The first picture is of Ellie working hard on her standing and building up the strength in her legs ever since recovering from her October 30 PERC lengthening and posterior tibial recession. Here you can see her at her school in her knee immobilizers standing. Her awesome PT, Maryann, even let go for a few seconds and Ellie was able to balance upright, standing, on her own.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Go Ellie!
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The second and third pictures are of Ellie in her Pony Gait Trainer.
She goes in it everyday and more and more needs no coaxing to take steps on her own. Our floor is like the high seas so we always start her up at the top of the 5% grade so that her first steps pack a big wallop. She is really enjoying it. I still need to order this and that should help her even more with staying upright. It's exciting to see how much she really loves to "walk". In the last picture you can see her making her way to the TV. she loves to see all around the TV and will ask us what various parts are. A gadget girl all the way.
I hope we are doing the right thing encouraging her. It's always a double edged sword. The surgery we did helped especially with the pointing downward of her toes and on the left side. But her right foot still toes in quite a bit.
The good news is it seems like her feet are adjusting to her AFO's allowing her to wear them for longer stretches of time before we need to check her feet and let the redness die down. It makes me sad sometimes though that she wears those all day, a diaper all day, and bivalves on her legs and feet at night. Even so we are seeing her pulling her feet inward less and that has got to be some new wiring in the brain - which is good.
