Ortho check up.....

Sam continues to do wonderfully far as the chiari surgery goes. It continues to be a struggle to keep his feet on the ground and no strenous activities. But he found a way to do so this weekend at the Family Social event picnic as you can see in the picture. I am also posting a picture of his scar. All the stiches have fallen off. there are a few scabby looking things but overall looking good.

Today we saw Dr. Healy to check up on his legs. The x-ray showed his left leg healing well. Bone is being remodeled and the hardware can come out anytime. This will be planned for later in the summer. Dr wants to give him the summer to play and swim and continue to stregthen his legs on his own. Ssurgery would prohibit swimming for about 3 weeks. We will wait on therapy until after surgery since the surgery will involve moving muscles. There will be nail holes in his R femur so while he can weight bear, there will be no running and jumping for about 8 weeks afterwards. Dr Healy also wants to make sure the nuerosurgon has no restrictions on surgery. I asked about the back and x-rays will be taken day of surgery to make check on things there.

Dr. Healy also brought up balance in living with a disease. While Sam will likely never be a good canidate for football or hockey, we can't put him in a bubble to protect him from all risk. Each family is different in what they are comfortable with allowing thier children to do. Sam is pretty hard to keep down. I guess I need to accept the fact that there will be other fractures. I pray it is not his back. School is another area to deal with. i think they are *very* scared about fracture risk. They didn't even blink when I asked for special ed bussing to protect against shoving and slipping. I think our struggle will be how much to allow him to do. Espically come first grade and PE class. I am curious to see what he will be like without the hardware and on the pamidronate. He is having a lot of pain now, though he does not say so. I thought of another question to do with surgery on the way home but now I forgot it.