Understanding Pediatric Orthotics with Jason Auyer, CPO

In this episode of the Alliance Goal Digger Podcast, Rachael sits down with Jason Auyer, licensed CPO and owner of Alliance Prosthetics and Orthotics, to talk all things pediatric orthotics. Jason shares his insight into how orthotic intervention can support a child’s development, improve mobility, and enhance quality of life. Whether it’s AFOs, SMOs, or cranial helmets, Jason breaks down when and why these devices are used, and how families can best navigate the journey of pediatric orthotic care.

Rachael and Jason also discuss the recent opening of Alliance's newest office in Mulberry (Dacula), GA, located within the same building as Tender Ones Therapy Services (TOTS). This joint location was designed with families in mind, making it easier to manage care by allowing therapy and orthotic appointments to happen in one place. At Alliance, we value our patients and their time, and this collaboration is another step toward delivering more efficient, accessible care for the pediatric community.

Lastly, Rachael and Jason share the inspiration behind Alliance's annual Goal Digger Banquet, a heartfelt celebration of patient progress, resilience, and achievement that embodies the mission and values of Alliance.

Tune in for an inspiring and informative conversation on improving pediatric care through compassion, collaboration, and innovation!

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Guest: Jason Auyer, LCPO, Owner of Alliance Prosthetics and Orthotics

Host: Rachael Auyer, Co-Owner of Alliance Prosthetics and Orthotics

Producer: Laine Johnson, Alliance Prosthetics and Orthotics, Marketing Assistant

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

On today's episode, Jason Oyer, owner of Alliance Prosthetics and Orthotics, and myself will discuss pediatric orthotics. Whether you're in the middle of your journey or just beginning, today's episode will help answer any of the main questions you might have. Hopefully, you'll leave encouraged and inspired to find a clinic that listens to you and will help you advocate for your child. Hey Jason, thank you so much for joining us again on the Alliance Goldigger podcast. Today I wanted to cover a brand new topic. I know we touched on it in some previous episodes. So if you're listening, please pause the podcast, go back, get caught up. But today we're going to talk about orthotics and mainly pediatric orthotics because we have an exciting announcement for the community to know what we're up to right now in the pediatric orthotics space.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Well, Rachel, thank you for having me back on the podcast. Uh obviously, you know, I love getting to talk to you whether on a podcast or just in general. So this is great. We are very excited. Uh we have been waiting for this really for some time to partner with Tender Ones Therapy Services in Mulberry, Georgia. We have a new uh office that we'll be opening. Our grand opening is August 4th. And why we are so excited about it, I know we're gonna maybe talk about a little bit uh of this during the podcast, is that we really value people and their time. And so because we're partnering and rate in the same building as Tender Ones, we have so many patients that we're already seeing that have therapy there that they're having to um have a trip to Tender Ones and then they're coming to us afterwards and it's maybe two different days and having to drive a lot where we can condense that into one appointment time, um, into one travel time. And so we're very excited about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Plus, there's an amazing dairy queen right there. So families can come and get some ice cream.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

That's right. That's right, absolutely. Ice cream is always good.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Ice cream is always good. So to start the conversation for us non-clinical people and maybe parents who are starting this route, tell us what is an orthotic.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Sure. So an orthotic is just a fancy word for a brace. So when I was in school, if we ever said we're fitting an ankle brace or a back brace, we would automatically get dinged. You know, we have to use this proper terminology. So we had to say orthosis. So when we provide a back brace, that could be a lumbosacral orthosis or a thoracolumbosacral orthosis, which be an LSO or a TLSO when we were doing a leg brace, it could be an ankle foot orthosis or a knee ankle foot orthosis. So that O is kind of at the end of everything that we do. So again, O is just a fancy word for a brace.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Okay. So now we know it's bracing. Tell us why is bracing so important to overall healthcare.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Well, I think that when you go through and think about it, you can kind of see the value add. There's a lot of patients that their legs, their arms, their back, their trunk, uh, even their head and neck is not being supported or not working appropriately. So it could be because of weakness. So uh maybe someone has had a stroke or there's a kiddo that has cerebral palsy and they have weakness in their legs because of it, because the signals that are coming from the brain are not getting all the way down appropriately to the muscles, and so they're not working well. It also could be someone that has a deformity. So, what I uh I mean by that, scoliosis would be a deformity of the spine. So uh that uh vertebral column is not straight up and down, and so the brace or the orthosis is helping to keep it straight.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

