New Casts

Today Kinsey got her new, shorter casts! When they took her old casts off, the skin on her legs was very flaky because it hasn't been able to shed for 6 weeks. It looks a little like snakeskin and is coming off all over the place now. The blisters she had on her feet and the incisions look worse because they're scabbing over and healing. Hopefully they will continue to heal and look better next time. When they first took the casts off, Kinsey was ready to kick her legs around and we had to prevent her from hurting herself. They had to pull the pins out of her feet and that was NO FUN! One of the pins in each foot took a little extra tug to get out, which Kinsey didn't like at all (and neither did I - I was a nervous wreck through the whole appointment). The other pin in each foot came out easy, but she still didn't like that either. She was pretty mad after that and cried the whole time that they put the new casts on.

Since we left the doctor's office she's been acting fine. She seems really interested in seeing and touching her legs again (or at least her knees). Unfortunately her sensitive skin is reacting to something and she's got a rash/blisters behind her knees right now. I'm a little worried about it, but Jamie thinks it will clear up on its own. Her skin is sensitive anyway and now the skin on her legs is even more sensitive because it hasn't been touched in 6 weeks and the old skin is shedding. Plus Kinsey has been scratching/rubbing it. We put some neosporin on it and covered it up so she can't get to it and hopefully it will be better in the morning!

Here's a picture of her new casts - we went with blue so it will look good with her Gator outfits!!

It also turned out that they couldn't fit her for the splints today (scheduling issue), so we are going back in 3 weeks (instead of 4) and they will take these casts off, fit her for the splints and put another set of casts back on until the splints are ready - for a week or so. So she may end up with the casts for an extra week. Because of this change, the splints will not be covered by our old insurance so we will have to pay for them. But we are working with the early invention program to help us with that expense. We're really hoping that will work out.

The doctor also gave us little "cast shoes" so Kinsey can stand/walk on these casts. She doesn't seem to want to stand up yet, but we're sure she'll be doing it again soon!

In other news, we've been trying some new things to get Kinsey to gain some weight after our meeting with the nutritionist last week. She suggested that Kinsey should be getting 800 calories a day (the old nutritionist had us aiming for 900 to 1000 calories a day, which was impossible). Even 800 is a stretch, but it's getting easier. We're adding vegetable oil to her food (just a teaspoon at a time), dipping her puffs in things like mayonaise, and feeding her as much PB&J as she'll eat!

We also had a meeting this week with the coordinator from the hearing program (it's called CHIP) and we're going to have someone work with Kinsey on a weekly basis regarding her listening and communicating skills. We have our first meeting with that therapist next week.

I found a local doctor who will hopefully be able to help us with some vision therapy to correct Kinsey's crossed eyes. There are 2 in town, but the first one I called said they don't do vision therapy on kids as young as Kinsey and they only do it while they're wearing glasses, but the second one said they could work with her - we're going to see him next week. I'm hoping they can help because I really don't think she'd wear glasses. Depending on our new insurance coverage for glasses, we may still get her a pair and try to get her to wear them, but only if they're cheap enough. No sense spending lots of money if it's going to be a waste.

Finally, Kinsey and I had a lot of fun at a playgroup event this week . . . we went to a little farm/petting zoo operated by the county. Kinsey loved seeing the animals - she laughed when the sheep "talked," laughed when the ponies ate hay out of her hand, laughed when the turkey's "talked," tried to help me feed the goats, sat on the Farmall tractor, grabbed the goat's ear . . . We had such a great time that I decided to book Kinsey's birthday party there! I had been trying to find a petting zoo that could come to the house for Kinsey's birthday party, but this will be perfect! Here are some pictures and videos from our fun day at the farm:
Feeding the pony: http://youtu.be/xr-8hwF_hJY
Helping me fed the goat: http://youtu.be/EEPXuP_xnlc

Saying Hi to the Goat

Helping me feed the sheep

"feeding" the pony - she wouldn't hold the hay out to him so he couldn't reach it

Trying to grab the goat's ear

talking to the turkeys

Daddy's girl!

Just Like Every Kid . . .

This week was eventful with lots of doctors visits/planning for therapists. First we had our meeting with the early intervention program to write Kinsey's plan of care - this determines what services she will receive . . . and it turns out there will be lots! Kinsey will have weekly Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy, as well as a monthly appointment with a Nutritionist and a coordinator to help us with her hearing issues and appointments.

