I don’t know why but I was super worked up about Sporty’s orthopedic surgeon appointment today.  It’s been a while since we’ve been there, we’ve melted an AFO on the softball field and started soccer since we’ve seen him and things change so quickly with her feet that I was a bit nervous.  Plus she’s been having some limb fatigue (especially in her right foot which is the recently operated foot) when running hills at soccer practice so I was concerned there was something going on.  So here’s what we learned:

A) When your favorite office administrator is off but she sees you’re on the schedule and she writes a note to Sporty in her chart to say hi and to instruct her to get a lollipop, you know these are more than just Drs.

B) When the nurse and Dr Fluffy Unicorn walk in and cheer “Yay!  The Sporty family is here!” you know you’ve found a place that truly cares about your child’s well being, beyond charts and patient numbers, they truly care about your child.

C) When the Dr laughs and cheers because your kid melted her AFO WHILE on the softball field and tells her to keep it up (toss the AFO because who needs it anyway) and never quit, to get that softball scholarship and then go on to become an orthopedic surgeon, you know he sees her big dreams and builds her up to achieve them.  You realize the village stretches farther than you can ever imagine

D) When the Dr talks to the child about what’s going on, not you, the parent, about the pain she’s feeling when running hills and tells her to try to push herself to try to work through the pain but without injury and she responds back and they have an adult conversation, you know there is mutual respect.  You feel grateful that the adult is allowing the child to have a voice in their own care.  You know that 9 years ago when you chose a Dr, you chose right.

E)  When the Dr asks Sporty about her “cheetah speed” you realize again that she’s not just another patient but that he gets what makes Sporty tick.

F)  When the Dr tells mom to not worry about the tightness because that’s what gives her the cheetah speed and it’s not inhibiting her and in fact one of his old patients just got a scholarship for UCLA and one is going to med school at UCSD, you try to set the worry aside and enjoy the moment.

G) When the Dr tells you not to come back until the summer you don’t know whether to jump for joy, cry tears of joy that we’re past our last hump, or be nervous because we’ve never, ever, in the history of Sporty, gone that long (10 months) between appointments!

Today was a very good appointment.  We haven’t had one of these in a long, long time.  Today I breath a really big sigh of relief.  It could all change very quickly because that’s what these clubfeet do, but today we’re celebrating and we’re optimistic for the first time in a really long time!  Today we feel like we’re truly beating clubfeet.

We were so wrapped up in the viewing of Despicable Me in the waiting room and the good news that we forgot a picture at Dr Fluffy Unicorn’s office!  But here’s Sporty and her two awesome feet, complete with Giant’s orange nail polish.

And here’s hopefully our last AFO, I won’t be throwing it away, because I’m too sentimental for that but I won’t mind pushing it to the back of the closet cause we’ve got soccer and softball (and running club starts tomorrow) to focus on these days!