And I know you basically touched on it of some reasons why a parent might want to bring their child in for an evaluation, but talk about the diagnoses we typically see inside our office.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Oh, sure. And it can be a wide variety. So I just saw a patient recently and his diagnosis, it sounds very intense, pesplanovalgus. All that means is he has flat feet. Okay, so so he he doesn't have high archers. So we are fitting him with a type of custom insert or foot orthosis. So one of the things I'll have to throw this in if I if I have like a minute to be on a soapbox and then I can come back on. Is that okay?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yes, you have one minute exactly.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

One minute exactly. Okay. So people talk about I wear orthotics. I have orthotics in my shoes. I love my orthotics. I want new orthotics. Can you see my orthotics? They're typically talking about a foot orthosis. Okay. Okay. So orthotics for us, it could be a again, a TLSO, a KFO, a knee ankle foot orthosis, a supramollar orthosis, all sorts of different things. Orthotics is just when people talk about in nomenclature, they're thinking inserts inside their shoes. So that would be a foot orthosis. So we we talked about our different diagnoses, pesplanovalgus, other one. So I'm off my soapbox. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Hopefully I was back in to tell us back in with who needs to be treated inside our office.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

You got it. So someone with flat feet, we have a lot of patients that are not walking well. So late walkers. We have a lot of kiddos, maybe they're 17, 16, 18 months old and they haven't walked yet. They might be working with physical therapy and they see they have uh not a good basis support, they're very unstable. We might fit them with a device to help them with walking. Uh, we have people that come in with deformities of their head shape, plagiocephaly or brachycephaly, which just means they have some flat spots on their head that we would fit them with an orthosis. We also have people that have an ACL injury. We might fit them with a knee orthosis, and then things much more involved with the cerebral palsy, with spina bifida, um, uh, with patients that have uh all sorts of neuromuscular issues, which again, what I talked about earlier, that there's problems either from the brain or from the spinal cord that are not sending the appropriate signal to the the leg or to the arm, and so they're not able to function appropriately. Um and so there's all, I mean, again, a wide variety of patients that we would see and fit them with orthotic devices.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Thank you for explaining that. So now that we have a brief education of who's gonna come through our doors, why don't you talk about the process? Uh, and we're really gonna gear this podcast towards kiddos and families, and then our next podcast is gonna be for the adult population that we treat inside our office. So think honestly, the only way I can talk about it is our experience with our son. Now, granted, I was married to you and I have this kid with you, and this is what you do for a profession. So our experience was different. But having a kid wear orthotics, how do you start? What's the process and get granular because I know we've got some parents who have told us they didn't know where to start.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

Sure. Uh so I'll tell a little bit about our story um and then kind of uh how that would impact other people as well. So uh our third son uh was not standing and walking well. So I talked about a late walker, he would have fallen into that category and was pretty unstable. And because we know the people that we know, we had a physical therapist that we know really well uh that was willing to come over and help and and treat him. And then from there, because I already know what I do as an orthodist, we talked about the possibility of fitting him with orthotic devices called SMOs. So those devices think about almost like custom ankle braces uh that are helping him with walking and helped him and he used these, you know, for um so many months, and then he's you know doing great and moving forward. So taking that story and kind of unpacking that as far as the process of how would you know to come and see us as a parent? Um usually you're gonna see something that is off with your child when you think about developmental milestones. So I'll talk about first like those infants through toddler ages. Every time you go to a pediatrician, you know, what are they asking? Hey, what are the new things that are they doing? Are they walking? Are they sitting up? Are they standing? Are they cruising? Are they able to jump? All those different things. When they're not meeting those developmental milestones, typically your pediatrician is gonna send you for physical therapy or occupational therapy. That's an easy kind of first thing that they will do. That doesn't mean necessarily that you need to see us orthotically. Okay. Usually the physical therapist in this kind of situation is the one that's gonna say, Hey, yes, we're gonna work on these things, but we see some weakness or some stability issues that we need an orthotic device to help with that. So usually a therapist is gonna be the the front line that would refer over to us. There are times that pediatricians directly refer. We talked about with kiddos that have flat spots on their head, again, plagiocephaly or brachiocephaly, you may have heard your pediatrician say, Oh, your child has tortocolis, which just means that their neck is really tight. And you might notice a flat spot on the back of their head. If you notice this and your pediatrician hasn't said anything, talk to your pediatrician. Always start there and say, Hey, we're concerned here. Is this something that we need a referral for a we call it a cranial remolding orthosis or a custom helmet that we fit? Um so there's times that you can directly talk with your pediatrician if you're seeing something, but kind of getting back to what I said at the beginning, when those developmental milestones are not being reached, typically the pediatrician is going to refer you to start some kind of physical or occupational therapy to help with those. And then that physical or occupational therapist will be the one to refer you over to our office. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

That's awesome. Thank you. You bridge the gap to my next question is why would we uh need a referral from a physician, even if they're being treated by a therapist?