Here in CO, they allow you to select your providers from a list of contracted providers which is really nice. I've selected all her providers and am waiting to hear from them to get things started. We did already see the Nutritionist - she had some good suggestions for increasing Kinsey's calories, but she also wasn't as concerned about the calories she's getting as the previous nutritionist. We are going to start adding a little oil to her food and maybe try adding some powdered milk (just a little to see if Kinsey can handle it) to her soy milk. We're also continuing to feed her high-calorie foods like the beans, mashed potatoes, avocadoes and her new favorite food - peanut butter and jelly! We put a little of each on a spoon and she gobbles it right up! We tried peanut butter about 6 months ago and she didn't like the way it stuck to her mouth, but now she knows how to move it around in her mouth and she really enjoys it.

Opening wide for a spoonful of PB&J

We've been giving her a little bit with each meal throughout the day so we gets about 2 tablespoons in a day, or an extra 200 calories. So just like every kid out there, Kinsey loves PB&J (except for me of course - I've never had a PB&J in my life!) Hopefully all these tricks will help her put some weight back on!

So we also saw the pediatrician this week, which was uneventful, and we saw an eye doctor for the first time. Kinsey was great with the exam, letting them put drops in her eyes to dilate them and shine lights in her eyes and all. As usual, she was a trooper. The doctor says Kinsey's eyes are crossed and has recommended glasses and possibly surgery later. Of course, we know there's no way on earth that Kinsey is going to wear glasses! After doing some further research, I've learned that crossed eyes are caused by the brain's inability to coordinate both eyes simultaneously, which means Kinsey would see two pictures at once, but to avoid that the brain turns off one eye. This can cause problems with depth perception and can also eventually cause loss of sight in that eye because it's not used. For these reasons it's important to treat it and glasses typically work, but I've also learned that surgery doesn't actually correct the problem, it just makes the eyes "look" right, but not work right. So that's crazy!

Anyway, in my research, I found another option called Vision Therapy, which is only done by a select group of doctors and there are two in Fort Collins (obviously not the doctor we already went to). I'm going to call one of them to make an appointment to find out more. They may still recommend glasses in combination with the therapy, but we'll see what they can do. Hopefully they're more open to accomodating us than the doctor we saw (he just said she needs glasses and didn't care that I knew she won't wear them for more than 10 minutes).

I don't have any other pictures this week, but here's a video of Kinsey in her rocking horse/chair. Now that she can't stand up because of her casts, she actually sits and rocks it. Here she's being silly with a toy in her mouth that she's pulling back and forth while she rocks! http://youtu.be/Bka1ys3BFz0

Next week is exciting - we have more doctor appointments, including a meeting with the hearing coordinator, ENT appointment and the next casting appointment with the orthopedic surgeon! That appointment is Friday and they will be removing Kinsey's purple casts, removing the pins from her feet, fitting her for new splints that she'll wear the the casting is done and finally getting her last set of casts. This final cast will only go up to her knees so she'll be able to stand and maybe even work on walking again! Not sure what color we'll get this time . . .

And the best news is Jamie is starting a new job on Monday here in Fort Collins (good for him, but that's not the good news.). The good news is that our insurance from Jamie's prior company is good through the end of the month and we can get all of next week's appointments, including the casts and splints, done on that insurance!!! More free stuff from the insurance plan we've met our out-of-pocket maximum on. YIPPEE!!! That's such a relief!!

That's it for this week! This time next week Kinsey will have no pins in her feet and short casts :)

New Casts & Lots of Fun This Week

Last weekend Kinsey came down with a pretty bad cold. She was really miserable on Sunday, but she started feeling better on Monday. She seems to be feeling ok even though she still has a terrible cough. She never had a fever or yucky colored mucus so I haven't taken her to the doctor. We do have a routine appointment next week (more on that below).

