Life as a Leach

On Thursday, Abby will be 3 months post-op from this awful Shilla surgery.  She has really been through the ringer with this one:  between the infection, the pain, the numbness, and the bladder issues, we were really just praying for a glimmer of hope. You see, 3 months marks the time when our surgeon said her recovery would be about as good as it is going to get.  Given that she still struggles to walk further than from the parking lot to the front door without resting, we were really hoping that she would have progressed farther than this.  Don't even get me started about the numbness in her legs... But tonight, God gave us that glimmer.  Abby decided that she wanted to stand up on her own without holding onto someone or something to support her.  After several attempts and a whole lot of willpower, she did it!!! And yes, we both cried.  :) THIS IS HUGE!! Matt and I both feared that she may never be able to stand up on her own again.  ...

Well, it appears that the brace was short-lived.  Abby's incision wasn't healing well and was started looking pretty nasty.  The brace runs against the area of her kyphosis and is keeping it from healing.  I sent pictures to our surgeon on Thursday and he said to take the brace off.  After some emailing back and forth to discuss how long, he said that it needs to stay off until her incision is completely healed--and at that point, the brace won't do any good.  So...no more brace. Abby is thrilled, because she pretty much hated it.  Matt and I are conflicted.  While it's much easier on us not to have our daily fight to get the brace on Abby, she was much safer in it and her posture would have improved as well.   Her wardrobe suddenly improved tremendously, since button-Down's and leggings were about all she could wear with the brace.  In other news, does anyone need some plaid shirts?!

I know I've been neglecting my blog, so I wanted to do a quick update on Abby's progress.  She's been getting stronger every day, and even walked 20 minutes on the treadmill yesterday!  Cartoons are a wonderful thing. :) We have noticed that she is still walking with her head tilted.  She does this after every surgery, but this is longer than usual.  Her OT is also a little concerned, and feels like she is meeting resistance when she manipulates it.  Abby has a lot of pain when straightening it while standing, so it may be that the rod is blocking it.  This could just be what we have from here on out. We are still working on it.   Other than that, we have been enjoying the nice weather and the first few days of summer!  Purple lightning (the wheelchair) accompanies Abby out in crowds for safety.   Abby will go to a 3 day camp at a local art center next week.  The director wasn't quite comfortable with Abby's needs, so Caleb and I will st...

Abby had her first day of rehab today, and she did pretty well.  There was a little miscommunication and a student intern came to work with her...not what I had in mind.  I don't usually go back with Abby, but I asked to this time.  She wanted Abby to do 10 consecutive minutes on the treadmill at a 1.0 incline, which is her baseline.  She did eventually do 10 minutes with multiple breaks, but the incline only lasted 3 minutes.  I was pretty happy with those results, but the intern wasn't.  Turns out, she didn't know a thing about Abby.  When our therapist did get out of her meeting, she took over the session and then I felt comfortable enough to go back in the waiting room like usual.  She apologized several times for the miscommunication, even though I never said anything about it. It all went downhill after OT, and Abby spent the majority of the rest of the day yelling at me.  Yay.  I love that.  Deep breaths and a lot of tough ...

We got home late last night, after quite a few stops to stretch, get meds, or go to the bathroom.  When we were finally all under the same roof, we did the bare minimum and got everyone to bed.  Today has been a challenge--I'm trying to get Abby into a routine, and she just wants to lie on the couch all day.  Her back hurts--really hurts.  There was lots of whining and crying, but we got through it. She refused to sleep this afternoon, which meant she fell asleep right in the middle of dinner!    Tomorrow will be better.  Every day gets a little better, right?