Orthotics

Last week Josiah and I went to Duke to pick up his orthotics. He will wear these at night. The purpose is to keep the heel cord stretched and hopefully, help Josiah be mobile a while longer. Our PT at Duke is so sweet. She went over how to put the braces on, and then we talked about wheelchairs. When we walk for longer distances, Josiah needs a stroller, but he has outgrown most of your standard strollers. The options from there are a push chair (special needs stroller) or a wheelchair. The PT's opinion was that overall, a lightweight, manual wheelchair would be the best option for Josiah at this point. Sometimes he asks to take his stroller to school, and more recently he asked about getting a rolling walker to use at school so that people wouldn't bump into him. More about wheelchairs in another post.

So Wednesday night we put on the braces, and Josiah went to sleep no problem. At midnight he woke up sobbing, saying they hurt. I took them off, and he went right back to sleep. Apparently that was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. I cried longer and harder than I have cried since that week back in August . It was a reminder of the difficulty he, and by proxy, the rest of us will be going through. A reminder that "normal" has gone by the wayside. That my sweet boy will have to endure through this trial. That we can do nothing to change that.