Livid - strictly a vent

I am angrier than I've ever been about my children. Specifically, about Matthew. About 2 months ago, he got new shoes to maintain his clubfoot correction. About a month after that, one of the straps on the right shoe snapped as we were putting them on at bedtime. I went to "my" clubfoot message board and found that it was a problem several people had, and they called the manufacturer to report it. The manufacturer has a great reputation for customer service, so the next morning I gave them a call. Turns out our orthotics company does not give them all the patient information, so they were unable to help me but did say that if the orthotist called they would overnight me a new shoe. I called the orthotist, who wanted me to bring the shoe in so they could SEND IT OUT to their repair facility. We had to do this with another pair of shoes once...it took us about 5 days to get the shoe back. I was adamant that if the manufacturer was willing to overnight a shoe directly to ME, it made no sense for me to drive downtown and then wait a few days to drive downtown again to pick the shoe up. So they called and ordered a replacement. It was made of a much thicker leather, and reinforced, so we were happy. We've been keeping an eye on the other shoe, the left one, because it was the same leather that snapped on the right shoe.

Well, Wednesday night I was home alone with the kiddos, and the strap broke. This time it didn't snap in two, but half of the leather between the edge of the strap and the hole that we use broke. We had a dangling strap. I found some tape and taped it together, then poked a hole in the tape to get the shoe on for the night. Yesterday I called the orthotist to have them order a new shoe. I specified that it was the left shoe that was broken, and before hanging up she asked "it's the left shoe?" and I confirmed. I expected to receive a replacement today.

This morning someone else from the orthotics company called me to ask me which shoe was broken!!! They did not order the shoe yesterday! I don't think I've ever spoken so harshly to someone as I spoke to him this morning. This is absolutely unacceptable in my eyes. The treatment that we've gone through is fully dependent on us complying with the bracewear. We can't do that with broken shoes and orthotists who don't order replacements. This is Matthew's foot we're talking about...if he loses correction it most likely means surgery! It pisses me off even more because of course, today is Friday so the earliest we'll get a shoe is Monday. Yeah, I'm PISSED! Actually, pissed is an understatement.

I think to people who haven't been through this it might seem like I'm overreacting. But the fact is that doctors drill it in to their patients (well the parents) that bracewear is responsible for 90% of the success. If the children don't wear the brace, relapse is *highly* likely, and they say that being out of the brace for even one night can cause a problem. Since Matthew doesn't complain about having to wear it, I want him to keep it on as long as possible. If he sleeps without it for even one night, he might start fighting us about it. While we would still make him wear it, I don't want to have to battle him over it.

I took Matthew & Scarlett out after breakfast to get the shoe fixed. I didn't drive downtown to the orthotics company, I just went to a local shoe shop and they sewed a piece of nylon on it that will hold until next week. But still, I'm angry. Really angry. I'll also document that this orthotics company got paid almost $1000 from my insurance company for these shoes. I could have ordered them direct from the manufacturer for ~$350. That's a pretty decent markup, huh? You'd think at that markup they would give good service, right? Ha!

Going to try to calm down now...