Well we returned Wednesday from our trip to Salt Lake City and I jumped right into picking Young Jedi up from the bus, unloading dishes, and doing 3 loads of laundry. Nothing says welcome home like dishes and laundry.

Our trip was great. There’s no other way to put it. The doctor we saw was amazing, Salt Lake City was beautiful and we got the news we were hoping for. Added bonus the ASU softball team was on our flight there so I should have taken that as a sign of good things to come.

Everyone at Primary Children was so nice and accommodating and were eagerly awaiting us. We got some fantastic images of her feet and growth plates.

The x-rays show that Sporty’s growth plates are still open and therefore she is a candidate for 8 plate guided growth. They basically will put a plate at the front of her foot (going through her scar from her tendon transfers) and insert a metal plate that will straddle the growth plate, this will cause the growth plate to come together in the front but cause it to get wider in the back, dropping her heel and fixing her toe walking without having to cut and lengthen her Achilles. The Dr drew this illustration for us. It’s the best possible news. It’s minimally invasive, no casting, she’ll be able to walk the day the procedure which means no down time, which means a happy Sporty. He also said she’s extremely strong and doesn’t feel that physical therapy will benefit her given her strength so check one more appointment off of my list!

I can’t say enough good things about the Dr we saw. He was knowledgeable, understood Sporty, asked her about her feet, explained everything. He even brought out his very first baseball glove to show her. So of course he’s retiring. 🙄. He did refer us to a doctor in Phoenix who did his fellowship with him and should be able to perform the surgery. Or we can go to Stanford and the doctor there should be able to perform the surgery. So I’m feeling super optimistic, I’ve done some research and this process has been leveraged in the Netherlands with success and she should be able to walk that day but will definitely be up and about within the week given the experience of others. Huge 🤞🏻 it all comes together! We haven’t had an appointment this good in years. We needed this.