Plastic surgery appointment

    Yesterday we had our appointment with the plastic surgeon to see what he/she thought about Amaya's heel. Unfortunately the doctor was called into surgery and our appointment was cancelled. I was SO frustrated and upset. I had a long, rambling, complaining mess of a blog post in my head to write but I'll spare you. Instead I'll just give the gist. They called our old number so we didn't get the message in time and ended up leaving the house early and driving forty five minutes to an appointment to be greeted by a rude receptionist. When she tried to reschedule the appointment she asked who referred us there. "Did ortho send you?" she asked. I told her that the wound doctor had referred us. Then she gave me a blank look and said, "we don't do wound care this is plastic surgery." Wow. Talk about testing my patience. I took a deep breathe and explained that yes in fact I knew this was plastic surgery, not wound care. I also explained why the wound care doctor referred us to plastic surgery. Then she informed me that the doctor we were scheduled to see was booked way in advanced. I took more deep breaths. She asked if we wanted to see another surgeon instead. I agreed and got Amaya an appointment for next week. This whole process has been so frustrating. Between waiting (five weeks), calling to follow up on referrals, and then having our appointment canceled and dealing with an ignorant and very unhelpful receptionist. Between that and our appointment with the orthotist the day before to get the boot I can tell you my patience is running thin. Later as I talked to my in laws about it they shared their frustration with the situation. They said that it makes you want to just quit. Trust me I definitely feel like quitting. Sometimes I want to throw a major pity party, other times I want to just bawl, sometimes I want to curse and yell. But I always take a deep breath then try again. I have to. Honestly if this was for me I probably would have given up long ago, but since this is for Amaya I can't. I want to make sure to exhaust all my energy, time, and resources to make sure she has every opportunity and every thing she needs. She's given her all with her therapy, and recovery and I owe it to her to do the same. I just wish others did their best to help Amaya too, it would make my life easier. 

Oops, so much for sparring you my long rambling blog post. 

While we waited in the lobby Lidie made friends with a little girl. It was so cute seeing them talk and whisper while they waited for the appointments to start. Its neat how kids can make friends anywhere. Today Melissa had Amaya start on the elliptical. She said she should do it while she still had lots of energy. Amaya told her she was already tired. She had recess before I picked her up and had been playing with her friends.  She did five minutes and did just short of a quarter mile.

Then we headed into the children's gym. Melissa told Amaya that she saw on the blog that Amaya had been jump roping at school. She said she would have her start with that today. I thought it was pretty neat that Melissa took time out of her own life to read the blog. It just shows you how caring and thoughtful she is. Amaya did pretty well with the jumping. This is the most I've seen her jump, ever. The time she showed me at school she was only able to jump a couple of times, but today she jumped for quite a bit. Melissa only gave her minor suggestions. Mostly to try to lift both legs.

Then Amaya lifted her leg while wearing the 1.5 ankle weighs. She did thirty lifts hen Melissa had her lay on her side and lift her leg sideways. She did that without the wight because she still doesn't have the strength to do it with the added weight. 

Then Amaya practiced stepping off of the trampoline one foot at a time. It doesn't sound very difficult but she's still a bit wobbly and needs the practice.

Then she climbed up and down the ladder five times.

Then we went into the hallway to run. I didn't get to film because I was busy racing against the girls. The girls and Melissa were on one team and I was on the other team (aka the losing team). Amaya did really well! Melissa said, "thats the most even your legs have looked yet." 

     Then we walked into the other gym where Amaya practiced walking up and down stairs without holding the rail and alternating feet. She did pretty good going down but still  has some work to do going up. Wehn she's going up she leans in the opposite direction than the foot she's stepping with and then she has a hard time shifting her weight to lift the other leg. Melissa suggested we work on it at home so we'll add it to our physical therapy homework. I have about ten or so exercises that I rotate nightly. There are four key ones that we do every night and then the rest I switch around depending on what she needs the most help with. 

     Lastly Amaya did her knee bends. Her starting point was 117 again. Which is great! She jumped to 122, then 125 then 127. At that point Amaya asked to stop for the day. But as Melissa was holding her knee at a stretch Amaya did one last little push and got her knee to 129 degrees! That's the highest yet! Melissa's goal for Amaya when we started therapy again, eight weeks ago, was 135 degrees so we're getting close! We have another session tomorrow morning so we'll see where we end the week off at.

      As we were leaving Jeremy, one of the therapists, called out to Amaya saying goodbye and asking how she was doing. I think she gets kind of embarrassed because then the entire gym is looking at her. She smiled and said hello, but was pretty meek. Lidie danced around telling them how she saw "the real Willy Wonka!" Its funny how they both have their own reactions to attention. Its definitely nice to be in a place where the staff treat my girls, both of them, with kindness, respect and acceptance.