Boots fit for a Princess

Last Monday was a long day for Morgan and me. We left for what we thought we be our usual 3 hour trip to physical therapy, but it turned into a 6 hour trip. Lately, Morgan had been having a very hard time sleeping and she was complaining a lot about her leg braces. The back of her thighs were looking horrible with very dark red marks and even some skin breaks that were not going away after removing her braces. So at therapy I asked her PT to take a look at her legs and also at the braces. She immediately told me to stop putting them on her. To which I replied "that is not an option." I mean really, yes, I know they are not fitting totally right, but if we stop putting them on her then she is going to tighten right back up and we will risk losing what she has gained. Plus, even if we stopped just for a day or two it would then mean weeks of sleepless nights because then her muscle spasms would return with a vengeance. I was so upset, not at our PT, but at the situation. We knew the braces weren't fitting right, but we can't just hop on a plane and go to Philly and our local orthotist wasn't going to be able to see her for over a week and now her PT was saying she thought the skin was so bad we would have to stop with the bracing.... my head was spinning at this point. I was so frustrated. I didn't want to hurt Morgan by continuing to have her wear them and risk more skin issues and even possible infection, but I also didn't want to her to have to deal with the pain of not wearing them and then going back to wearing them once the skin healed.
Kristen saw the concern in my face and decided to call our local orthotist personally on his cell (rather than dealing with secretaries). She explained to him what was going on and without a pause he told her to send us to his office immediately, that he would take care of it. So, Morgan and I rushed out of therapy, loaded her chair, and headed down the block to Hanger to have her orthotist, Wes, look at the braces.
He is amazing; just the sweetest thing with Morgan and always knows just what to do with her braces. He made a few adjustments, added some padding, and gave us some long KAFO socks to use instead of the socks we had been using. That night, Morgan slept completely through the night for the first time in probably 6 months! I wish I could say that has lasted... but we will take a full night's rest when we can get it.
In addition to Wes fixing her KAFO braces he also said since we were there and they had come in he would fit Morgan for her new AFOs or walking braces. We had gone in about a month and half ago to get molded for these new braces and had been waiting for them to arrive. When she was molded Wes let Morgan choose the colors; she chose pink braces with pink straps. Of course. When Wes brought in her braces he told Morgan he had a surprise for her and he turned the braces around. There on the back of each brace he had put especially for Morgan an image of a princess. She was so excited! She immediately began calling them her princess boots and actually asked to put them on (usually she is begging to take her braces off). She was so excited about her boots that she wanted to go show them to her daddy at work, so we headed over to David's work and ended up taking him out to lunch. So that is why our usual 3 hour long Monday trip turned into a 6 hour day.
Morgan loves her new braces. She is constantly asking to wear them! We are so thankful to Wes and all he has done for Morgan.