Tough Blow

This past Friday we had a specialty appointment with a pediatric orthopedic surgeon through Children’s Hospital to give Tyler an overall assessment of his spine/hips. We were recommended to this doctor due to the lack of his progress with his neck, so it was strongly encouraged we were connected to this doctor to make sure the alignment is okay. Good news is that the spine looked good overall (slight curve, but nothing alarming, just being monitored), however they found through an x-ray that his hips are not as symmetry as they should be. Needless to say what I thought was going to be a quick visit, get an x-ray and go into work, we ended up walking out with a hip brace. Oh yes- a hip brace, one that he has to wear 20 hours out of the day for at least a few months- our next appointment is in July for a follow-up. Thanks again to my mom for coming with me as my brain shuts down at these appointments… for once can a doctor talk to a parent in non-medical terms ???

In life, we have all been through the “Why” stage and someday Tyler will go through it where all he says is “Why mama?” & “Why dada?”. I have asked myself a few times WHY yet another obstacle to jump through when it took us so long to have the little boy, WHY yet one more thing when the poor boy has enough other issues including his ongoing blocked tear duct, his food allergies & his flat head. I don’t know that answer right now, but I believe that God has put me in this role because he knows we can handle it and there will be a reason for it someday. Some days I am very flattered that God knows I can handle something like this because not all moms are cut out for it!

One of my concerns with this brace is that it would discourage motor skills because he is a lot less mobile in it. The doctor said “he will make up for lost time” when he isn’t in the brace. So far Tyler has been on target or ahead of the game with motor skills, so we will see if this doctor is right! Tyler doesn’t know none the less and is taking it like a true champ, but it hasn’t been easy for me. Even though most of the comments are truly sincere I am sick of dodging questions, trying to explain his outward appearance with his doc band and brace to every Joe-Blow and mother that walks past us. I am sick of walking into church or the store and getting the stares like “What the hell is on your child’s head?”. Granted these are ALL common things I know. I realize it is NOT the end of the my world. I am not embarrassed to take Tyler places because truly I don’t care what others think, but it just becomes exhausting. If you look up in the dictionary, the true definition of burnt out, I am pretty sure my name will be attached to the definition as an example.

I had my “pity party” this weekend and now I have no other choice to move on. I realize yes things could be worse, yes his issues are correctable, but let me tell when you are in the middle of all it, it’s hard to see that light at the end of the tunnel some days when you just keep getting more and more added onto the little boy’s plate. Thank Goodness for our faith because that has truly gotten us through!


Since Tyler doesn't have the ability to crawl much with his brace, he does a lot of playing on his back. It really looks like Tyler is at the gyno's office in stir-ups the way the brace works. How would you like to be in stirups for 20 hrs a day?? :)



Sorry for being a Negative Nelly in this post. I am truly in much better spirits now that I have had some time to digest and I felt I had to post so when people see us they aren’t shocked by yet another new accessory. I truly try to use humor when dealing with all this! Amen to that.. and finally the sun is out and our nice weather is hopefully here to stay!!