This week's big news is Kinsey's new casts. We went back to the doctor on Monday and everything went very well. Kinsey was great while they cut the casts off - I was worried she would be squirming all over the place, but she must have been mesmorized by the saw because she was perfectly still the whole time. Here's a video of the cast removal: http://youtu.be/mfD8iSyvQCY

The doctor took all the bandages off and examined her incisions and the overall shape of her foot and said everything looked good. You could really see a huge difference in her feet - they're "normal" shaped now! Kinsey had a few blisters that were caused by swelling rubbing against the cast following surgery, but the doctor said they will heal and were nothing to be worried about. Her foot definitely looks a little Frankenstein with the incisions being black from dye used during surgery and the pins sticking out. I took a picture, but in case you're squimish I'm posting it at the end of the blog so you don't have to look at it unless you want to . . .

So they put new casts right back on her legs, up to her thighs again for another 3 weeks. This time we went with purple - I think I actually like them better than the pink ones :) The only time Kinsey got upset during the appointment was when they put the new casts on and the doctor held her foot into position while the cast set up. She has seemed to be a little uncomfortable in the evenings since getting her new casts, but a little dose of ibuprofen and she sleeps well.

Here's a picture of her new purple casts:

So this week we've had lots of fun with some mom's group events. We went to a local park on Wednesday and hung out with some moms and kiddos. On Thursday we went to an organic farm to pick raspberries and strawberries. We were supposed to meet up with the moms and kids and have a picnic too, but I couldn't find the group so Kinsey and I just picked our berries and visited with some of the farm animals, then came home. We still had lots of fun - and the berries are all very delicious! Kinsey even picked a couple of strawberries herself! Here's a video of that and some pictures from the farm: http://youtu.be/8HqU5QrvUsA

Checking out the raspberries



Funny Face! She's eating a raspeberry here. She was squinting
because of the sun and it looks like she's puckering, but really
she's sucking on the raspberry (that's what she does instead of chewing)!

Eating a strawberry

Checking out the strawberries

Grabbing the Goat's ear just like she does to Bailey.
We also saw roosters and a very large pot belly big (she grabbed his ear too!)





Kinsey's also been having fun "driving" her car around all the space we have here! Pop-Pop had to revamp the car a little bit though - the original plastic tires just didn't work on all the dirt and gravel here, so he got new rubber tires and fit them to the car. Here are some pictures and video of Kinsey in her car: http://youtu.be/O3JC_gk_2rc and http://youtu.be/p9f5_dwGof4.

Smiley!

Driving off into the Sunset!

Waiting to pull into the garage. This picture cracks me up!

This one's pretty funny too! We tried to get Bailey to ride with her, but
as soon as the car starts moving, he jumps out.

And here are some other pictures and videos of some fun around the house:

Playing her Piano: http://youtu.be/-eDJHjzzOdE
Going down the Slide (I didn't rotate the camera on this one): http://youtu.be/cpW4mW55YTA

Here's a series of pictures of her going down the slide - I love how you can see her smiling the whole time:

Playing with the wheel in her playset:

Next week is busy - we have an appointment with the team from the Early Intervention program on Tuesday where we will write Kinsey's treatment plan. Once we get that done, they will find the therapists and we'll start having therapy appointments again. On Wednesday we're going for a routine visit with the pediatrician and on Thursday we're going to see the Eve Doctor. That should be an interesting appointment because no one has ever really looked at her eyes. Kinsey's new pediatrician here looked at them and said she noticed a little something with one eye (don't remember exactly what she said now), but she referred us to this pediatric eye doctor. We'll see what he has to say!

That's it for this week. Here's the picture of Kinsey's foot. Don't look if you don't want to

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You can really tell her her foot is flatter on top and she has a little arch now.
You can't see it from this picture, but the bone on the inside of her ankle that
used to stick out is gone now.







21 Months!

Today Kinsey is 21 months old!!! This week has been full of fun and new toys!