SPEAKER_02 9:54

That's a great question. So, with all that we do here as an orthodist and prosthetist, and because of our licensure law that's here in Georgia, and this is similar with most states, it requires us to work underneath a doctor's prescription. Um, as much as I'll jokingly say, you know, I'm I'm Dr. J or Dr. Jason, you know, I'm I'm not a physician. I know.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

You don't correct anybody.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

I'm not a doctor. Um and so if you come to see us, as much as we specialize in orthotic and prosthetic devices, we are not physicians. And so we have to work underneath a prescription from a physician. Similarly, a physical therapist or an occupational therapist has to do the same thing. So if you're going for therapy, you need to get a prescription before you do that as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

And so one of the main reasons we're wanting to work with therapy clinics here in our area in the Northeast Georgia area is because we think we can do this really well working with therapy groups and physicians and bridging that gap. Talk about how that idea developed and why our clinic is uniquely designed to do that.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Sure. Well, I think there's a few different things. I think one of the things is why it's important and why we want to partner here is that a lot of times we just assume, hey, I'm on, I'm in this field, I'm an orthodist. All the doctors out there, all the therapists, they know exactly what I do. So when they need me, they're just gonna call me. Um, but that's not always the case. You know, I think everyone can kind of relate with that. If you're a teacher, if you're a lawyer, if you are filling the gap with the profession, you understand your role really well. But when you talk with other people, you realize, oh, they don't really understand all the things that we do. So we want to bridge that gap. We want to be the people that are interacting and communicating with therapists, with physicians, um, to talk about what we can offer to help them, but really even more than that to help their patients. Um, we hate the situation when we find out someone has been, you know, five, six years dealing with an issue and they finally see, oh, there's an orthotic device that could have helped me with this issue. I don't blame the physician, I don't blame the therapist, I blame us as orthotics because we haven't educated the right people to get you in front of us so that we can take care of you and treat you.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Thank you for kind of helping us navigate the process and the people that we need involved. Now, I'm gonna talk about the not fun part, which is insurance. I know everybody just loves insurance and we're all just gonna jump up and down about it. However, we need insurance for those kiddos that qualify. Can you go through all the paperwork and what steps are needed and how we can stay compliant for best outcomes with a reimbursement, not a guarantee of payment.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

That's right. That that disclaimer disclaimer there.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Every time.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

That's right. Again, insurance, there's pros and cons, right? Um, I've been able to treat kiddos down in Mexico and down in Haiti before, um, and they don't have any insurance. And so they're very limited with what they can receive. And so as much as it's a headache, there's again pros and cons. So grateful that we have insurance payers to be able to pay for you know so many things. But there's a lot of paperwork that we have to get through to get there. Um, you know, go back 20 years when I got into the field, if we had a prescription from the doctor, we were set. We could do whatever we needed appropriately for that patient. Uh, that's not the case anymore. So think about with your insurance, they want, they're the ones that are dictating the medical necessity for whatever device we're providing your child. And because we're not physicians, what we say why this is medically necessary is typically not enough, right, to be able to prove that. So the physician, whoever's we're getting this prescription from, they're the ones that's saying, hey, this is medically necessary for your child. Just like they're saying, if you need to take a certain uh medication, this is medically necessary for your child to use. And so it starts with the prescription. And then with the physician, we would love for them to document in their progress note what you need and why you need it. So it could be very simply you're being sent over for SMOs. They need an SMO because they have that pesplanal valgus. They need SMOs because they are not walking in their 18 months. They need SMOs and fill in the blank. It doesn't have to be all sorts of long documentation. Very simply put, those two things. What do they need and why do they need it? On our side, as orthotics, we're going to fill in the gaps with a lot more documentation of very specifically what we are recommending and why. Um, and so we need that documentation from the doctor, we need the prescription. Sometimes we'll utilize documentation from your physical therapist or your occupational therapist, because we're trying to paint a picture for your insurance company that doesn't know all of what's going on, why your child needs this device. So when you come to our office, you don't have to come in with all of this. It can sound overwhelming, like, geez, like I'm gonna need my doctor to say this. What do I need them to say? I don't know what's even wrong. How am I gonna get there? Start with this. If there is a need, you can come in and see us. Consultations are free. There's nothing that you need to pay to do that. We just need to have this documentation before we provide the device to your child. And we're the experts of knowing what your insurance needs. So we're gonna be the ones to communicate with your physician or your therapist. Hey, we need this documentation to get it done. The problem is sometimes this can take a long time to get the documentation, to make sure it's all correct, to send it into insurance, to get authorization for the device. And so those things can be challenging. But one of the things that we value tremendously is we value people and we value their time. And so there's some things we can't change. We can't change the fact that you might need authorization for your device. We can see how we can truncate or shorten the amount of time from the first time we know that you need something to when you receive it. And those are the things that we try and work on in the constraints or the limitations of the paperwork.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Tell me some of the ways you do that.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

