Getting Closer to the Prize

Well it has been a few days since last I posted and I am getting messages and texts asking how the Incredible Mr. David is doing, so I decided an update was due. Here you go...........

Since returning home from the hospital, there has been a dramatic change in David. He is pretty much back to the David I know and love. His color is good, his appetite is amazing and he is back to playing and being his noisy old self. He is however bored to distraction as Z and I have been his only entertainment and even Spongebob does little to keep him from falling asleep from the monotony of it all.

Yesterday David started his home bound school services and his amazing para (Niki) will be here 5 days a week in the mornings. She put him through his paces and for the most part he gladly did all of his work. There are a couple of things though he just hates and refuses to do. Typical kid. After a morning full of school, he was exhausted and ready for a nice long afternoon nap. Unfortunately....today and tomorrow we are off our schedule as I think I am coming down with something. Hopefully though, Friday we will be back on track.

Health wise, David still seems to have his croupy cough from time to time and we use the nebulizer about once a day to make sure we don't end up having to deal with new issues like a recurrence of pneumonia. I do my best to make sure that he spends a lot of time in his wheelchair as I fear bed sores. So far those have not been an issue....however, tushy (I'm trying to be delicate here) rash is becoming a bit of a problem. I realize this maybe too much info for some but there are people reading this that may end up going through this exact or at least a similar situation and it is this type of info that doctors seldom tell you about. At any rate we are dealing with a rash that seems to be getting worse. I do have an arsenal of topical meds that I am using to see if I can clear it up....but like everything else, it does give me a bit of worry. Is it from laying in a diaper over night and just a chapping? I have a med for that! Or is it from all the hard core antibiotics that have been pumped into him in the last few weeks? Are we dealing with another yeast infection? I have a med for that too. The key is trying to find out what it is and get it under control before it becomes infected, as getting him to the doctor is almost impossible and I am saving my next and hopefully last (at least for awhile) EMS call for an emergency or helping me to get him into the car for our trip back to St. Louis. Prayers that his tushy clears up would be more than welcome. I know! The things I ask prayers for!!!!

Aside from the tushy issue and the cough, David seems very well. We will be making another mad dash to St. Louis this weekend with the end game being to get his casts removed. His hips have done amazingly well and with his casts he has been easier than you might think to move around. The casts keep everything nicely in place and for the most part his pain seems to be at a 2 or less which makes diaper changes and moves from bed to chair much easier than anticipated. From time to time I do seem him trying to bend forward almost in half and I believe that stretches his hips. He doesn't really act as if they are painful, but more uncomfortable.

Once the casts are removed, he will have orthotics that if I understand them correctly, will be similar to the spica cast he has been wearing. The orthotics of course will be removable and make life and car rides much easier. Since it was only his hips worked on this time and not his legs, I have every hope that his independent mobility will come back faster than it did when both his hips and knees were worked on. I am hoping this may lead us to quicker physical therapy in which we will see much quicker progress this time. I know the next few months will be exhausting for him and will likely try his patience to the limit but hopefully the end results will be a walking David.

There is the possibility that in the mix of all of this, that he maybe looking at a foot and ankle surgery too. As much as I dread the thought of it, it sounds like a walk in the park compared to the last two surgeries. And we also have an eventual spine surgery coming up in a year or two. Hopefully after that....we will be done with the surgery-go-round! Still though, through it all, I say thank God for Shriners and the amazing doctors who are giving David the best possible chance at mobility and independence that he can have.

So there you have it. All is basically well and by this time next week I am sure you will be hearing all about life without the dreaded spica cast. We are getting closer to the prize!!!! Stay tuned and as always....thank you for reading!