No AFOs for a While

We took Noah to his appointment last week for a new pair of AFOs(ankle-foot orthotics). Noah's feet were too full of tone and the therapist could only move his feet to a +5 degree of flexibility, not what she needed to cast his feet for AFOs.  His present braces appear to have been made at a neutral position for his feet, but because of Noah's tone, the therapist said she needs the bend of his feet/ankles to be at a -5 to -10 degrees(so she will not have to struggle with Noah's tone to get a perfect cast) in order to make the cast for his AFOs.  Sooooooo........Noah is going to have to be cast before he's cast...to have his feet put in casts to break up the tone a bit and give his feet more bend before he can be cast for AFOs.  Summer is not a good time to cast, for heat and sweat issues, so we will wait until the cool of the fall before getting casts on his feet. Casting does not hold good memories for me.  Noah's left foot(the strong tone side) was cast once while at Kluge when the thought was it would help to decrease his tone a bit.  Only a few days after casting, when the cast was removed to see how his foot was doing, and then to put another cast on, his foot were covered with sores, places the skin had come off because of Noah's strong foot pressure against the cast.  He had to wear moleskin for a week... and never had another cast on his foot.  The thought does make me a little apprehensive, as sores of any kind on someone like Noah can be harder to care for and can so easily become worse instead of better.    His present AFOs have been so good...perfect fit, no red marks on his feet after wearing for hours, they fit him like a glove(made at my favorite place, KLUGE!!), only his toes hang over the edges when he stands...so he WILL need some new ones...it will just be a while...and a wait. Until then, we will have another opportunity for a botox treatment that will hopefully continue to loosen his tone, I will stretch as much as I can, and I will continue to pray that Noah's strong tone will continue to subside and return to normalcy.  David called about the computer today...another answering machine...we will keep trying!!!!   Thanks for checking in with us, and thanks for your prayers...I am convinced that prayers are what keep Noah improving and what keep David, me and our family doing sooo great..thank you from the depth of my heart!!!.God is sooooooooo good!!!!!   Love to you!!!  Lisa