So, some of the ways that we do this, say your senior physical, your child is seeing a physical therapist, and they see, hey, you need uh these uh AFOs, ankle foot orthoses or these um braces to help your child with standing and with walking. And they determine that during their evaluation of your child. We have so many therapists that we partner with that they will reach out to us, they will send their documentation, we'll talk over the phone, and now we have a good idea of this device that your child is going to need. And we can send this information to your doctor to get the prescription, and then we can send all of this information to your insurance company to start the process with getting authorization so that when you come into our office or we see you at a therapy clinic and we're casting you or taking uh measurements or a scan for whatever device we're providing, we've already done a lot of that paperwork. And so, and that's why, and I'll pivot a little bit of why we love the partnership with tender ones, because we're right in the same building. So instead of a phone call, instead of, you know, getting on and sharing, you know, videos, HIPAA compliant videos that we're, you know, we're not seeing uh patients' faces or any of that, we're in the same building. So we can just go back and forth and see the patient right there. And again, we can start that evaluation process much earlier. So again, we can get the documentation we need, and then we can get the authorization from your insurance company.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

That's great. And I'd wanted to just pivot for just a second. You talked about the tender ones location and why that's a benefit. What about the therapy clinics that we aren't directly next door? What would you mind sharing how our orthopists have set up clinic days inside their office and why we did that?

SPEAKER_02 17:46

You got it. So we have a handful of different places that we're working with some patients. Uh, we work with Prosper Therapy, which is incoming. We work with Lifting Spirits Therapy that's here in Gainesville, and we do some work with essential therapy services, and there's other ones in there too, uh, but those are kind of a few. And so I'll talk about Prosper Therapy real quick. And so we're not in their location, but we have a clinician that goes out there twice a month, and we will see patients at that therapy location to save the parents from having to drive here to the office. We also do similar things with schools. We work with Dawson County Schools and we'll go out with the physical therapists uh there and we'll still see patients at the school. And we'll be able to go through and do evaluations at the schools because we know this as parents, that there's always another thing. There's always one more, you know, ball game to get to or practice to drive to or doctor's appointment. And if we can take one more drive out of that equation and make it a little bit easier and a little bit faster, I think that's a big value add to uh parents and to uh patients.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

So I now we talked about all the ways that you can see. So Alliance orthotics will travel, is what I'm hearing. And typically they bring a whole bag of tricks and they're pulling out like a Mary Poppins bag and creating this whole uh experience for families. I want to talk about the parent who just started on the orthotic journey and they need to hear mild, medium, and hot. What is the extensiveness? How long? Give them an overview of what that would look like.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Sure. So we talked about the, you know, our son who was fit with SMOs early on. So it's a small little ankle, custom ankle brace, and we have some kiddos that will wear them for six months, three to six months, help with their walking. They're up, they're moving, and then that's it. And they I never see them the rest of their life. There's nothing else that we do for them orthotically. We have other patients where we can put in, could be for scoliosis, could be uh a patient that still is having a hard time walking, but maybe they're uh a Downs syndrome kiddo. So they have some low tone. So instead of the six months they're wearing these SMOs for, maybe we use these for multiple years and then they start to get stronger and they are just as functional with or without the orthotic device, and so they don't use them anymore. That could be a five or six year thing. And then we also have kiddos that we so love working with that are very highly involved. So I think about our spastic cerebral palsy patients that without going through all the terms, all four limbs are involved, so they have weakness in both their arms, weakness in their legs, weakness at their trunk, so they have a hard time sitting up. Uh maybe they are nonverbal and have some cognitive delays or difficulties. And so these kiddos, we're probably going to see the rest of their lives. That we are going to provide some kind of orthotic device. It could be that we're helping them with standing. It could be postural support, that we're providing a back brace or a TLSO on them so that when they're sitting up, their trunk is supported, they can sit up straighter. It could be that we're providing devices because with that spastic cerebral palsy population. Think about it that one muscle group is typically stronger than the other one. So if you think about your biceps and your triceps, right? We always love working by's and tries. Your biceps might be a lot stronger. So they're in this flex position all the time. And their muscles can get really tight because they're never actively extending them straight. So we might put on some devices, upper extremity orthotic devices to help with stretching. So these kiddos, we could manage them over years and years and years. And it may be very different what we're doing when they're a year old or less than a year to we see kiddos who are now in their 30s, 40s, 50s that we're still managing with providing different devices. And one of the things we haven't said yet on this podcast, but I've said it. Before all the devices we provide, they're just tools to help your child reach their mobility and functional goals. Those goals can change from infant through adulthood of what's important. And it could be when they're adults, hey, there's still some things we're trying to go after, but not the same things. And maybe we do things differently orthotically at that point.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Yeah, I I love how you're talking about patient care evolving for the need and the season that the patient is in. I know um we talked you went through the mild, medium, and hot. Now I was thinking we could transition to the stories that you hold because our story was very mild. But I know we've sat in rooms with parents who have mild, medium, and hot seasons. Would you talk about why orthotics matters to you as a clinician, why you want to be in this field and helping patients?

