They really are that bad

Krassi had an appointment with his orthotist today because he's having some issues with his current ankle-foot orthotics.

When Matt arrived with Krassi for the appointment, he was greeted by three other people sitting in the waiting room smiling at him. :)

Turns out they were all coming to observe Bob (who appears to be well known enough around the Cities here that when you talk about him in those kinds of circles, "Bob" is sufficient for people to know who you're talking about!) as he worked on K's feet. One lady works within the same company at a different location, and is the person who Bob will likely pass Krassi's care onto when he retires. The man was an established orthotist from Idaho who is spending some time here shadowing Bob to learn from him, and the younger woman was an intern who wll be doing her residency under the man in Idaho who is here to learn from Bob.

And that's how amazing our son's feet still really are. ;) (Here's where they started with us!) They're the kind of feet that draw a crowd...at least...a crowd of orthotists!!  They all took their turn manipulating his feet and trying on his orthotic and then making marks then disappearing into the "shop" to make adjustment and then bringing it back in and trying it on again. This went on for about an hour and a half.

When Bob made Krassi's first pair of AFO's he told Andrea that if she could get K's feet into and out of his orthotics, that she would be able to get anybody else's AFOs on or off.  It does take a little doing, but once we got used to it, we are able to get them on and off pretty quickly.  It was actually rather humorous at the appointment today to see some of the other trained professionals having trouble getting K's braces on or off.  I asked them if they wanted me to help, but they declined.  Then at the end of the appointment Bob did a little demonstration of how much you have to really twist and contort K's foot to get it into his brace and it was rather embarrassing how much easier it looked when Bob did it than when the other people tried to do it.

The good news is that after several weeks of Krassi having a lot of swelling and toes turning purple his braces seem to be working better since this afternoon's adjustments.  They had gotten bad enough that other than a few 20 minutes stints in the stander at school, he was not wearing his braces at all.  He used to wear them for probably up to 8 or 10 hours a day in several hour increments.  We finished his appointment at 4:30 and then went to church for dinner and service and then came home and took his braces off around 7 and his feet looked the best they have looked in a long time after sitting and/or having his braces on. We will be checking back in with Bob over the next several weeks to make additional adjustment as necessary and then ultimately after we are satisfied that we have them working the way we want them, they will use what they have learned to start making his next pair!