Almost
a year ago, we started the whole process of figuring out why Eddie walked so high on his toes. I was never really concerned until I took him for a physical and he couldn’t balance on the
scale. The nurse who I have known through
5 kids, told the doctor about it.
She had Eddie try to walk flat-footed and we actually laughed because he
looked like Frankenstein, poor kid.
She suggested an X-ray to check for a tethered spine. We went to Wolfson and thank God, the X-ray
was normal. Like an idiot, I googled toe walking and fear entered my heart. I was honestly just looking for some exercises and saw how
it can be a sign for autism to cerebral palsy and worse.
The next step was to take
him to Nemours to see a Pediatric Orthopedic Doctor to check him out to see if
we needed to go on to neurology.
He was really positive and didn’t think surgery would be needed or that
we needed to do an MRI or anything extreme. He suggested waiting a year and coming back. As a parent, for some reason, you feel
like a failure when something is wrong with your kids, like you made it happen
somehow. I was happy with his
assessment but didn’t have peace about waiting a whole year.
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| Mary Kay |
Our church hosted a concert
and my Mom and I went. God ordained
for me to see a very special friend of ours, Mary Kay, who I haven’t seen in
many years. We were visiting and
catching up and I was telling her about all of Eddie’s issues. Duhhh, I was reminded that she is a
physical therapist with kids. She
said she wanted to come meet Eddie and check him out! She came over and blew my mind. She had him doing all kinds of crazy stuff, having fun but
stretching his calves out at the same time. It was an amazing thing to behold. We really tried hard to figure out if my insurance would
cover her as his therapist but just couldn’t make it work. She would have totally done it for free
but we just couldn’t ask her to take Eddie on too along with all her full load
of kids.
My doctor gave us a referral
for Brookes Rehab for therapy. I
was so overwhelmed and felt like crying on a regular basis when I thought about
adding something else to my out of control schedule. When you start a family, they are all so cute and
cuddly. Then they grow up and
require so much of your time and money, driving them everywhere, homework and more. It’s daunting on many days even though
I am so thankful for each one of them. That’s why I depend on my relationship
with the Lord so much! If God
didn’t help me everyday, I would surely die or at least run away!! Being a parent is a regular reminder of
your shortcomings.
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| Ms Jenn working hard with Ed |
We went to Brookes Rehab for
our first appointment and I was dreading every bit of the future process. Eddie
is my most opinionated, stubborn kid and the thought of someone stretching his
muscles and forcing him to do exercises made me cringe. Ms. Jenn came out and greeted us and
took us back to her room. She was
about as cute as a person could be, so full of personality but handled Ed like
a serious pro. She has seen him in
all his stubborn glory and is so patient yet pretty tough too! She gets him to do more stuff than I
ever could. It has been an amazing
thing to watch! I would seriously
have to lie down and nap after every kid, if I did this all day! It is truly a sovereign gift from God
to have that level of energy paired with creative ideas to help them stretch
and develop!
I am forever grateful to
God for helping me along this painful journey! I have friends who have children with serious disabilities
and one recently diagnosed with cancer.
I try to remind myself how blessed I am that this is Ed’s issue and it’s
not something life threatening but it has been heartbreaking at times.
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| Ms. Jenn checking out Ed's cool boots! |
My friend Mary Kay mentioned getting leg braces for Ed to get the most results. After a few sessions working with Jen,
she thought braces were a good option with as tights as his legs were and that it would be the quickest, most
effective way! The thought of your
baby in leg braces immediately makes you think of Forest Gump but I want this
over with as quickly as possible before kids get cruel to Eddie. With his personality, he is liable to
punch them out if anyone did make fun of him though!
We went to Hangar Prosthetics
and they did a cast for his braces.
My friend Mary Kay showed up for moral support and is so smart, and had
some M&M’s in her pocket as bribery for Ed to be cooperative!! Thank God! He got to pick out the pattern and colors and picked
Spiderman with red straps! A guy
named Ben was wonderful with Eddie and handled him well! We went back in 3 weeks and at first he
thought they were totally cool! We
told him they were spidey boots and would help him jump like Spiderman! That
seemed to work for about 30 minutes.
I took him to the Dollar Store to get some prizes for being such a
trooper and it almost killed me to see him walk in these braces. I choked back tears, when strangers
would look him up and down with pity!
I know all of this needs to be done but it has been tough on my momma’s
heart that usually lets him get away with too much being my baby boy! Talk about tough love.
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| Ed gets his braces |
He sobbed uncontrollably and
I cried too! I had a meeting at
school and my poor mom agreed to watch him but she is a worse softie than I am
and could hardly stand to make him keep the braces on! She did what every good
grandma would do, she made him his favorite food, cheese grits and spoon-fed
him while he sat on the couch and watched cartoons! All the kids and I came back to pick Ed up and I was never
so proud of them. They oooed and
awwwed over his cool spidey boots and told him they wanted them and made the
biggest deal! He suddenly was very
possessive of them and proud!!
He wore them everyday a
little bit more so we could make sure they fit properly! It was time for him to wear them to
school! I told the teachers at school and
they were so supportive and also made a big deal about how cool they
were!! His friends hovered
around him and loved his spidey boots too! The thought of him trying to play on the playground and run
with the braces on devastated me.
Dan kept encouraging me that he would be fine! One of my best friends texted me that she watched him out
her window at school and he didn’t miss a beat! I was so relieved and thankful!
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| Serious Progress! |
We get to see Ms. Jenn twice
a week and Eddie has had some very good days with good attitudes and some
weepy, bad days when he earned no candy.
Seeing Ms. Jenn every week has been a tremendous blessing and I will
never forget how hard she has worked on my son and all the love and kindness
that she has extended to him!
We had a bright spot
yesterday, when we went to pick up his night braces. George couldn’t believe how much Eddie had improved and
really commended our effort!! He
said we were going to be a great success story! Yes, I choked back tears because
I was so relieved! This task and
burden weighs very heavy on me! I
feel guilty for not looking into it years sooner when it started! I didn’t not out of neglect but out of
experience. All my other kids toe
walked and eventually came down on their own but Ed was getting consistently
worse.
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| Ed gets his night braces |
Today, I was grabbing some lunch
for myself on the way to therapy and Ed asked for a smoothie. I said yes and then Eddie said, “How
about we take one to Ms, Jenn!” I
said that was a great idea! Who
knows if Ms. Jenn even likes smoothies but I knew that she would be thrilled
about Eddie’s thoughtfulness! He
has grown to love her and even cried to go see her on one of his days off! As much as I want him walking normal, I
will be sad to end my visits with Jenn when the time comes! I hope to always stay in touch!
On one of my overwhelmed
days, I remember praying to the Lord about how afraid I was about raising all
these kids and meeting all their needs! I
wrote down what I felt like God was saying to me. Part of it was that He
would bring just the right people I need into our life that would have the knowledge
and skill set that my kids need to grow into their divine destiny! That happened supernaturally with
Annie’s swimming and again with Eddie's Angels!
I dedicated all these babies to the Lord and He has assured me that He
is well able to care for all of their needs and for me to relax and to trust
Him! That is my plan and I am ever
grateful for all the people who will help Eddie walk on his heels to becoming a
mighty man of God!!!