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Yeah. Well, as you were talking, and one specific story came to mind uh that that I'll share. And this kiddo, who's not not a kiddo now, you know, he's uh just about 20 years old, which is hard to believe. When I first came to Gainesville, this was before Alliance, this was back in 2009, this was the first child that I saw, which I'm gonna probably be wrong, but I I want to say he was, I don't know, five, six or seven or something like that at the time. So this individual would always his grandmother would bring him in. And his grandmother really was another parent figure. I mean, managed all of his medical stuff. And he came in, he has a diagnosis of cerebral palsy, but also something that's called arthrogryposis. Um, arthrogryposis, a lot of different things, but think about tightness of your muscles in a contracted position that doesn't change. So earlier I talked about, hey, your elbow might be flexed and really tight, and we want to straighten it back out. Arthrogryposis, if it gets too tight, it can't be straightened out. That that is where it is gonna is gonna be. And so you can think about with his knees, his hips, his ankles, if it gets into this fixed position and it doesn't have all this mobility, how standing would work, how walking, how postural support, all these different things. And so his story, his grandmother again would come in and she had you know your old school kind of yellow, like spiral notebook, you know, yellow pad, legal pad, and copious notes. Every doctor that she went to managing and loving on this individual who was nonverbal, could never say back to her, Grandma, I love you. Thank you so much for what you're doing. I know this is a lot. Now, could we could we tell? And I keep wanting to say his name. I'm not gonna say his name.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Yeah, you better not.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

This is name, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Compliant podcast.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

Could we tell when something was good? Yeah. Could we tell when something was bad for sure? But why I bring that up about the grandmother and the patient, this could be a parent, patient, you know, whatever kind of scenario. There are so many families that we work with that it's that kind of scenario where they are giving them themselves day in and day out. As an ortho test, I get to see them, you know, maybe for an hour three to six times a year, right? This parent is seeing them 24-7, is in this scenario is the one changing diapers, clothing, feeding, taking to all the appointments, making sure that school is working out. Are they getting on the bus, talking to para pros, talking to the teachers, going again to doctor's appointment? I mean, it's nonstop, it's constant and can be overwhelming. And we have so many parents that I just look at it, I am blown away by their intentionality with their children, but their compassion and their love for them. They love them in a way that some people could never really relate with or understand because it is a constant, and oftentimes you're not receiving any verbal praise or thanks for this. And so it can get frustrating and hard. And why I tell that story is I can't fix all of that. But if we can make part of these things, some of these appointments, a little bit easier, if we can make the process a little less time consuming and give that parent, that grandparent, that caregiver, some a little bit of margin back in their day, man, that's probably my biggest thing that I want to do for the parents. As much as I care for the child and I want to serve that child with the device we're providing, if we can partner with parents and make something that is so challenging a little bit easier, that's what we want to do.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

No, exactly. That's why we started the company as we dreamed up, parents and their children and those that needed this service. How can we make it excellent? When they come in, they know we're prepared. I wanted uh to see if you could talk about the mild experience. You know, coming into our building, you're gonna see mild, medium, and hot. And you're gonna be in the waiting room with a mild, medium, and hot. What about the parent who's like, I don't I don't know if that's what I need. I feel like this is too much. Sure. You know, I I know there are some parents who feel like, is this is this something that's really necessary? Would you talk to that parent?

SPEAKER_02 27:22

Well, I I think a few different things that came to mind. First thing I I wanted to tell parents that are listening, whatever you're coming in with your child to you, that is probably hot. That is probably a big deal, a very big deal, because as parents, Rachel and I, we know this. We don't want anything wrong with our children. It doesn't matter if it's, you know, uh a hangnail or a broken bone or or or anything, right? We don't we don't want anything wrong. So we want you to know when you're coming in, just because I saw someone that I just described who's nonverbal and all these things, uh maybe uses a wheelchair the most of the time, just because that's who I just saw does not mean that the situation with your child is not just as important and just as impactful and needs just as much care. So that would be the first thing that I would say. I think the second thing is just because you come in, it doesn't mean you're leaving with something. Right?

