Last Sunday, Amy and I drove to Philadelphia in time to have dinner with Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop and to celebrate Mom-Mom’s birthday. Then we drove to our hotel so that the next morning we would have a short drive to the orthotist who would measure Amy for her Whisper Brace. We learned about this new kind of scoliosis brace over the summer and had been waiting to see Amy’s orthopedic surgeon to get new x-rays and a prescription for the brace. The doctor told us we couldn’t be right about what we had learned from the makers of the Whisper Brace or from the people actually wearing them and how it improved the curves for some spines. But, as with Schroth therapy, after telling us there was no evidence of it working, he gave us the prescription we sought. I tried in vain to find an orthotist in Pittsburgh willing to be trained in fitting and adjusting the Whisper Brace. The people who make it would come to Pittsburgh to do the training! Multiple times!! After giving up on finding someone in Pittsburgh, I asked the Green Sun medical team, the makers of the brace, to direct me to someone in Philadelphia who could get Amy fitted for it and quickly scheduled an appointment. The turn-around time is extremely short, as we will be driving back to Philadelphia this Thursday for her early morning appointment on Friday to actually get the brace! She has less than one week left with her current brace.
These trips happened to be around a time when I was already planning to visit my dad (Granddad), stepmom, and brother, so I am logging a lot of driving miles in two weeks, but I’m so happy to be able to do all of it. I understand there are no guarantees with the Whisper Brace, but we are hopeful. Meanwhile, around all of my driving, Carl had a work trip on Tuesday and a rowing race yesterday (they won gold!). He has a work trip this week which he leaves for before I get home from my trip. Then Amy and I leave for Philly before Carl comes home on Thursday. Amy and I will get home Friday and see Carl and Sarah briefly before bedtime, and then the next day Carl leaves for three days for a bike race. We are ships not even quite passing each other in the night. Luckily, Grandpa is around and available, helping make all of this possible. Grandpa should get a gold medal too, especially as he is covering a school morning and those start eeeeeearly!
Sarah has a new favorite picture of Granddad that she likes to talk about. It is remarkable how quickly talking about Granddad and the picture of him standing on a dock with her near a wooden owl can shift her mood from anxious to happy in a nanosecond. On Friday morning her bus driver sent me a message that he was stuck in traffic because of an accident. For a while Sarah was happily playing, riding a broom up and down our block and cackling like a witch, but when she started to get anxious, I suggested we stand on the porch like Granddad stood on the dock. Sarah pretended to be Granddad, and I pretended to be Amy, Sarah, and myself. Sarah was instantly sparkly-eyed and happy again.
Friday night, Carl said he was upstairs after dinner but then went to check on the girls because it seemed rather quiet. He found them playing Candyland together in the family room! I love that so very much.
Lots of love to all of you. May you have hope even when others cast doubt.
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