Glowing Report? Yes and No

Well, today was Maxim's last casting of feet for awhile now. We are now in full get-ready-for-surgery mode. Dr. Reinhart gave quite a reality check today, as she and the team of doctors have all taken another look at the latest info on our little guy and have to concur that the casting of his feet has produced as much progress as it's going to. In other words, Maxim has truly reached a plateau in progression of foot position. They are no longer going to attempt further correction of position. They are simply going to cast his feet to maintain the progress which has already been achieved, to hold it until foot surgery is scheduled. The plan with Maxim's feet is the one we were hoping would not happen; a bilateral talectomy (sp?). The Talis will be removed on both feet. Picture looking at your foot from the top. The talis is the bone of the foot which fits right between the points of your leg as they meet the foot. Maxim's feet, although much progress has been made, are still positioned in such a way that the talis is still off to the side. So the plan is to remove that particular bone and then set each foot into proper position with pins. This will result in being able to walk still, but not with normal flexibility in the ankle. A stiff walk.

Bittersweet. Of course, we have hoped for more. I asked every question I could think of, not wanting to leave any stone unturned, as I feel I have unintentionally done in the past with regards to Cyan's special needs. Dr. Reinhart listened respectfully to everything I had to say but also reminded me that a whole team has looked at the evidence, and some of these doctors have been in practice over 35 years. They have seen pretty much everything and have good base on which to go with this decision. And I am truly excited to still look forward to Maxim getting on his feet in any way at all and walking. To do that at all would never have happened in Ukraine. So thank You, Heavenly Father.

We are nine days and counting from the hip reconstruction surgery (May 15) and Dr. Reinhart says the foot surgery will most likely be sometime around the end of August. This will give us a window of time, between recovery from one surgery and the onset of another, to take a break from any casts for a couple of weeks and travel if we want to, or just be free to go out to Lake Michigan and swim unencumbered for a little while this summer. When my sister Heidi was here in April, we went out to the lake with her and Maxim expressed wanting to go into all of that "big water". He is such a water bug.

One of the highlights today was that as we were waiting for Maxim's casting to begin, Brina noticed on the list of cast color options that "glow in the dark" was available. As soon as I explained to Maxim something of what that meant, he had no doubt this is what he wanted. So we haven enjoyed turning lights on and off this evening, letting him enjoy this new look. Unfortunately, if I use the flash, I don't get a good shot of the glow in the dark effect and if I don't use a flash in the dark room, I get no image at all of his legs. Sorry folks. The debut of Maxim's handsome night light legs will just have to wait.