Holy Cow - A Good Doctor's Visit???

Yes, it's true, we had a great visit to Dr. Webster today. Dr. Webster is Kaitlyn's physiatrist at Tufts New England Medical Center. You may remember him from the aptly titled "So Frustrated" post from January.

Anyway, today was a much, much different day. Kaitlyn went in to have some new bi-valve casts made. Since she went through serial casting in November, she has been wearing a pair of removable casts while she sleeps. Kaitlyn has been able to maintain the awesome results of the casting by wearing these at night. Unfortunately she has lots of problems with the casts. She tends to push her heels up and come out of them during the night, and has also worn through the lining three times and had to have it replaced. Today Dr. Webster called in a friend of his from Children's Hospital who is known to be at the top of the casting game. Unfortunately Kaitlyn had to lay still for an hour while the casting guru, Dr. Webster and Chris worked to get her legs in just the right position to make the casts.

I know I sound like a broken record, but I have to say I was so impressed with her willingness to cooperate without the slightest complaint. She instead regaled the group with stories of her triumphs in dance class and a well thought out explanation of why she felt compelled to write Santa a letter this past week. By the way, the morning after she mailed the letter to Santa, we saw SNOW flurries (yes, during the last week in April!). Kaitlyn was convinced that Santa made it snow as a message to her so that she would know she got his letter. Very, very sweet.

After the casting I was asking Dr. Webster some questions on Kaitlyn's bracing options. As he was giving me his answer, he very casually included the following statement "When she walks completely independently without any assistance, and I believe she will..." - I didn't hear a word he said after that. Instead I stopped him in the middle of his next sentence with an inappropriate yet unavoidable outburst. I explained to him (in an oddly high-pitched voice) that his statement meant more than he could ever imagine to us. He is only the second doctor ever to tell us that he believes Kaitlyn will be a fully independent ambulator (second to Dr. Park I might add). All other doctors have given us a standard "Well, there are no guarantees, and no way to predict the future, blah, blah, blah" type explanations. I had given up asking doctors to predict Kaitlyn's future walking ability, mostly because I was afraid of what they might say. Hearing Dr. Webster so nonchalantly state that Kaitlyn WILL walk independently was the most unexpected gift I can imagine. All of you other special needs parents out there will be able to understand that with each doctor's visit comes more than a little anxiety. The truth is we never know what news to expect. Today was a good day, and tonight I feel hopeful.

When we left the hospital, we got to enjoy the most beautiful spring afternoon in the city. We took a walk through the Boston Common and Public Garden. We went for a really peaceful swan boat ride, visited the Make Way For Duckling statues, and had a spin on the carousel. It really was a perfect afternoon.

The best part of the day? Kaitlyn spent some time introducing her new American Girl Doll "Lanie" to everyone at the hospital. The super-sweet casting technician decided that Lanie should experience everything that Kaitlyn does. Here is the result...