tone, and since she hasn't had the best track record at school and has missed the majority of her school therapy, her tone really isn't improving as much as we hoped. I do my best at home, but I'm not a physical therapist and just model what I've seen the PT's do with her over the years and hope it helps.

Besides the low muscle tone, she seems to have flat feet and we were wondering if she may need special shoes or even leg braces, which is why Dr. Mower gave us the ortho referral. He didn't particularly think it was anything urgent, but regardless, submitted the request.

As with all of the specialists we've seen, there wasn't a waiting time, we were immediately taken into the room and saw Dr. Mubarak within 5 minutes. We had to cuff up her pants so he could watch her walk first. Look how big she is!!



Then there was a physical exam.



The doctor was really cool. The specialists we've been fortunate enough to see have such an awesome bedside manner. The seriousness of why we are seeing them is never forgotten, but for us, these amazing doctors have a way of making light of the situation, in a very professional way. And Dr. Mubarak was no exception.

After the physical exam, he said that her spine looked great, but he wanted to do x-rays on her hips and legs. What? Her hips? I never once thought there would be something wrong with her hips, just that we needed to get her leg muscles stronger. Fortunately, the x-rays were done right down the hall, and Dr. Mubarak was waiting for us in the hallway before I could even take off my x-ray protective coat. He went to evaluate the x-rays and came back into our room with two thumbs up, saying everything looked perfect. YAY!!! No leg braces, no special shoes, we just need to keep doing what we are doing, that she has flat feet due to her low muscle tone. What a relief. He did say that muscles typically don't get stronger by having others work them for you, that she needs to use them herself. Slow and steady wins the race.

We have our physical therapy evaluation on Saturday, and I'm really looking forward to that appointment to get more input.