Giovanna has had two casts with the last Ilizarov procedure. Her first was a traditional Candy Cane strip pattern for Christmas, which was appropriate since she got the metal frame off before Christmas. It was a wonderful Christmas gift. Her second cast came shortly after Christmas. She chose a dark color, I think it was officially maroon with green strips. Her Sunday school teacher referred to it as the Chocolate Mint Candy Cane – an excellent description of the color!
Shortly after returning from Thailand it was time to take off the cast. This is not my favorite part of the procedure. While it marks the end of the process, there are some parts of this process that are really not fun. The buzzing of the saw has always scared Giovanna in the past – this time it was not as bad, but still a bit scary. However the hardest thing about this part is the hyper sensitivity of the foot with the cast off. Not to mention the smell! After having ones foot in a cast for just over 2 months – enough said!! So when it came time for Chaz to wash off her foot, you would have thought she was being tormented!
She spent the rest of the morning in the wheel chair, afraid to put any pressure on that foot. She had x-rays to check the position of the foot, met with PT for exercises, saw the doctor who was pleased with the position of her foot and orthodics to have her AFO fitted. The doctor said she had to walk before she could leave the premises. Talk about putting down the challenge – in the past it has taken several days for her to walk on her foot post cast. So while in orthodics and waiting for the final fitting of her AFO, I started touching her foot and getting her used to pressure on it.
The time final came for her to walk with the AFO. She wheeled herself to the parallel bars, got the wheel chair lined up, brakes set and then took off and walked the length of the bars – twice! She then took her wheel chair and wheeled it back to the parking area. On the way, Dr. G saw her, left a conversation and came out in the hallway to watch her. He was pleased.
Now to work on stretching and getting things like the Achilles Tendon moving a more smoothly!
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Fearfully and Wonderfully made 
hey GiGi!
congrats on getting your cast off! I bet you’re happy. =) I’m excited to see you soon…possibly as soon as tomorrow or else Sunday. 😀
Joe <
Comment by Joe February 10, 2009 @ 3:21 pmLove your site!
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I just adopted two kids from Ukraine with AMC. Boy and girl. We are also in MN. waiting to get into Shriners. did you have good luck there? they cant seem to understand that I have no previous medical records.
Comment by Tam November 11, 2009 @ 9:24 am