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Yeah, your insurance might say no.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

Right. So we are not um, and I know a lot of good car salesmen, we're not used car salesmen, right? We're we're not commission based that if you don't leave with something, we you know we're we're in trouble. We're going through and we want to answer questions and give feedback. Uh, we have a lot of parents that come in. I'll talk about cranial remolding orthoses. We have a lot of parents that come in. Maybe their pediatrician referred them over or a therapist, or even they knew what we did and said, Hey, can you take some measurements of my kiddo? Do they need to be in a helmet? Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

I know we've done that on soccer fields.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

We we have, that's right. Um, come into a soccer field near you. Um, but if you come in, there's been lots of times that we say, you know what? The measurements are within the optimal range. We would not recommend your child be fit with a cranial remord remolding orthosis or with a helmet. And so we have countless times, even if a pediatrician refers someone over, it doesn't necessarily mean that's what you're leaving with. We want to educate you because these are things that we know. We are the experts in this field. We have information we can pass on. And especially for a new parent or someone who's been a parent for years and years, if you have partners that can help you and can assist in making sure that your child is getting the best care, whatever that is, whether as a teacher, as a physician, as an orthopedist, whatever, I think that's a big value add. Um, and so I for the people that are thinking, is it really worth it? I would strongly suggest if you're if you have a referral from a doctor, if you have a therapist that recommended you calling us, or if you're listening, this like, geez, I don't know. I feel like there's something that's going on that maybe they could help help me with. Please call. The worst thing that can happen, which I don't even think is a bad thing, is you could come in and we can say, hey, I don't think there's anything that we have that could really help what's happening here. But you're gonna leave with more information, you're gonna leave more empowered and knowing, okay, maybe we need to pursue something different.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Oh, I love that. I, because I'm a mother, I want you to talk about your policy here at our clinic with moms. And you should let every mother know who is listening what this policy is.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

Okay. So I should have a name for it, but I mean it's the It's called the mom policy. The mom policy, you know, mother's intuition. So again, Rachel and I, we have four boys. I'll tell a brief story. So our oldest, uh Samuel, I can say his name because hey, we're his parents, and you know, we can do that.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Our third son is Benjamin.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Oh, thank you. So Samuel, uh, when he was three months old, came home from work, and Rachel, again, this is we're new parents, you know, all this is new. We knew nothing. We knew nothing. That's right. She said, Hey, we really need to take him to the doctor. Like something is not right. And I looked at him, and again, I'm in the medical field, right? I'm not a physician, but you know, play one on the week when weekend maybe. But I look at him, I said, I don't, I mean, he's got a runny nose, maybe. I mean, coughing, I think he's okay. I don't, I don't know. I don't think we need to do anything. She said, No, I really think I said, Okay, let's do it. So we go to the pediatrician. Uh, this is in Athens, Georgia. And immediately our pediatrician, who is was wonderful, said, Y'all need to get to the hospital right now. And, you know, we kind of had that deer in headlights look and said, What's going on? Samuel has RSV, which is very serious. It is like a common cold for an adult, but for a child, it can be deadly. And we're rushed to the hospital and our little three-month-old hospital gown in this seemingly huge bed. I guess it was a pediatric bed, but I mean it felt like the biggest bed ever. The biggest bed ever. And we were there for multiple days, and he's fine and did great, all the things. But getting back to the mom policy, Rachel knew something was off. She's not a doctor.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

I'm not even anybody. I'm a nobody.

SPEAKER_02 32:05

So what I tell moms, dads, you got some intuition too, but I think moms, you know, I think God's given moms this, you know, special superpower. If there is something that just doesn't seem right, I just had this conversation with a mom last week that uh their kiddo's using a cranial remolding orthosis. And she said, Oh, I'm so sorry for asking this, or I'm so sorry for pushing here. I said, Listen, if you're concerned about something and you're not sure everything is just right, ask, push back, make sure that we can explain well why we're doing what we're doing, because there could be something that you have that we need to know about, and it's going to change or impact what we do for your child. So never hold back with that. We want to know about it for sure.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

