Sophie's First Orthopedic Appointment

Monday was, in many ways, a monumental day for us.

First, and most importantly, it was Sophie's first orthopedic appointment at Gillette Children's Specialty Health care. The appointment with a dream team of doctors and professionals that would help Sophie to get her prosthetics.



Secondly, it was the first time Sophie threw up with us. A lot.

About halfway to the clinic, Sophie had her first smaller attack. We scrambled to get her cleaned and changed into a spare set of clothes, and to clean the car seat.

She didn't have a fever, and after the spell was over, she was her normal cheery self. Until she threw up again on 35W, with us less than 10 minutes away from the clinic.

Stacy was adamant that she was sick, and that we needed to go back home (an hour's trip). I told her that we had to go, and that I truly didn't think Sophie was sick - that maybe she had a nervous stomach, or had some bad milk. Her lack of other symptoms had me feeling certain of my conclusion.

We continued on, and with less than 10 feet before being parked in the poorly designed parking ramp, Sophie threw up again, completely covering the blanket Stacy was covering her with, and getting Sophie's spare shirt messy as well.

We didn't have another shirt, we were at the clinic, and Stacy was upset, nearly demanding that we go home - she was convinced that they would see her as sick, and turn us around. I convinced her that we'd need to go in anyway to clean Sophie up, and that we could ask the clinic staff what we should do.

We went in, checked in (and there wasn't a problem with Sophie having an upset tummy) and Stacy went to the gift shop to get a new shirt for Sophie. Unfortunately, at the children's hospital gift shop the smallest shirt they had was for a four year old...



But it worked.

Sophie got her height and weight measured, screaming the whole time. She's now 77.5 cm and 21.5 pounds - which, if accurate, is a pound and 1/2 cm more than she was 2 months ago. We'll have a better measure when she goes to our GP next week and she's measured by the same person who did it before.

Sophie also hated getting X-rayed, and screamed for about twenty minutes as they took the needed pictures of Sophie's right arm and leg.

We then went to room Blue 3, and met our pediatric orthopedic team!



We had the head doctor, Dr. Lang, as well as a surgeon and three people on the prosthetic team.

Fortunately, Sophie doesn't need any surgery, just some bionics! Okay, maybe not bionics, but give them a few years...

After some consultation, and finding out that we could do our follow-ups in Maple Grove (only 45 minutes away, not 90). We went to get Sophie's casts made.



Surprisingly, she almost enjoyed it. I admit that her sitting on my lap probably helped a lot, but she was very patient and allowed the doctor to hold the casts as they set.

Here's her finished arm cast:



Then came her leg:





Hopefully we'll have an appointment yet this week for the first "check sock" fitting, and after that it'll probably be another week for the "final" fitting of the nearly finished piece where final tweaks and adjustments are made. A few days later, we should have Sophie's new leg!

So, it looks like she might have her new leg before her grandpa Calvin comes to town at the end of the month!

The arm will take longer, and probably won't be ready until late June - though we aren't that worried about the arm right now.

I admit, I can't wait until she can walk and run completely on her own - it's going to be awesome.

That is all for now - I'll come back later in the week with some video - may be this weekend, depending on what is going on the next few days...

Talk to you later!

Larry