Anthony's Magic Shoes

After months of harrasing & nagging the doctors I finally got them to say yes to letting Anthony get some AFO's (leg braces). The doctors didn't think he really needed them, but I wasn't going to let that stand. I am his mother and I know best. I am the one who is with him 24/7. I see how weak his ankles are. The doctor only sees him for 2 minutes in the examination room and makes a decision. I don't think so. No, I don't have a dr. degree, but I think I know my son a little better than the dr. does. Anyways, I won't rant & rave about that anymore. Last month we went up to S.A. to get him fitted for some braces at MK Prosthetics. They took molds of his feet and legs to make sure the braces would fit him perfectly. After they fitted him you get to choose what kind of print you want on them. Dad chose to get cars, trucks & helicopters printed on them. Anthony's favorite thing in the world is CARS! So, we thought this print fit him the best. Well, the braces came in the other day, so we had to come back up to S.A. to get them. As soon as the doctor put them on him we tried to get him to stand up, but he wouldn't just stand...he had to jump. He just kept jumping up and down, up and down, up and down. He was so excited. He kept saying. "Shoes! Shoes!" I am so glad that he likes them. The doctor told us you have to wear tennis shoes witht the braces. Well, None of the shoes that we had fit him, so we had to go shopping once again to get him some tennis shoes that he could wear over the braces. I didn't think this would be such a hard task, but those braces really are a pain. They make his foot so much bigger than it really is. (2 sizes to big exact)We went to all different kind of shoe stores and tried on so many pairs of shoes. Out of all the stores we went to we only found 3 pairs of shoes that would fit over his bracs. So, we went ahead and bought all of them, because they say that the braces really wear and brake down the shoes fast. It looks like we are only going to be able to shop at Stride Rite for now on. They are the only store that carries extra wide shoes. We found some at the Sketcher's store, but they didn't fit as good as the ones from Stride Rite. We still bought the 2 pair from Sketcher's anyways. It was just so hard to find shoes that fit. UGH!

You also have to wear really long socks to go all the way up the brace and to be able to fold back down over them. So I took some pictures of him without shoes so you could see the print and the actual brace & then some pictures with how he is really suppose to wear them. You can't really see the braces then, b/c they are all covered up.

I also went up for another OB appt. Everything looks good and right on schedule