back to life, back to reality
i always play that song in my head when school starts back up in january. i love christmas break. i love staying up late and sleeping in late, which fortunately my 3 kids also love to do. this last week of break shelby didn't wake up before 9:30 every morning. it was awesome! so, this morning when it was time for the buses to come and pick up the boys i had a moment of sadness but then i realized it wasn't up to me to entertain them all day long and that moment passed and i sat down on my couch with my coffee in the quiet and i realized how much i missed them being in school. shhhh, don't tell the boys that though.
we're starting off the new year with a quote from a favorite movie in our house, frozen. as olaf says, "all good things, all good things" now, he's talking about something totally different but i'm using it as our mantra for this year. this will be a year of all good things. and we're starting off with a bang. on january 15 andrew and i will be taking carson to galveston, texas to have procedure done (called SPML which stands for Selective Percutanious Myofascial Lengthening) to lengthen his hamstrings and reduce the tightness and pain he feels in his legs. at the end of the school year last year we knew something would need to be done sooner than later for him. his hamstrings are getting tighter and tighter as he grows. it's getting more difficult for him to do things that he could do when he was younger and botox isn't giving us the results it use to either. so for the last few months i have been taking him to see several doctors and surgeons and getting their opinions. the orthopedist didn't feel like carson's legs looked bad enough to do a full hamstring lengthening surgery but thought a spinal surgery (rhyzotomy) might be an option. so off to the neurosurgeon we went. he thought the surgery would be good for carson because it would permanently take away his spasticity but we were concerned because a) it was a surgery on his spinal cord b) it still didn't resolve the fact that his hamstrings are physically shorter than normal. so now what? we were on board for the spinal surgery but needed to meet with the doctor again to confirm our plans. this is when a miracle happened.
i was watching something that was taped on our tv and got board with it and turned on the regular tv. the show "the doctors" happened to be on and it was just coming back from commercial. the next story was about a 7 year old boy with cerebral palsy who needed to have a procedure done to alleviate pain in his legs and to allow him to become more mobile. um, are they talking about carson? i was literally on the edge of my couch with tears streaming down my face. they showed a much less invasive procedure done to this little boy who reminded me very much of carson. i was meant to see this show and this very moment. why else would i have turned off some dumb housewives show? i never turn those things off! then a last minute late night phone call from our PT of a type of surgery she had just heard of from a colleague the day before we were going back to the neurosurgeon to schedule the other surgery we found one of two doctors who performs this less invasive, out patient surgery on kids with cp and are seeing amazing results. we did some research and made our decision. our tickets are booked and we are scheduled for surgery on the 16th of january, andrew's birthday. we feel really good about our choice (although I'm a bit anxious) and are ready to go. we will be in galveston through the weekend after the surgery to make sure everything is ok then we get to bring him home. he will be a little uncomfortable and possibly have casts on his feet depending on if the doctor wants to do his heel cords or not. if not, then he will just have to wear knee braces for a few weeks. he will have some serious rehab in learning how to use his newly loosened legs but will be back to his old (slightly improved) self in no time. he will miss less school than with the other two surgery options and will be up and running in no time hopefully with that same sweet carson smile.
so, if you have a free moment around january 16 send up a little prayer for our carson. he is far and away the sweetest kid i've ever known and andrew and i are beyond lucky that God chose to give him to us. all good things for 2015, all good things...
we're starting off the new year with a quote from a favorite movie in our house, frozen. as olaf says, "all good things, all good things" now, he's talking about something totally different but i'm using it as our mantra for this year. this will be a year of all good things. and we're starting off with a bang. on january 15 andrew and i will be taking carson to galveston, texas to have procedure done (called SPML which stands for Selective Percutanious Myofascial Lengthening) to lengthen his hamstrings and reduce the tightness and pain he feels in his legs. at the end of the school year last year we knew something would need to be done sooner than later for him. his hamstrings are getting tighter and tighter as he grows. it's getting more difficult for him to do things that he could do when he was younger and botox isn't giving us the results it use to either. so for the last few months i have been taking him to see several doctors and surgeons and getting their opinions. the orthopedist didn't feel like carson's legs looked bad enough to do a full hamstring lengthening surgery but thought a spinal surgery (rhyzotomy) might be an option. so off to the neurosurgeon we went. he thought the surgery would be good for carson because it would permanently take away his spasticity but we were concerned because a) it was a surgery on his spinal cord b) it still didn't resolve the fact that his hamstrings are physically shorter than normal. so now what? we were on board for the spinal surgery but needed to meet with the doctor again to confirm our plans. this is when a miracle happened.
i was watching something that was taped on our tv and got board with it and turned on the regular tv. the show "the doctors" happened to be on and it was just coming back from commercial. the next story was about a 7 year old boy with cerebral palsy who needed to have a procedure done to alleviate pain in his legs and to allow him to become more mobile. um, are they talking about carson? i was literally on the edge of my couch with tears streaming down my face. they showed a much less invasive procedure done to this little boy who reminded me very much of carson. i was meant to see this show and this very moment. why else would i have turned off some dumb housewives show? i never turn those things off! then a last minute late night phone call from our PT of a type of surgery she had just heard of from a colleague the day before we were going back to the neurosurgeon to schedule the other surgery we found one of two doctors who performs this less invasive, out patient surgery on kids with cp and are seeing amazing results. we did some research and made our decision. our tickets are booked and we are scheduled for surgery on the 16th of january, andrew's birthday. we feel really good about our choice (although I'm a bit anxious) and are ready to go. we will be in galveston through the weekend after the surgery to make sure everything is ok then we get to bring him home. he will be a little uncomfortable and possibly have casts on his feet depending on if the doctor wants to do his heel cords or not. if not, then he will just have to wear knee braces for a few weeks. he will have some serious rehab in learning how to use his newly loosened legs but will be back to his old (slightly improved) self in no time. he will miss less school than with the other two surgery options and will be up and running in no time hopefully with that same sweet carson smile.
so, if you have a free moment around january 16 send up a little prayer for our carson. he is far and away the sweetest kid i've ever known and andrew and i are beyond lucky that God chose to give him to us. all good things for 2015, all good things...
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Julie Whaley