Gait Clinic, Piano and finally school work

Even though we were in bed late last night we still had to be up early today to get Skylar to her Gait Clinic appointment and Cairn and Andrew to Aunt Trish's.

Skylar had an evaluation at Children's Hospital in the Gait Clinic because of her continued leg pain.  We know how to manage it but I want to stop the pain from coming.  There is no reason for her to have to endure it if we can figure out the reason and then fix it.  At her 6 year old appointment we got a referral for leg measuring x-rays.  They determined that the legs were different lengths so we were referred to the Gait Clinic to see if they could figure anything out.  Finally, we had the evaluation today.  She had to wear a leotard because they were going to watch her walk, jump, run, hop, walk backwards, walk on tiptoes all the while video tape her.  They had to draw smiley faces on her knees so the camera could see her knees.  It was a very fun appointment for Skylar.  The results...

1) Her legs are the same length but the ankles and the knees do not align because...

2) both her femur bones are twisted or femoral anteversion.  Now, this sounds like a problem but it occurs a lot and we even heard about a very famous Denver Bronco, car salesman who has it - obviously didn't affect him too much.  But this leads to...

3) she has very weak joint muscles but incredible flexibility.  Which seems weird to me because she had incredible muscle definition in her legs but it is the joint muscles that are weak.  For example, she can't lay on her stomach and with her knees bent, raise her leg.  There was virtually no muscle strength.

So, the doctor thinks that she has learned to compensate for the twisting femur and weak muscles which is causing leg pain because it is not the right way for her legs to work.  She was referred to physical therapy and they also suggested she get into gymnastics for dance to help strengthen her muscles.  (She chose gymnastics).  If we see no improvement in 3 months, then the doctor will reevaluate.  If she is progressing, he wants to see her in one year for new x-rays and new gait study.

Her first PT appointment is September 4th.

After Skylar's appointment, we picked up the other 2 then headed home to eat lunch before we headed back out the door to get Andrew to his piano class.

Today was the first day of his 2nd year.  I thought it was going to be a great class but the new kids that joined are behavior problems.  I have an option to go to another class.  We might check it out.

After piano we returned home to finally get going on our school work.  It was little tough to get everyone on task but slowly they worked and finished their school work by 6 PM.

Because everyone was tired, they were in bed with lights out by 8 PM.  It sounds pretty quiet up there so I think everyone fell asleep quickly.