I have! Her name is Anna. And the day I've been dreading for over a year became a reality yesterday... We've started her treatment.

Anna has walked up on her tip toes since she first started pulling up on our furniture. We weren't too worried about it at first, but then it just persisted. I guess no one's really sure what came first, the shortened heel cord or the toe walking, but we first took her to the orthopedic last summer when we got back from Alaska. Although I cried through the entire appointment, he really set our minds at ease about it. Pretty much told us that in his opinion we wouldn't get much out of physical therapy, and we would just be wasting our breath and frustrating Anna if we constantly hounded her to walk on her heels. He said he preferred to treat kids at the age of 4 and to do it over the winter since it gets so hot here. So...15 months later...here we are.

I realized last week that in every picture I take of Anna, she's down on her heels, which is just amazing, because in reality she's up on her toes probably 90% of the time. She'll rest on her heels, but she's started this splay-foot thing now. If we ask her to walk on her heels her posture gets weird and her feet get farther and farther apart with every step. I guess her heel cord is just getting shorter and shorter. And just recently she's started complaining of leg pain. I think we're actually starting her treatment just in time. I feel like we're going into this with fairly realistic expectations. I thought the chances of long-term success would be about 50%; her doctor seemed to think that number should be closer to 70%. He offered up the heel cord lengthening surgery again to get the odds up around 95%, but we've declined that for now.

Since the pool is finally in working order again, we decided to try to let Anna swim as much as possible this past week before we started the treatment.

She's such a fish!  She can swim without these floaties, but she found them in the swim closet and wanted to wear them.  I was so worried they'd slip off and leave her dangling with one arm up out of the water and the rest of her body subm… — She's such a fish! She can swim without these floaties, but she found them in the swim closet and wanted to wear them. I was so worried they'd slip off and leave her dangling with one arm up out of the water and the rest of her body submerged, but they are actually very tight on her arms.

Since I cried through her initial appointment over a year ago, I've been super concerned that I would just do it again and totally start this whole process off on the wrong note...I managed to hold it together. I think that was due to the fact that I randomly got a horrible eye infection yesterday! I was super distracted by it the whole time. It just kept getting worse and worse throughout the day. I am super duper blind, so I feel like the last resort is to take my contacts out. I took that lens out around 11:00 am, which means I had no depth perception for the rest of the day. It was miserable, and it didn't help! My eye managed to swell just about shut while we were at the doctor's office. I know everyone was noticing it, but people are so polite...no one wanted to ask. So embarrassing. Anyway, after Anna's appointment, I ended up going to a clinic for it...talk about a late night.

Back to Anna! Her treatment will consist of 6 weeks of serial casting and probably 6 months in AFOs, which are just orthotic braces to retrain her on how to walk once the casts come off. The thought of binding up your kid's feet in casts is pretty horrible. They warned us it would probably be a tough weekend.

I've been trying to prep her for these for a couple of weeks now.  Showed her some pictures of kids with casts online, talked about how fun it would be for people to sign them.... — I've been trying to prep her for these for a couple of weeks now. Showed her some pictures of kids with casts online, talked about how fun it would be for people to sign them....

She goes back and forth frequently between liking them and hating them.  We've already had some tears and a pretty good freak out about not being able to swim. "Can you take them off Mommy!!!!"  I've heard that about a hundred times this m… — She goes back and forth frequently between liking them and hating them. We've already had some tears and a pretty good freak out about not being able to swim. "Can you take them off Mommy!!!!" I've heard that about a hundred times this morning. :(

She has some sweet walking boots.  The fact that she can "walk" in the casts is the only thing that makes this process palatable for me.  I was a little annoyed that these boots weren't a more fashionable black, but Anna doesn't seem to mi… — She has some sweet walking boots. The fact that she can "walk" in the casts is the only thing that makes this process palatable for me. I was a little annoyed that these boots weren't a more fashionable black, but Anna doesn't seem to mind the blue.

She feel asleep as soon as Josh got her home last night, and woke up around 11:00pm.  I could hear her coming from the other side of the house  She won't be sneaking up on anyone for the next 6 weeks.  "/ — She feel asleep as soon as Josh got her home last night, and woke up around 11:00pm. I could hear her coming from the other side of the house She won't be sneaking up on anyone for the next 6 weeks. "/

I've never had a cast before, but I've always harbored a fear of them just because of the process of getting them off. Well...they had to re-do one of her casts while we were there, so Anna's already been through the saw process and didn't even flinch!