Winter blues

It has been doing a lot of snowing up here. Big accumulating snows just keep ripping through, one right after the other. It's beautiful and very "Currier and Ives-ish" in our quaint New England town and makes things pretty festive for the holidays. But it's getting a little old, and the first real day of winter hasn't even arrived yet. Oy.

I'm trying to get out in between flakes as much as I can and am starting to get creative. Today we scored big when we went to the field house of the college where I work and took advantage of the wide open hallways, the raised platform around the ice arena, and the indoor track. It was a great place for Hannah to practice her walking and both she and Isabelle got some of their ya-yas out. It was also the perfect attitude adjustment: the walls of our house must emit some kind of toxic whine fumes because when we're home for too long, both of my lovely ladies seem to whine, complain and crank most of the time.

It's been awhile since I've had the chance to watch Hannah walk so much at one time and I noticed she had to stop often to uncross her feet because her left foot was turning in and tripping up her right. She's always had a problem with that foot but it seemed more noticeable this time. I'm not sure if it's because she hit a growth spurt or because it's another example of how her physical limitations become more obvious as she gets older and tries to do more.

Whatever the reason, it's good timing that we just recently decided to take the plunge and get Hannah her first round of botax injections in early February. We saw her physiatrist this week and while her range of motion was good and her tone had not changed since the last visit, Hannah has plateaued in her walking and hasn't been pulling up much anymore. I brought up the dreaded "B" word because I realized that it might be time to go for it and see what it does or doesn't do for her.

I'm nervous and hopeful. It is a toxin after all. And it will be 6 injections into her muscles. And she'll probably have some soreness and muscle weakness for a little while after. But hopefully the botox will relax her muscles enough so that she doesn't have to fight them so hard to get around and can use the time to make more progress with her walker and with pulling up, two areas we're trying to focus on right now.

It will be interesting to see how it goes. I hope it helps. But then does that mean we've jumped onto the botax bandwagon and will be subjecting her to regular rounds of injections so that she can keep reaping the benefits? And what does that mean? (Again, it is a toxin after all)

It's so hard to know the right thing to do some times. I feel like I have pretty good instincts and it seems like it's time to give this a whirl. But who knows? What if I'm wrong?