Update - busy week!

[Guest guest]

Kai got his second cast on Wednesday.I was a bit unhappy to see when

we took off his cast that morning that he was extremely bruised from

just above his knee to his ankle! I knew that over the weekend he

began to act uncomfortable ... but it was worse than I expected, for

sure!

We had planned this trip to be a day trip over and back ... boy am I

glad my brother lives in Seattle!! The weather that was supposed to

be just rain turned into a fierce snowstorm just after we started up

the pass ... we came very close to being in the ditch (median, I

suppose). I will never complain about the rumble strip on the hiways

again, because if our tires had not caught traction on the rumble

strip we would have wrecked. Even after that (and several other

close calls) we were hoping to come back home that night since the

rest of our week was also full of appts.

At the hospital, the cast tech felt very bad about all the bruising

on Kai's leg and decided to put the next cast on loser in case of

more scheduling problems (and him and the Dr both chewed the

scheduler for not advising them that it would be 12 days between last

time). Other than the bruising, Kai's foot is coming along nicely.

Being his first appt of the day, we got to talk a bit with Dr.

Mosca. Where as last time I got the impression of a very good, but

very hurried Dr, this time he was far more relaxed and took time

toexplain exactly what he was doing manipulation-wise. We also

chatted about the odd weather and he showed genuine concern for us

possibly coming back across the pass that night. He was also very

unhappy about the bruising on Kai's leg and expressed his regret that

our appts are coming so far apart ... and impressed me greatly by

saying that while he LOVES to treat CF, he feels completely

overwhelmed by the number of cases he is dealing with constantly.

Apparently at this time he is not only the only Orth using the

Ponsetti method in Washington, but he is also the only doctor who

treats CF at ALL in the entire Seattle area (as well as getting all

the referrals from central Washington)!! On top of that he goes to

Alaska to do ped ortho surgery clinics there. He must have a huge

love for his work ...

We did not make it back home that night since the 6 inches of snow

that fell that morning was followed by hours of rain, causing

avalanche danger, and they had to close the pass for blasting. We

actually only had a 3 hour window to get across the next morning

before flooding set in ...

Again it will be 12 days to the next appt, but this time it should be

much better with the looser cast.

Also, Arica saw her ped. today and was FINALLY referred to an ortho

for her feet ... not so much for the MA which is correcting quite

well on it's own, but her left ankle is starting to turn and drop

again (was born with " positional clubfoot " ) and we want to determine

if something needs to be done for it. There is ONE ortho here in

town that will evaluate young children and treat minor problems ...

of course if she needs something done for the ankle beyond a brace,

off she will go with Kai to Dr Mosca, you can bet!!

Sorry for such a long update!! It didnt seem like that much to say

when I sat down to type it!

Angel, Arica (08/22/01) MA & Left positional turned ankle, Kai

(12/31/02) Right CF