Almost time for first Exray...

We've made it thru just over 1 month at home!

Matthew's been going to Eagle Ridge for therapy 4 days/wk for 1 hr, and it has been going well. When we left Baltimore, he had tightness in his left ankle and right knee. Therapy has completely fixed the ankle tightness and we have almost managed to straighten his right knee. Matthew has been attempting to lie on his stomach with his shins hanging over the end of the bed so that the fixators in his shins pull them straighter. Then, once he rolls over, we put a 5lb dumbell on his fixator to help push it flat - and it seems to be working.

He has graduated from using the walker to using 2 canes and sometimes only 1 depending on where he is. So, all in all, things are progressing nicely.

He has an appt. tomorrow before therapy to have his first set of exrays taken to send to Dr. Paley, and I'm dying to see how they look - I fully expect him to be almost ready to go for removal.

I emailed Dr. Paley a while ago re: removal as he had mentioned using rods to reinforce Matthew's legs once the pins are removed. Initially I didn't want that to happen, but afterwards thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad if it meant he could walk immediately. However, when Brittany came home with rods and instructions for no weight bearing on top of it, I had to re-think that one.
I tried to clarify it with Dr. Paley but he said he decides during the removal surgery! - I'll have to keep at it until I get a concrete answer.

So, things are going smoothly, still no pin site infections and all the kinks seem to be working themselves out.

Hopefully we haven't much longer before we can be all done!

We'll keep in touch and let you all know how the exrays look and what Dr. Paley has to say about them.

Talk to you soon,

Pam