Today was Alison's appointment with her orthopedic surgeon. Overall, it was a good appointment. There were no surprises, and that's always a good thing. Her intoeing is getting a little bit better. Even though it's only been about 6 months since the last time her twisters were lengthened and despite her orthotist getting them about an inch longer than she needed at the time, she's grown quite a bit recently and the twisters are too short again. So back to the orthotist we go. Hopefully they've got their ordering system figured out now and it won't take 8 weeks to get her new ones. Dr. Craig noted that she seemed to be overpowering the twisters a little bit -- probably due to needing an adjustment since she recently had new shoes put on them -- and told us that a lot of times twisters will start to lose their effectiveness by the time a child is 5 or 6 because the child's muscles do start to overpower them. So we may be nearing the end of wearing twisters whether the intoeing is corrected or not....time will tell, I guess.

Dr. Craig also took a look at Alison's thumb. And, as we were expecting, he recommended doing a tendon release on it. It's a fairly routine, outpatient procedure. When it's all done, she'll have to wear a little cast for about two weeks and then a splint at night for a couple of weeks and that should be the end of it. We don't have a surgery date scheduled yet, but it will probably be some time in June. It's not bothering her, but we'd rather just get it done and over with and not have to worry about it anymore.