Time to catch up!

It's been a while! - nothing much has happened over the last few weeks., - same old, same old. - We did however, decide to do a day trip. We drove down to Washington, (1hr away) and did the tourist thing! - White House, Washington's Monument, Reflecting Pool etc. Matthew will attach some pics. From there we went down to Potomac Mills Outlet Mall (ext. 1/2hr) and did some Christmas shopping! - the mall has over 200 outlet stores in it - and we managed to get quite a bit done!. F/U with Dr. Paley - on Monday at 9:45 - got there 10ish, had exrays by 11 (from front). Paley came in and we went over the fact that Matt's shins are ok - once legs are straight the 'knock knee' look will disappear, and that as they were bent, exray was bascially useless to determine length gained. Sent us back for exrays from side for actual view. Initial exray showed femurs at 5.6 and tibias at 4.8, new exray showed actual length for femurs at 6.2 and tibias 5.4 - quite a difference! - So, all in all, Matthew has gained 11.6cm - or just over 4.5" from this surgery. He should come out of this with his legs straight and even. We have officially stopped turning and Dr. Paley has instructed Matthew to get as much therapy over the next two weeks as he can get - so he is now scheduled for 2 hours a day with a bit of a break in-between. Once done, the plan is to have a quick lunch and then go to the pool where he will work a little more, but mostly let the heated water soothe him. Our next appt. with Paley is on Dec. 4th - at that time, he suggested that if there isn't a big improvement from therapy by then that he will consider a muscle release at that time - his delay in doing it is that he wasn't 100% certain that he needed it and didn't want to open him up and find there wasn't much he could do. So, now we wait again. As he has stopped turning, there should be much better results from therapy, so, we'll see..........

Well - this is now the 27th - after a week of therapy, his left leg is almost straight, but the right is still being stubborn. We even took Friday off and went to New Jersey with another family for Thanksgiving (US), managed to visit with Marlo and family while we were there too, and even got more Christmas shoppng in! - Unfortunately, it was crazy for driving! - took us 6 hours to get there and 71/2 to get home! - should have taken 4! - Oh well, now we can say we've been to New Jersey. - Marlo and family had wanted us to visit this weekend. - Dec. 3rd., but we are now thinking that we'll stay here - it's quite a distance to go for a quick weekend. - Also, we don't want to miss any more therapy as our next appt. is on the following Monday. I think we'll try to go up for a longer visit when we come back for pin removal.

So, we should be all caught up now - sorry for not blogging more frequently. But, the count down is now on - only 17 days left to go! -

Must say though, sure don't miss the snow they are all getting at home!

Take care all, talk to you again soon,
Matt & Pam

Gotta Slow it down...

Dr Paley appt at 2pm - went early right after therapy, so got there about 1pm. Went for quick lunch back to house, then waited in clinic until 7:45 pm! Weren't sure if he was going to say Matt had to stop, or that he'd change fixator to correct shin and do muscle and nerve releases - But, instead, he says shins aren't as bad as look because his knees won't straighten. So, reduce turns to 2 over 2 for 2 more weeks, then we will determine at that time what is the next step. I advised he has to keep in mind that we are leaving on Dec. 14th. He wasn't too happy at having a deadline, said he couldn't work that way - that we definitely wouldn't get max. potential. We advised that was just fine. Matt feels that anything he gets now is a bonus. So he reluctantly agreed to work with us on the date. - So, I guess we'll have to see how it goes over the next two weeks. If the contracture doesn't get any better, we'll insist on a release as we want to go home with straight legs that are equal in length that only need exercise when we return, and no correction. I think I'll send an email to him to verify that we'll have enough time to do corrections before we leave if they are needed at that visit (20th). So if I hear anything back from him, I'll let you know - talk to you later!

May have to stop!

Well, it is getting much harder! Just this last week Matthew's ankles and knees have tightened considerably. So much so that we think Dr. Paley will be telling us he either HAS to stop lengthening or undergo a muscle release. Matthew had initially decided that he would stop before needing that additional surgery, but it seems things are now out of our hands. His knees and ankles have tightened so much this last week that he cannot straighten his legs by himself. Only after much work can a therapist push them straight. On Friday we were concerned about this and continuing lengthening over the weekend, so we had Dr. Paley paged. He responded by advising that as long as Matthew doesn't have any nerve trouble symptoms that he can continue lengthening over the weekend and then come to see him on Monday instead of next Thursday. So, Matthew has decided that if he can have the circular fixator put on at the same time as the muscle release and perhaps even a nerve release, he will do it. Then, as soon as there is a hint of tightening after that, he will stop completely. From this surgery he has gained approx. 4". This takes him to about 5'1" ! - which is actually 2" more than he initially hoped to get from all this at the beginning. He has had his back and arm straightened, his shins and hip flexion corrected and gained all this length which has made him much more able to function in this world built for people at least 5' tall. So, we shall see what happens at the meeting tomorrow and let you all know what will happen. Other than that he is doing well. The pool therapy is working out nicely. We go every day M-F after land therapy, and he gets to walk in the water, and do other exercises to help build up his muscles. He hasn't had any infections yet, although we are wondering if one may be starting - sometimes it is hard to tell if it is an infection or whether it is just that the pins sights are being pulled by the lengthening. Either way, if this new sensitivity doesn't subside by tomorrow, we will start on antibiotics, just to be sure. So, take care, and we'll fill you in tomorrow as to the outcome of our FIRST meeting with Dr. Paley this trip. Talk to you then!