In Which Connor Straightens Out

Connor tried out some new leg braces today, and he was able to stand in them without a stander and just a little help from his physical therapist for balance!  It's been a while since he's been able to stand without support from the stander; not only did he regress quite a bit when he had all those seizures a year and a half ago, but his hamstrings are also getting tighter and that makes it more difficult for him to stand up straight.  This is a really common problem for children in wheelchairs because they spend so much time sitting with their legs bent at a ninety degree angle. 

He's getting to be so tall!  He comes up to my waist now when he stands.

The biggest issue with the leg braces is that they are hot, which is of course potentially a serious problem for Connor.  So we won't be using them at home until the air conditioner is installed, which should hopefully be happening any day now.  Once that happens, we'd like to work up to him wearing them all night while he sleeps.  It doesn't sound terribly comfortable, but if we can prevent (or at least delay as long as possible) him from needing hamstring release surgery that would be fantastic. 

Otherwise we spent a good portion of the day out and about again; it got up to 87 degrees today, which meant we needed out of the house.  Tomorrow hopefully won't be too bad, but it will start heating up again on Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday the predicted highs are in the 90's which means another twelve hour mall day. 

I'm getting really, really tired of the mall.  Hopefully our turn on the handyman's queue will be soon!

~Jess