Ryan's ANKLES!!!!!

Well, we got to see the results of Ryan's surgery. He did very well getting his casts off and we were very pleased with the results, which you can see here...especially if you look down at our very first post from mid-May.
Ryan's last casts (at least for a while) come off a week from Friday and he will begin wearing his AFO's (ankle/foot orthotics), which are shoes with a fixed bar between them.

Ryan still goes to PT and OT weekly...he got fitted for new splints for his wrists - ones that he can wear all of the time. I have decided to spear-head sprucing up the waiting room's children's books display at Ryan's therapy. If you want to donate a child's book on behalf of Ryan, just send it to Ryan and we will make sure it gets to the therapy's waiting room. I already donated the CD player I had bought for Grammie when she was in the hospital, so the therapists can incorporate music into their therapy....a fitting home for the CD player, I think! Now Ryan can be stretched to Puccini!

1st surgery - July 14th, 2008

Well, we finally got to the day of Ryan's 1st surgery. We all woke up around 4:30am and headed to the hospital by 6:30. We got in and everything went pretty smoothly. Dr Rinsky told us that he was able to get Ryan's feet bent further than he expected once he cut the tendon. He will get his new casts off the last week of July and get recasted for another week or two after that. Another tendon release surgery may be necessary in a month or two, but we are hoping for big progress out of our boy and his feet.
I won't blog for the next few weeks, as nothing is really going to change, so if you have questions, feel free to email me. And most of all, thank you for the love and support you have given us....we've needed it!
Love,
Kiersten & family

Yeah - the 6th casting is done!!!!

After a LONG and exhausting journey, Ryan's sequence of serial casting is over. Our big 2 month old is scheduled for his first surgery next week. He will go under with a mild general anesthetic, and the procedure is pretty simple, I have been told - no overnight stay. According to Rinsky (Ortho Doc), Ryan will most likely need to do this again, as his feet are "pretty severe", but he said it would not involve the weekly casting that we have done thusfar.
In physical therapy, Ryan is getting to like Amy, his PT. She plays with him while stretching and he throws her back a smile or two, a few coos, and then some crying. It has become a little easier to stretch his joints - I've noticed a difference in both his knees (I get to see them the mornings we head to ortho, as I remove the casts at home), and his wrists have more movement as well. We also think we are seeing some quadriceps movement happening, which is great because initially Rinsky said there was none. Still no movement in those biceps though.
Ryan meets his new hand specialist next week, her name is Jennifer. I am anxious to hear what she has planned for Ryan's hands. He has been using splints throughout the day, which I can remove when they start to bug him and we still see good open/close movement in both hands.
The worst news of the week is that both of Ryan's hips are dislocated. We found this out last week at his ultrasound. This means that he will have surgery to try to get them into the socket. This is more of a major surgery and will not be done until Ryan is at least 6 months old. Hopefully, enough of the socket has formed so that the hip joint can stay in place. I am also told this dislocation of Ryan's hips do not hurt him at this time.
Wish us luck for next week!!! Is 6am too early to have a cocktail in the waiting room????