Our man Oliver got his new braces yesterday. Not as unobtrusive as I'd hoped, but certainly not bad, either. As far as I know, he will now wear these forever. Well, not this pair, of course, but you know what I mean.Not sure if I'd mentioned that his casts came off again, the day after I took him last week. So he had them put on on 12/19, they came off by Christmas. So I took him back on 12/26, and they slid off 
by 12/27. So he's been castless for a week. Which means that as his tendons reattached from surgery, nothing was holding them in the right place. Extremely frustrating. And yesterday they told me that the braces will likely slip out of position all the time, too. I have to check them and take them off/put them back on every hour. What?? Apparently, this happens for two reasons a) his fat little baby legs lead to tiny baby feet, so whatever is put on them just slides off and b) they way his feet are formed he doesn't really have a prominent heel to anchor them.
by 12/27. So he's been castless for a week. Which means that as his tendons reattached from surgery, nothing was holding them in the right place. Extremely frustrating. And yesterday they told me that the braces will likely slip out of position all the time, too. I have to check them and take them off/put them back on every hour. What?? Apparently, this happens for two reasons a) his fat little baby legs lead to tiny baby feet, so whatever is put on them just slides off and b) they way his feet are formed he doesn't really have a prominent heel to anchor them.
So it is kind of difficult to get the feet in the braces just right, and once I do, I have to take them off, stretch him, and put them back on again. Also, because he has no feeling, we have to be very vigilant that the skin isn't breaking down. He won't let us know, and aparently sores can build up pretty quickly.
Our orthopedist is a very academic man. He seems to like treating patients for practical purposes, but also likes the learning aspect of it. He is always off lecturing or bringing visitors on rounds with him. As such, he has lamented (more times than I want to hear, quite honestly) that they haven't figured out anything new to do for Spina Bifida babies with club feet since the 1950s. He told us that right before he took Oliver to surgery -- Well, great. I kind of felt like telling him not to bother with the surgery then. So poor Oliver is stuck in these funky looking plastic braces that won't even stay on his feet because nobody has figured out anything new. They are better than nothing, but they certainly aren't any great answer.
In other news:
Mac now has a rash to go with her ear infection. Not only did her ear infection not clear up in the last week and a half, but now she has a rash to go with it. And you guessed it, it is contagious. So we all know who will break out in a day or so...
and...
Although this deserves its own post, because it is very exciting news, I'll just throw it out here -- I GOT A JOB! That's right -- I negotiated a bit more money from Penn State and I'm now a Nittany Lion. Okay -- a pending Lion. I'm still a Scarlet Knight for now. I guess I have dual citizenship. That is a huge load off of my mind. I have a really busy semester coming up and I'm so glad to have one less thing to worry about.
