Watching Oma and Opa with my kids is easily one of my favorite things especially when I see how comfortable all the kids are with them from the moment we arrive. A great perk of seeing them so regularly. Oma is always thinking and making sure everyone is taken care of from food to toys to activity ideas. Oma doesn't get as much sleep when we're around, not because of kids waking her, but her mind is always on, thinking about what else she can do to either help us or make the visit even better. Opa, 75 year old Opa, always says he can't do this or that with one of them because of some ailment but he always ends up going down slides, driving race cars, jumping on trampolines, and climbing up big indoor jungle gyms. The pictures in the album show that, also the video in the album which cracked me up. Thanks Oma and Opa.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Visiting Oma and Opa
Driving up the hill towards Oma and Opa's house past the vineyards on either side of the road, turning down the street to pass the always perfectly trimmed hedges by Opa, and then turning into the parking spot against one of the many blackberry bushes across from their front door, we arrived for what might be our last summer visit to Oma and Opa's house. After 20 years in Heidelberg, Oma and Opa have a goal of moving permanently to Chicago sometime in the first half of 2014. They have built such a beautiful home and community of friends that if I have a tough time thinking about their move, I can't even imagine how gut wrenching and heart breaking it must be for them to say goodbye. We made sure to make this visit memorable.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Another Macrodactyly Post-Surgery Update
Well it's been almost a month since Elise's surgery. It really doesn't seem that long ago to me, but of course a lot has happened. A couple of days after the last update, just over two weeks after the surgery, she was given the ok to resume normal activity. Walking, running, jumping, anything goes. And she took it to heart. A few days before that she was able to start doing a bit of walking, and it was really great to see that within about 10 seconds back on her feet she was off and walking around as if nothing had happened. And now she's back to doing everything she was before the operation.
She's also out of her bandage, wearing a prescription, custom-made class 1 compression sock pretty much all the time. We picked it up Friday and just like her first steps with the bandage, she took a couple of cautious steps feeling the difference and then was off again. The bandage was also the last hurdle before seeing what our new footwear situation would be. So we left the orthopedic shop and headed straight for a shoe store. Our only pause was to show P & E the Marienplatz glockenspiel figures dancing their 11AM dance. To our joy, we found that Elise was able to fit into off the shelf shoes. The front of her affected foot is definitely still thick with extra tissue, but we found a few pairs of shoes she could fit into. The foot is a (European) size larger than the other, but at least for now we can get shoes at any old place. Elise is now the proud owner of a pair of covered-toe sandals and a sweet pair of pink and brown high-tops.
One last thing from the past couple of weeks... I was able to visit with another family affected by macrodactyly and it was great. I've been covering for an Israeli colleague and have been there a couple of times in the past month, and we connected through the blog with an Israeli family with a daughter who has basically exactly the same manifestation of the condition. In my latest trip to Israel I was able to meet up with the family for a nice visit. She's a number of years older and has had two surgeries, so it was great to trade notes and share stories with them. Since there are only a relative handful of people with this condition world wide, it was a very special treat to be able to meet someone else affected by macrodactyly. I really hope the girls can get together some day.
Now a few pics and videos...
The before and after of her foot (the previous post describes what was done during the surgery). The biggest thing I noticed was how her other toes suddenly seemed much bigger.
She was so excited after shoe shopping she wanted to dance in her new kicks.
She's also out of her bandage, wearing a prescription, custom-made class 1 compression sock pretty much all the time. We picked it up Friday and just like her first steps with the bandage, she took a couple of cautious steps feeling the difference and then was off again. The bandage was also the last hurdle before seeing what our new footwear situation would be. So we left the orthopedic shop and headed straight for a shoe store. Our only pause was to show P & E the Marienplatz glockenspiel figures dancing their 11AM dance. To our joy, we found that Elise was able to fit into off the shelf shoes. The front of her affected foot is definitely still thick with extra tissue, but we found a few pairs of shoes she could fit into. The foot is a (European) size larger than the other, but at least for now we can get shoes at any old place. Elise is now the proud owner of a pair of covered-toe sandals and a sweet pair of pink and brown high-tops.
One last thing from the past couple of weeks... I was able to visit with another family affected by macrodactyly and it was great. I've been covering for an Israeli colleague and have been there a couple of times in the past month, and we connected through the blog with an Israeli family with a daughter who has basically exactly the same manifestation of the condition. In my latest trip to Israel I was able to meet up with the family for a nice visit. She's a number of years older and has had two surgeries, so it was great to trade notes and share stories with them. Since there are only a relative handful of people with this condition world wide, it was a very special treat to be able to meet someone else affected by macrodactyly. I really hope the girls can get together some day.
Now a few pics and videos...
The before and after of her foot (the previous post describes what was done during the surgery). The biggest thing I noticed was how her other toes suddenly seemed much bigger.
She was so excited after shoe shopping she wanted to dance in her new kicks.
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