My dad built Kinsey an activity board that I saw online - it has different types of hardware on it for her to learn how to work. Here are some pictures of her playing with it and a video: http://youtu.be/Vsta-RPG4JU

The new swing set my dad bought Kinsey also came this week. We finally have a place to hang the swing that Aunt Cheri bought for her birthday last year.  (Back in FL it was hanging uneven from a tree branch which made it twist as it swung.) Kinsey loves having it swing evenly now:

Today she took a nap in her swing

Kinsey also likes the slide - it's just the right size for her and she can even go down it on her own (if you're at the bottom to catch her). Here's a video (I forgot I can't turn the camera again on video so you have to turn your head to watch): http://youtu.be/EHaJVSQMnbA

This week I also opened a birthday present Kinsey got from our friends Deb & Steven (she had too many presents so I put some away to open later). This is a "fish tank" for her to watch and she really likes it too: http://youtu.be/_m7ktpq6YeU

And the last new toy is a "sensory" toy idea I found on pinterest - fabric scraps in an old wipes case. Kinsey loves to play with my fabric scraps and now she can pull them out of the wipes case to play with them. Here's a video of her playing with this - funny thing if she really wants to close the lid, but she doesn't latch it so it keeps popping open. She thinks she closes it, looks away, then looks back and it's open so she tries to close it again. So funny! http://youtu.be/fu753lolpNk
On to the less fun stuff - We go back to the doctor on Monday for the first surgery follow-up. They will take her casts off, check out the incisions, and put new thigh-high casts on for another 3 weeks. We're going to change the cast color - maybe purple this time! I'm not really looking forward to seeing the incisions and the pins sticking out of her feet - creepy! But hopefully all will look good to the doctor.

This week we also had our first meeting with the early intervention program here to get Kinsey set up with all her therapists and services again. We don't have to do a formal evaluation because Kinsey automatically qualifies for services based on her diagnosis, but we do have another meeting in a few weeks with several of the team members to write our ISFP (treatment plan) for Kinsey. Then they will asign the therapists and they will start coming out to the house again.

We went to a couple new play groups this week - one relaxed group in the park and I went to a Mom's night out. Next week we're going to a couple more - one at a place called Berry Patch Farms where we can pick our own strawberries and flowers and go to a petting zoo. Should be fun!

Oh and here's an update on some new foods we've discovered Kinsey likes - eggs, cornbread, black olives and now she eats whole black beans and pinto beans too. But refried beans and mashed potatoes are still her favorites!

Getting Used to the Casts

Kinsey has been doing much better with her casts and surgery recovery this week. We've still been giving her ibuprofen or tylenol every once in a while, but no more pain killer and she actually hasn't had any medicine in more than 24 hours now. She's still slightly grumpier than before, probably just because the casts are annoying and preventing her from doing some things, but she's doing really well.

The best thing about the casts is that they've provided her with the counter weight on Kinsey's legs for her to be able to sit up on her own! For a while now she's been able to sit up if we held her legs down for her and she was starting to use her arm a little bit to help push herself up. Now the casts make her legs heavy enough that we don't have to hold them and she can do it on her own. She's mostly using her "abs of steel," but she is also pushing with her arm a little bit.

It's so funny that she can finally sit up on her own! The other day she was playing on the floor in her room while I put laundry away and she'd fallen on her back, but when I turned around she was sitting up! That was so weird!! Then one afternoon I went in to get her from her nap and she was sitting up in her crib!! (Good thing we lowered the crib a little bit!) Anyway, here's a video of her sitting up on her own: http://youtu.be/Px5kWsejeNU

This week pop-pop bought Kinsey a new toy - a ball pit! She's played in it every day since she got it and I think she really likes it. My dad bought this for her to go along with a playgound he also bought her that will be here next week. It has a ladder, slide and swings. We've selected a spot in the backyard to set everything up and I think she will really enjoy playing outside more - it's so nice that we can do that now since the weather is so nice here! Obviously she won't be able to use the ladder right now, but she'll be able to enjoy the slide and the swings.

Here are some pictures of Kinsey playing in the ball pit:

Kinsey has also recently been enjoying her Rock & Roll Elmo that gramma bought her for Christmas last year. From then up until we moved in April, she had never really paid attention to it, but now that she's seeing it again a few months later, she likes it! Here are a couple of cute videos of her playing with it: http://youtu.be/WQA35qFBan4 and http://youtu.be/3fifqG8b1oI

This week Kinsey has also been enjoying sitting in her chair in front of the TV with baskets of all her toys and she's been watching some of the Olympics with me (gotta raise her right!).

This week we also started making some new friends. We went to a play event with a moms group today and met a couple of moms and their kids. I'm looking forward to meeting many more and making some new friends for us both :)

That's it for this week - here's a cute picture of Kinsey and Jamie watching one of the beautiful sunsets over the mountains!