Shriners Hospital

We have great news! We have been to Shriners Hospital and we now have a plan for Daughter of Purpose. Our visit was long (about 5 hours), but well worth it.

Initially our visit was not looking very promising. The Resident who came in to assess our situation didn't have the greatest "bedside manner", especially for working with children. Daughter of Purpose never really warmed up to him and we didn't really feel like he did a thorough job of getting her full story. He left us thinking that our daughter's needs were spread across three different specialties of medicine and that since different specialties don't work well together that she would fall through the cracks and not get the care she needs. He told us that he didn't know if the hospital would be able to help her. At that point, we thought we had wasted our time.

After getting a bunch of x-rays done to be assessed, we were finally able to meet the "real" doctor. Let's just say that amazing was not a good enough word for her. Daughter of Purpose immediately warmed up to her because she walked into the room with a smile and was ready to play. She played with Daughter of Purpose and was able to assess her in that manner. Our daughter thought it was great! The doctor listened to her story and asked intelligent questions--ones that signified that she was fully grasping our daughter and her needs.

Once we established with the doctor that none of us were sold on the Russian diagnosis for our daughter's muscle weakness in her legs, we made a plan to have Daughter of Purpose come back for another appointment to meet with a Neuromuscular doctor. We were all on the same page that we need to get to the bottom of what has caused her muscle weakness. From that we can make an accurate plan for her medical care.

For now, we have established that Daughter of Purpose will greatly benefit from a KAFO on her right leg. A KAFO is basically a brace for her leg. It stands for Knee-Ankle-Foot-Orthosis. If it only went to her knee (which we hope for her future), it would then be an AFO and would only go to right below her knee. After meeting with the Physical Therapist, we were able to get a mold done of our daughter's leg so that they can make a KAFO especially for her.

We will go back in a few weeks to pick up her KAFO and make sure it properly fits. After that, we wait for her neuromuscular appointment. Once all of that is done, we meet with her amazing doctor again to map out a long-term plan.

We are so grateful for Shriners Hospital. They have given us what we've been searching for since we brought Daughter of Purpose home--hope--hope that she may be able to walk close to normal some day. Maybe she won't play soccer or baseball, but now we're able to offer her a future she wouldn't have had in Russia.

As we sit and watch the Olympics each night, Daughter of Purpose tells me all about how she is going to do that (whatever sport is on) someday and that I, Mommy, will sit in the crowd and yell, "Yeah, Daughter of Purpose!!" I don't know what her future holds, but you can bet that it will give me no greater joy than to be my daughter's cheerleader. This visit to Shriners was just one step in that direction.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."