Shriners Results

The visit to Shriner's on Friday was good. They fit her for another brace. The short of it is that they don't want the few muscles she has in her quads in her right leg to atrophy by wearing the larger brace all the time. So they fit her for a shorter one (below the knee) to wear part of the time so she still gets the support, but the thigh muscles get some work. Yep, you understood it right...she will have two braces for her right leg. One AFO and one KAFO. Wouldn't you know that instead of "blue with kitties" she chose her new brace to look like the American flag. Fitting in so many ways, but especially because she can spot an American flag from practically 3 miles away. She's an expert at spotting them and will tell you so every time she sees one!

The neuromuscular specialist also set her up for a procedure that will allow them to figure out exactly what muscles/nerves are working/not working and while they are in there to try and "wake" some of them up. They will need to sedate her for the procedure because of her age. They will not be cutting her open, but they will be poking needles in and out of each nerve/muscle and think that at her age, she won't sit still and she'll freak out over the needles. So it's actually not a huge deal procedure--no recovery time and she'll leave the same day. It's just for her benefit to sedate her so she's not traumatized. This procedure will help the doctor confirm his thoughts that it is indeed polio that has caused her muscle weakness. There's a lot of things he checked her for, but the main thing that makes him believe it's polio is that the areas of her body that are "out" are asymmetrical. If it was neurological or genetic, it would be symmetrical he says. He will also learn while he's doing the procedure as to whether we have hope of muscle re-generation over time or not.

The procedure is scheduled for a few weeks from now. It is right before an insanely crazy weekend that we already have booked solid. It's really not the perfect situation, but our only other option was not until February. We feel like this procedure is exactly what we've been waiting for so crazy or not, here we go!


Not only would we covet your prayers for this procedure, but we would greatly appreciate you praying for Daughter of Purpose to stay well. Any inkling of illness and they will not be able to do the procedure.

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