It's hard to believe the appointment with the genetics specialists is tomorrow already. This appointment was set up by Dr. Reinhart months ago and seemed soooo far away.
We will arrive at the clinic in Grand Rapids at 8:30 a.m. and expect to be there at least an hour. They will probably send us somewhere for additional blood work as well. The whole point is to find out if the club feet and other joint issues evident in Maxim are the result of any genetic disorder. It is apparently not unusual for club feet and other things to come in clusters and they like to track causes so hopefully future generations can benefit. If we find that Maxim's problems have a genetic root, it won't change how we deal with it but he will have information valuable to him in the future.
From that appointment, we will go straight to Dr. Reinhart's office right down the street so she can see Maxim in his new brace and better evaluate the proper focus for his therapy.
He did have his first physical therapy appointment this past Thursday. We were surprised to see that the doctor's prescription specified the brace could not be removed during therapy even. However, Shelly the therapist gave some really valuable advice and instruction on how to support one area of Maxim's body while stretching another. Maxim handled it really well which was a relief since he has been a little more argumentative lately. Really testing his boundaries and struggling with the fact that children have to obey parents and not vice versa. Debbie, another blogger, shared some wonderful insights about this very issue at www.jerdebwalker.blogspot.com. I really appreciated another parents perspective in this same scenario.
We have yet to get Maxim out to Lake Michigan. The time that he is allowed to be out of the brace is limited so we have limited him, so far, to just playing in the tub when he craves water play.
From those of you who have dealt with extremely underweight adoptees, I would really like to hear your input on what you did nutritionally to help build them up.
We are especially excited to be going out to Washington State next month. We always really enjoy spending time with family there and this year will be even sweeter because Maxim will be meeting everyone out there for the first time. My dad will have just finished his rounds of radiation ( he has handled it remarkably well and is staying super active and upbeat)too, so that adds to the blessing of getting to go there this year. One icing on the cake, as well, is that we will finally be able to meet the Walker family. They live about an hour and a half from my parents and adopted two children from the same orphanage Maxim was at. When they adopted their son in 2007, they took a lot of pictures although this was greatly frowned upon and shared them with the adoption agency later. It was one of their photos that allowed us our first glimpse of Maxim. So, you see, we really must meet them face to face, don't you think?
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2 comments:
On the weight issue, we add olive/canola oil to just about everything Z eats, that and Ensure adds calories to his diet. He alone gets all the chocolate, ice cream, chips and fries a kid wants...much to the dismay of his siblings!
Jenna,
Our home is wrestling with the same things--the child wants to be the boss. I remember dealing with this when the kids were about one. They had just learned to sign "all done" and that was cheered for a while, but then they had to understand that even when they said "all done", it ain't all done till Mama says "all done". Hard lesson to learn at one, and even harder at five and six (and seven--is you M seven now?). M is so new at the communication thing (and we are so limited) that we are just now coming to the lesson of Mommy and Daddy know best, and you have to do what they say even if you have clearly communicated that you want something different. So hard for these kids to see that we are saying no because we LOVE them, and not because we want to keep the good stuff from them. Can't wait till Max gets that. Really can't wait. Just today we went to the pool for a few hours and M loved it. Then we had to go shopping and Max wanted to buy 9 out of 10 things he saw in the store, asked for dippin dots on the way out of BJ's, screamed for McDonald's when we passed a play place, and nearly had a melt-down when I drove past his favorite park with my sweating milk on the way home to put away the food and cook dinner. By the time I got home, I was shell-shocked with all the gimmes, but he wasn't done trying. As soon as we got home, he went over to the freezer, asked for ice cream, wanted to go out scooting with me, wanted to eat a bag of fruit snacks. He generally doesn't melt down for food but it still wears me out. I just finished saying no banana now because we eat dinner in 10 minutes and now you are asking me for ice cream?!?
I read about Susannah Wesley and her incredible patience with her kids. Someone asked her how she could give such kind correction over and over and over again. She answered that she always thinks that this could be the time the child hears and responds to the correction, and she wants it always to be kind and loving, not harsh.
Inspiring to me, only through the strength God gives.
Whole milk, cream, half and half? Cereal with ice cream not milk for breakfast?
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