Jake had his 4 month post op appointment in mid-November and his surgeon was really pleased with his healing and progress. All Jake's therapy and work at home has really made a big difference in his walking. The doctor mentioned we could look into changing his leg brace again to something less supportive and more flexible. Talk about full circle...it's the same kind of brace he was given when he was discharged from the hospital. It's made of carbon fiber, fairly narrow on the back of the calf, but it's real benefit is the little bit of spring it gives when stepping from heel to toe. So we've gone from carbon fiber to more rigid and supportive to very supportive full leg to surgery to rigid and supportive and back to lower profile. We're hoping to get him fit for the new brace in the next month or so since we're tweaking a few other things and don't want to change too many things at once.
We've recently discovered Jake's left leg is about a 1/2" shorter than his right and could be affecting some of his gait pattern. It's a pretty common thing, but when your gait and walking are under a microscope, one tends to pick up on things that would be normal nuisances for someone else. We're trying a small lift in his left shoe to see if helps even things out a bit.
With all the focus on Jake's foot/leg post surgery, we got off schedule with botox for his arm. We normally go every three months and didn't make it in for six months. His bicep had gotten really tight and we noticed the dexterity in his left hand wasn't as good. He got botox back in December and is now in 8 weeks of OT to see if we can't get things working a bit better. He doesn't seem to be responding to the botox as well as he has in the past, but I'm hoping it will just take some time and exercises to loosen things back up.We're making time to fit in some fun stuff too around all the therapy appointments and went rock climbing yesterday. Jake needed a little support while bouldering (free climbing with the ropes), he did a really good job using his left leg and was trying to use his left arm. It's a good thing the wall wasn't any higher or Todd couldn't have reached!
