Thursday, November 17, 2005

Questions and Good News

Okay, so part of the deal with the BioConcepts garments is that with a custom garment the therapist needs to specify the compression. Eh???

Gretchen called HER certification instructor and asked for recommendations for pressure for a 4yo and the instructor asked, "Going with the Elvarex or BioConcepts?" and then gave her a pressure recommendation (which I've already forgotten). It seemed to ease G's mind a lot that her instructor was familiar with the brand I've chosen to try and had good things to say about it for a pedi patient. That's the good news.

We're going to measure for her garments next week on Wednesday at our regular appointment. G has asked us to be uber uber compliant this week to try get her reduction down as much as we can before we measure. We've also decided to go for the toe glove option. We're going to give it a try so that we don't have to wrap her toes under the stocking (her toes are very involved, poor kiddo).

I understand the theory, but... We (ok, *I*) am not known for my stellar compliance. So if we push it to the limit this week, measure, and then backslide, will the garments no longer fit? Cuz if so, seems like we might want a tad bit of wiggle room. But, hey, that's prolly why I'm not the therapist.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Woo Hoo!

Okay. Just got off the phone with Bio-Concepts!

I am *so* excited to see Gretchen tomorrow. Cost of these, per leg, (~ of course) is under $55, even if we add a zipper to make donning easier it's still under $70/leg!

Can't wait to find out what the therapist thinks of these. If this works out we can have her measure and order a pair, and once we've checked the fit I can order a few more, both for variety and, ummm... sanitary reasons. Poor kid, her feet sweat A LOT without garments or wrappings. I do a lot of bandage washing.

Too excited! Will update with the therapists' thoughts tomorrow.

Monday, November 14, 2005

This Little Piggy...

is horribly swollen.

Yep. The progress we've made in the dorsum has been showing a detrimental effect in her toes.
So, now we're just concentrating on toes.

I wrapped her in elastomoll and a 4cm short-stretch that I'd cut in half lengthwise (to make a 2cm) and her toes looked great last week when I unwrapped that, other than J complaining of an itch on one toe. She went away for the weekend with dh and came home with a big blister on the toe she'd complained about before they left. So I left her with "free-feet"--what J calls being unwrapped--and took her in to let the therapist check out the blister.

(I haven't asked, but since I didn't wrap her before she and dh left and all her wrapping supplies were here at home, I'm assuming she went unwrapped for the weekend.)

The therapist had given me a homework assignment, to pick a day garment and start the ball rolling on insurance so that all we have to do is measure and go. I hadn't done it yet, so she made me look up the phone number on the web from the desk in the therapy room, and call the Bio-Concepts people, since they're my choice thus far, at least partly because of the color selection, I admit it.

They were kind enough to express mail me their info, which included a lovely thick manual on their measuring procedures/requirements/standards and two custom-garment measuring kits. Basically everything except the order forms and a price sheet. So I guess I'll call them back on Monday since, unfortunately, price and insurance coverage has more than it should to do with who we order from. We've already decided to order a day garment instead of an overnight one for financial reasons. :-(

Having a child like J kinda makes ya wish for National Health-the good, Canadian kind. The UK kind is ok, but I (virtually speaking) know adults and kids over there who have trouble sometimes getting what they need.