Yikes! Pressure Sores from AFO Braces

I know it's not just me. It really is always something when you have kids, isn't it?!

This evening, for example, as I was getting the girls ready for their evening bath, and as I sat on the floor with Taylor, helping her take off her little braces, I noticed it - a pressure sore on the bony part of the inside of her ankle. And seeing that sore, well, I got very sad. Yikes! A pressure sore.

Taylor has never had one in the 2-1/2 years that she has been wearing her AFO braces. What I know about pressure sores from braces is that once you have one, that particular area of skin becomes weakened and especially prone to getting them again even after the sores have completely healed. And, if there's one thing that a mom of a child with cerebral palsy gets bragging rights about - it's that your kid has never had pressure sores from braces. Oh, well, so much for bragging rights on that...Taylor got her first pressure sore from her AFOs today.

When I saw it, I asked Taylor if the spot was hurting her...Taylor told me that it "wasn't an owie" and it didn't seem to hurt her. (That made me feel a little bit better). After Taylor's bath, I treated the sore with Neosporin, covered it with a band-aid, gave her little ankle a kiss and Taylor an extra big hug and told her that her ankle would be "all better" real soon.

Until the pressure sore goes away, I will NOT be putting Taylor's braces on at all so that the sore on her ankle can fully heal. I also will be contacting the orthotist who crafted Taylor's braces first thing tomorrow when their office opens to let the orthotist know that we need to get her braces checked again for proper fitting and make any adjustments we might need to make as soon as possible!

Perhaps Taylor's just going through a growth spurt and her one foot/ankle is no longer fitting that one brace the way that it was first designed; well, whatever the reason, it's got to be corrected and right away. It absolutely broke my heart tonight to see that Taylor had developed a pressure sore on her ankle from her AFOs, and I just hope that her orthotist can fix whatever needs to be fixed on Taylor's brace so that she will be able to wear her braces again without further issue.