I know that's one of the things we touched on previously in a podcast of how do you know you're in the right clinic? And this is one of the things we keep going back to is if you're not in the Northeast Georgia area and you are looking for an orthotic clinic, because we know our podcast goes throughout the nation, you need to have a place where you can have your intuition moments, where you can ask questions. Talk about why that is so important in patient-centric care.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Well, I think that's so important for a lot of different reasons, but the first thing that came to mind is trust. You have got to trust the person who's taking care of your child. You have to trust their teacher. You have to trust if they go to camp, who they were at camp, their friends, the people they hang out with, their doctor, physical therapist, fill in the blank, orthoticist is right there too. You have to be able to trust that the people that are caring for your child have their best interests. And if they're not willing to listen, if they they have this game plan and they're just going through, and it doesn't matter whether you understand it or not, this is what we're doing because they know best, you're in the wrong spot. Because there's times, and I think there's a lot of great physicians, and we always talk about, you know, a good bedside manner or not a you know good bedside manner, as an adult, if you're wanting, say, to get a hip replacement, and you don't care if it's a good bedside manner, you just want the best doctor, that's your prerogative to have. But if you're a parent, you still want the best, but you want to make sure you're understanding what's going on with your child because you're not just caring for yourself, you're caring for your child now. And so if that individual, even if they're great, they can't explain to you what they're doing, you need to find another place.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

Yeah, that's great advice. Um, I wanted to transition about our baby Goldigger.

unknown 34:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:34

How do pediatric orthotics fit into the gold digger policy? How do we do that and why does it matter?

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Sure. Well, off the off the bat, we believe everybody can achieve goals. Yeah. Everybody. And so we talked about, you know, the the mild, moderate, and and hot or mild, medium, and hot.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

It's salsa ratings as well.

SPEAKER_02 34:57

I just wonder where it came from. Okay. It's my love language, Mexican food. She does love some chips and salsa. So with Gold Digger, with pediatric kiddos, again, we believe everyone can achieve goals. And it doesn't matter if it's a mild scenario. So that patient we said, like our son, came in having difficulty walking. We might have set a goal for them. Hey, I would love if Benjamin, we could put him down when we get home from the grocery store and he could walk in to the front door on his own so I can carry the groceries. That could have been the goal, right? And I've had a parent that was exactly what their goal was. That happens. He is walking better, he's achieved his goal. He is coming, if they want to, come into our gold digger banquet, and we're going to celebrate them in a big way because that was a huge change, a huge change in the dynamic. We could have on the other extreme, right? Our hot salsa, you know, side, we could have a patient that with all of the things they have going on, just being able to stand and to be able to take a step. And this could be a patient who's 10, 12, 13 years old. This is not a 10, 12, 13 month-old kiddo. This is a 10, 12, 13-year-old child. And their goal is to be able to stand and maybe take one step. And they do that. We want to celebrate that in a huge way because it's not just the device that's helping them do this. The patient, the parent, could be the therapists, the physicians, the support system is rallying behind this patient, going after this goal. And then when it happens, a lot of times, and I think there's people like myself, you're just achievers. Like you hit a goal and then you go into the next one, and you don't pause to celebrate. You don't pause to be like, hey, this was such a big deal. And we want to give parents permission to pause and to celebrate. And we want to help, you know, when when people achieve the goal, we give them, you know, a t-shirt. We have a bell here at all the offices. We ring the bell, we, you know, put their goal up on the wall. But our goal digger banquet is once a year. We gather all of our patients from that past year that achieved their mobility goals. We invite their families, we all of our team is there as well, the Alliance team, and we invite whoever referred uh your child over to us. We invite them as well, and we celebrate your kiddo.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

And because it's a shameless plug of how amazing our pediatric event is, talk about all the fun things we do.

SPEAKER_02 37:25

We do have a lot of fun. You will almost always see me with some kind of crazy balloon hat on. Uh, because we have uh balloon artists that you know your child could get uh everything from you know a little monkey on their shoulder to uh a balloon sword and shield and crowns and all sorts of stuff because we think your kiddos are kings and queens. So you know, we give them a tiara or a uh crown uh to wear. We'll have character caricature artists, we'll have face painting, we will have usually a magician, we have a DJ, we're dancing. I mean, this is a fun, fun event, and we're not, you know, sitting down and having you know fancy meals, we're having all the stuff your kids, you know, love to eat. We're having you know, chicken tenders and we have a brownie bar and I mean all sorts of things. And it's a fun couple of hours of being able to get some good food, be able to have your child celebrated, and really for your whole family, it's a fun event.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

