Thanks to the folks at school, Noa was able to see a wonderful doctor to access the issues with her legs and feet. Noa had been having some cramping issues - which have happened in the past during growth spurts - but these were pretty dramatic and there was a fear that it was impeding her progress we'd made with walking. The folks at school were wondering is botox (yes, botox) might help.
This wasn't the first time I'd hear about this, it deactivates the nerve that sends the message to tighten the muscle (so it kinda makes sense). A lot of kids also get tendons in their leg actually snipped to relax the legs. I'd hoped to avoid these things, and with massaging Noa was been mostly okay - but frankly, seeing the discomfort she was in it seemed like it was time to entertain more aggressive options.
The doctor was really wonderful and I felt very comfortable with her assessment. She wants to do the Botox but can't do it until May - so until then she wanted to put Noa on a muscle relaxant which we started about two weeks ago. The shift was pretty much instantaneous. The photo here is a bit misleading in that Noa isn't totally walking on her own - she really needs the two walls - but dang that's a big difference! It actually means that she has to work a bit harder to keep control of her legs. But she pretty quickly realized that things like jumping, for example, are much easier when your knees are soft.
Also in the bonus category, we found this great kids pharmacy that was not only able to make the medication into a liquid, it also was able to make is any flavor! (we picked chocolate), so it's not a struggle to get her to take it.
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