Alison had spina bifida clinic Monday morning. Overall, it was a very good appointment. Dr. Barr had her walking up and down the hall so he could see how she moves. When she's not wearing her shoes, she in-toes quite a bit. When she wears her shoes, her left foot is perfectly fine and her right foot is fine about 50% of the time. So for right now we're just going to have her wear her shoes more around the house and keep an eye on it. She also has a little bit of loose outer rotation in her hips (when he manipulates her legs), but it's not affecting her walking and her legs are perfectly straight when she stands, so Dr. Barr is of the opinion that we should leave it alone for now because treating it would mean braces and he doesn't want to do anything to inhibit her movement. Her back is fine (there had been some concern from her ped at her last check up). We also found that the reason she doesn't stand without holding on to something is because of the mild Chiari malformation. She will eventually stand without holding on, but it will take her longer because her hindbrain (cerebellum) is slightly deformed. Doctor Barr felt the fact that she can move pretty fast and turn on a dime is more important than whether or not she can stand alone at this point. So, aside from the fact that this will be the last time she will be seeing Dr. Barr, because he is retiring at the end of June, we came away with a good report.

Monday was also Alison's last visit to the motor development lab for the Dept. of Kinesiology's study on how walking develops in babies with spina bifida. She did really well and had a lot of fun. She didn't have to walk on the treadmill this time, just down the special mat a bunch of times. They had to set up some "roadblocks" along the side of the mat to keep her on it because on her first trip down she took about 5 steps before veering off to one side of the mat and staying there until she got about 4 feet from the end of it, where she then crossed over the mat and continued on the other side. Once that was taken care of, she did great. We were a little worried that she get halfway down and turn around and go back to where she started from or start walking in circles, because that was what she did at her clinic appointment when the doctor wanted her to walk back up the hall so he could get a look at her from the front, but she went straight down just about every time. All throughout her participation in the study they have been making a memory book for her, including height and weight charts, pictures, and little synopses of what she did at each particular visit. Yesterday they finished it off with a little "diploma," which was signed on the back by everyone that works on the study. It was very interesting to have been a part of this research program.