Well it has been about 11 weeks since my last blog post here. My how time flies. Things have been moving right along. In my last blog post, David was still in the hospital. Since that time, he has been home, recovering, had two ortho follow ups and has seen PT. Both follow ups showed that he was doing fantastic and his PT was also very happy with his progress.
This surgery has been the easiest/hardest surgery he has ever had. It was the easiest in respect to how the surgery went and how fast he has recovered as well as how he is progressing. It has been the hardest because of course, what was going on with the house during his surgery and the first part of his recovery and also because this surgery and recovery were foreign to me.
After 17 years with the Incredible Mr. David, I am used to pretty much anything that comes in the world of David, but this surgery has been different. It has really thrown me off my game. I had expectations of something much worse where the surgery was concerned and I was prepared for just that. When everything went well and we were out of the hospital in a fraction of the time that I was expecting, I think it totally threw me. This whole ordeal has been much less of an ordeal from beginning to end and much more like a minor speed bump as far as David's life goes. Truthfully though, David probably felt more of the "ordeal" than the rest of us, but he is a rock star and nothing gets him down.
As I said, the surgery and in hospital recovery were amazing, but again, the at home recovery has thrown me for a loop with my expectations vs. reality. Once I realized that I was not going to "break" David nor undo all that the surgery did, we were good. For the first month we went from the extreme of going back to school to staying closer to his bed than I would have liked but I was on a huge learning curve. Some days he was up and ready to go and other days, not so much. That mixed in with the crazy world we were living in that first month and I was really not pleased once school was out and summer had begun with where we were at as opposed to where "I thought" we should be. I felt that I wasn't doing enough to get him back up and going and that I was somehow failing him in his recovery. It was only after seeing the ortho and talking to PT that I started to feel like we were doing okay. I was also reminded that David underwent an extensive surgery and that it can take 8-12 months before he is even completely back to baseline. We are only 11 weeks out. Sigh.........
The first of June, David was okayed to get back into his stander. He was still not okay to twist or turn at all as his bone was still healing. They said he wouldn't be completely released until after the 4th of July. Again, there are days that David is up and in that stander for half a day and other days when he seems out of sorts and really not up for all that goes into getting dressed, putting on his braces and moving into the stander and then staying there for hours on end. I feel for the kid and some days I am not up to dealing with his attitude. I have mentioned that he is a teenager....right? Special needs does not mean we don't have attitude!
As the month has progressed though, he is doing much better as is his stamina. I usually try to give him a couple of days a week of rest and then work him the rest of the time. It is exhausting for both of us. I know the rest of my family doesn't realize both the mental and physical fortitude that goes into this whole process for both David and I. Some days....exhausted doesn't even cover it.
Today and tomorrow I am doing my best to rest as starting Monday, David and I are going to hit this whole PT full force. By Wednesday he will be fully released to swim, ride his bike, use his walker, stander and anything else. Life is going to hit the fast lane and he will be my priority for the rest of the summer.
Soon we should be receiving his stair chair lift and as soon as that happens, I am moving David back upstairs to his room and all the things he loves. He has missed it terribly and has on more than one occasion tried to take his wheelchair up the stairs. When he does get back up there, he will have a wonderful surprise as his room will be all Spongebob!!! The room downstairs that he currently resides in will be his therapy room which he will be spending a lot of quality time in too.
Hopefully going forward, I will be a little better with the posts here and the updates. Hopefully there will be many new and wonderful goals met and miracles obtained, after all David is a rock star and he shows us that every single day.
