More homework

    On Monday night Amaya broke her streak of sleeping throughout the night. She woke up at four a.m. in pain. I massaged her foot and knee until she fell back to asleep. Each time I would get up to go back to bed she'd wake up and ask me to massage her knee again. I was so tired and started falling asleep as I massaged her. Finally I got up to go to the restroom and she fell asleep, but before I could get back to my own bed Lidie woke up crying. I guess the hall light flickering on and off woke her up. That or Amaya crying. I laid with Lidie and fell asleep in her bed. Lidie woke up around six and tried to wake me up but I was so exhausted I just laid there. Then about seven thirty I woke up in a panic. I had overslept! I had only thirty minutes to get Amaya ready for school, pack her lunch and send her on her way. Last night was a better night for Amaya. When she first fell asleep she woke up each time I tried to leave her room complaining of knee pain. After about forty-five minutes she stayed asleep. She moaned a couple of times throughout the night but not enough to wake herself up.
     Today Lidie and I had a fun and busy day. We started the morning with a play date with our friends at a beach in Lake Arrowhead. We had fun relaxing, talking with like minded parents, sharing yummy food (I had the best hummus I've ever had), playing in the water, playing on the playground and exploring. After that Lidie had her dance class. She started last week and is enjoying it a lot. She's been wanting to go for some time, but with our hectic schedules it hasn't worked out until now. It's nice having one on one time with her and having some things be just about her.
    When I picked up Amaya for therapy today she said she had a fun day at school. She played baseball during P.E and hit two home-runs. She said she also raced another girl who offered to walk instead of run. Amaya thought that was pretty nice of her. She said the other girl still won, but that that was okay. She said during recess one of her friends accidentally hit her knee with a ball. She said he felt really bad about it, so she tried to console him. She said she asked another friend to walk up to the office with her. She got some ice for her knee and was fine after that. She didn't think she needed any pain medication, and did fine the rest of the day without it. I'm glad she stays calm and handles those situations with kindness.
     Yesterday I wrote another mom whose daughter just had her third fixator put on. I can't imagine going through this three times, let alone four (she still has to have one more lengthening done). Her daughter is doing great and has already gained 2 cm of new bone. It's so nice to be able to talk with someone who knows what your child is going through and what you're going through. I appreciated her encouragement, support, empathy and kindness. There's a sisterhood among fixator moms; we know the trials, stress, tribulations, the highs and the lows like no one else. I'm so grateful for the others who've helped me and those who I help. Somehow it makes this journey brighter.

     This is Lidie in the lobby waiting for Melissa. Notice the shoes (or shoe, I should say)? When we got to Amaya's school Lidie had lost one shoe. We looked everywhere for over ten minutes and couldn't' find it. I didn't have any extra shoes so I had her wear a sock that we found in the car. I was pretty frustrated, embarrassed and confused. When my husband got home he found it in the driveway, even though Lidie was convinced she dropped it down below her seat.  

Melissa had Amaya 1.5 weights on each ankle. She said she wanted to help build some strength in her legs. She had her walk on the ladder on the floor and had her step over two rungs at a time. Then she put the ladder back up on the wall and had her climb up and down once with the weights on then four times without the weights on.

Melissa had Amaya practice walking in the hall. She had Amaya walk slow from one cone to the next then fast to the next cone then slow again.  She wanted Amaya to work on keeping her foot straight, her ankle straight, and to step with her feel first. Amaya did pretty good, but still has a hard time keeping her foot straight. Melissa pointed out that Amaya is stepping off on her small toes instead of her big toe. She's got some work to do on walking, but I'm hoping it'll get easier once her fixator comes off. 

After Melissa had Amaya bend over to pick up each cone to help her get a bend.

After that they rode bikes down the hall, up the hill and around the inside of the entire building. We call that the huge loop. Amaya hasn't done it in over a year (since she did therapy after her knee surgery). She did great! Melissa said its over six hundred feet long. 

     When we got back in the gym we noticed my friend Christina was there with her baby Francesca. It was nice running into them, since we had just talked a week ago about therapy. It's always nice to run into familiar faces and to see other kids and babies working hard. 

     Amaya pulled herself along with a stool and knocked over bowling pins then she sat on the bench in a stretch and then would throw a bean bag into the basket ball hoop. Francesca liked watching Amaya and Lidie and they got a kick out of her too. She has a great smile and personality! 

    When it was time for knee bends Amaya got to sixty degrees quickly but after that it was pretty tough. Her knee was tight and she had a hard time getting to seventy degrees. Once there she struggled to get to eighty degrees. She complained that her pins on her hip hurt (later Melissa looked at them and noticed scabs stuck to her gauze. So each time she pulled the scab was being pulled. Ouch!). She kept creeping up two degrees at a time. After about five minutes she got to ninety-one degrees. She was in tears and in pain. Melissa worked on her knee a bit; bending and straightening it and massaging it. Melissa said that Amaya's knee was stiff and suggested that we start doing our physical therapy homework again. She suggested doing twenty lunges and knee bends each day. She thinks that since Amaya is doing a lot more walking (which is a good thing)  now her knee is getting stiff because it isn't bending as much. That and that she's only therapy three days a week. It always seems to go from one thing to the next, like a pendulum. Either a stiff knee to bend or to straighten. On the drive home Amaya and I made a plan for therapy homework. On the days she has therapy she'll only do her twenty bends and lunges, but on the days she doesn't she'll do twenty minutes of therapy homework (lunges, bends, ride scooter or bike, knee bends, work with band, etc). Speaking of homework I had Amaya do her school homework on the drive home. I knew we wouldn't be home from therapy until six p.m. and I wanted her to have some down time when she got home to play and relax before it was time to get ready for bed.
   Melissa said she forgot to email Dr. Nelson on Monday so she was going to do it tonight. Hopefully we'll hear soon what the next step will be; if he says to hold off on more therapy until we take the fixator off (maybe within weeks)? Or wait until her next x-rays before he decides what to do. I'm excited to know what's next. I can definitely feel that the end is near (for this phase at least). Wether we're looking at one or two months, its definitely a lot closer to the end that we've been.