Yeah, I know we talk about this, but one of our favorite things we see at the banquet, because we have so many cranial remolding helmets, the kids are infants when they're in the and everyone who has a child knows that there's this rapid pace kids grow. So by the time they're out of their helmet and they come back around for the banquet, they're typically walking into the banquet. And it's so cool to see the parents after they've succeeded through their process and their treatment, that we all get to celebrate together because it is it's a big thing because typically kids are not putting on helmets themselves, they're not cleaning. I haven't met any infants who are doing that, and we get to celebrate the parent who made it through that season. And the same with all of the rated hot or medium, they are putting these devices on. They are the ones behind the scenes helping their child reach that mobility goal, and they get to be celebrated too. And so I just love that banquet so much for the family experience. One brief thing, talk about the siblings who get to come, how fun it is for siblings of kids who need these types of devices, that they get to see other kids and like themselves have siblings who need this sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 39:40

Right. I think with anything that we go through so often we think we're the only one that no one can relate or experience what we're experiencing. And so for the patients, obviously they see other patients like themselves that have gone through similar challenges. But for the the other family members, the other siblings, they are having to carry a weight as well. I think all of us in life, we have certain loads that are for us to carry, and we have burdens that we help other people that we love and care for, help them carry because they can't carry it on their own. As a sibling of a kiddo with special needs or disabilities or things that are going on, they're having to carry it a different kind of weight. Um, they might be the ones asked to do a little bit more because their sibling can't walk to do this or can't pick this up. And so maybe there's more chores that they're doing. And a lot of times as parents, for good or for bad, we're having to put a lot of our attention to someone that needs more time. And it can be hard sometimes, I think, for those other siblings. And so when the families come in, it's not just, you know, face pain that we're doing for the patient. Right. It's not just we're doing these fun balloon animals for the patient, it's for the families. And so we have families that are coming in, and what I love too is we celebrate everybody, but we have a gold digger family of the year award that we give out every year. Um, and it's to that family that is supporting and rallying around this kiddo to help them achieve these mobility and functional goals, and they get celebrated. So it's a whole family affair.

SPEAKER_01 41:20

No, I love that because everyone inside that unit matters and we get to really highlight that at the banquet. So we're about out of time. So I want to transition to the closing because we always love to do an action step. So if you've made it through this podcast and you've enjoyed everything, how could they connect with our clinic?

SPEAKER_02 41:40

I think the best thing is to call our office at 770-679-3090. And kind of depending on where you are geographically, we'll get you connected. Our patient care coordinators will get you connected with uh the closest clinic. But then also we may find out, oh, hey, I I go to therapy at one of these places that Jason was talking about or Rachel was talking about. Do they have a clinic at my you know, therapy location that we could connect there as well? But the best thing would be to call. You can also um find us on Facebook and Instagram, uh our website. Uh through our website, you can ask for a referral to be able to come into or put down questions. So a lot of different ways to connect.

SPEAKER_01 42:22

Awesome. And then lastly, I wanna I want you to encourage the parent today who has just they're in the middle of it. And maybe they're our patient. I'm hoping they are. I hope they're our patient, but they needed just one extra dose of being reminded they're why.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

First off, I want to go back to the story I talked about the patient and his grandmother. I saw what she was doing and it blew me away. And I think just being able to have other people that see you, that know you, that you can kind of let your hair down for a minute and just talk of how things are really going. That's the kind of place that we want to be for parents. I also talked about loads and burdens. As you're caring for your child, whether mild, medium, or hot, either one, that can be an overwhelming situation and can turn from a load that you're carrying as you're the parent, right? You're carrying this load of caring for your child to now it's a burden. I'm overwhelmed. I don't know what to do next. I don't know how this next step is going to look. We want to be able to help. We can alleviate the whole burden, but we want to help hold it up a little bit to make that a little bit easier so you can be reminded that there is hope moving forward. I believe very strongly that as parents, God equips us with everything that we need. God is specifically equipped, Rachel and I to parent our four boys, but no one else has he equipped in that way. Similarly, as a parent of your child, you've been equipped specifically to care for your child better than anyone ever could. You might Feel like you're not the right person. Someone else should be doing this. I can't do this. I don't have enough. I don't believe that to be true. And when you can let other people in to help you carry this burden, I think that you'll be able to see in kind of that change in perspective that there is hope and then I am the right man. I am the right woman for the job because God has specifically called me to parent this child.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

That's good encouragement. Thank you so much, Jason, for spending so much time with us today. And again, if you're interested in getting an evaluation, which is a reminder, it is completely free, no charge to be evaluated here at Alliance. It's 770-679-3090 or follow us on Instagram or Facebook and check us out on our website. Thanks for listening. Were you inspired or challenged today? If so, connect with us. Follow the links in the description box below. We want to hear from you. Until next time, thanks for listening to the Alliance Goldigger Podcast.