Quick update

Hi there,
Just thought we'd send out a quick update since we have some news. We had an appointment with an orthotist and Tahlia's physical therapist last Tuesday and learned that Tahlia is hyper-extending her knee and rolling in so badly that if we don't stop her from doing both of those things, her leg will become deformed and her knee joint will be ruined. They are going to give her a shoe insert at first (which we'll pick up tomorrow or Wed.) and we'll try that for a month to see if that makes a difference, but the orthotist said that he doesn't think it will and feels strongly that we will need to brace her leg. The purpose of the brace will be to stop her from rolling, stop her from hyper-extending her knee and, at the same time, stop her leg from buckling forward. They feel that if we don't stop her from buckling forward, she will get frustrated and eventually stop using her leg. Unfortunately, this means that she won't be able to bend her ankle. We're not clear on what the ramifications to her calf muscle will be, so we will ask that when we pick up the insert. We worry that it could cause her calf to become under-developed. He said that she could have to wear the brace for any number of years, including her lifetime.

We are scheduled to see her pediatrician for a check-up on Friday and at that appointment we are going to ask to see a pediatric orthopedist, just to get a second opinion on the brace. Not that we don't trust the orthotist, but we figure that since he's in the business of making orthotics, we should seek another opinion before proceeding with the brace. We'll go ahead and do the insert without a second opinion, since it's not really a big deal.

We will be stopping Tahlia's dose of Phenobarbital at the end of this week, so hopefully that will go smoothly!

She's talking more and more and is 'singing' to herself, which is adorable. This morning at breakfast she heard an airplane outside and, without any prompting from us, did the sign and said 'airplane'. This afternoon in the car we saw her singing (just making one syllable sounds to a beat) and doing the hand motions to her favorite song. :-) Oh, and she was dancing this weekend too, which entails twisting at the waist and moving her arms. Cute.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Thanks for checking in!

Love,
Lauren, Muggsie & Tahila