Thankfully, it has been a while since I had anything to blog about. In the 1 and 1/2 months that Sam has been out of his neck brace he has been really enjoying it and getting back to regular life. He has been running a little and swimming at the gym, chasing his brothers around the house, joining Nerf battles, and basically feeling a bit normal again. He is so thankful to be able to join in to activities again. I have also found him to be pretty concerned and compassionate toward even strangers who are going through medical problems. God has definitively given Sam a heart for people who are in difficult situations with their health.
We had a followup appointment in Chicago again today. This was another normal followup with an x-ray and consultation with Dr. Alden. On a bit of a side note, Sam has grown a 1/2 inch since his last appointment. I have some reasons to believe it was beneficial to have all this done prior to his adolescent growth spurt and it looks like we were in the nick of time! Today's appointment went well. Dr. Alden was very pleased with the x-rays. At December's x-ray he indicated there was a "bridge" of bone growth in between the fusion. This means that there was a thin bridge of bone extending from one part to the next. This x-ray seemed to show a good size column of bone. A CT scan is still the only definitive film for making this determination, but everyone is quite pleased with what can be seen in the plain x-ray. All of his hardware is also staying solidly in place. I have to admit I have been a bit nervous the last month as I have watched Sam be so active and then other times slouching in terrible posture on a chair. All I could think was that it seemed like all those things would put such terrible stress on his neck. As usual this mother's worry has amounted to nothing and Sam is doing fantastic. The doctor even gave him permission to jump (feet first) off the diving board, and with a great deal of caution and safety measures in place go sledding (gulp, let's just say I am praying for our non-snowy winter to continue!).
Sam's spirits are really high. I can see the stiffness and lack of movement in his neck, but when you ask him he indicates that he doesn't feel any lack of mobility at all. I believe he doesn't feel like he has lost much, and to me that is way more important than what is fact. If he is frustrated with anything it is the restrictions he is still under, and much of that will eventually be gone. Hopefully, at some point we will be down to no contact sports and no roller coasters and that will be it.
Our next steps will come in March. He has a busy schedule. We will have a sleep study (to see what, if anything, the surgery did to his central apnea) a Neurologist appointment, a CT scan (to check bone growth), a spine and brain MRI (to see how everything looks 6 months post-op and make sure no spinal cysts have developed), and a Neurosurgeon followup. We already have the sleep study and Neurologist set up. I am hoping to schedule the MRI, CT, and Neurosurgeon all in one marathon day in Chicago. But my first step is contacting insurance. Our referral (that permits us to see an out of network doctor) has run it's course once again and I need to reapply for more visits. Let me say here that with all the bad flack insurance companies take, I have been more than satisfied with our experience. It takes a lot of work to stay on top of things, but we have been treated fairly, compassionately, and competently.
Prayer requests would be as follows:
1) A new referral would be issued with out any problems.
2) A beautiful MRI and CT scan showing everything healing as it should.
3) Sam's tolerance of all the appointments in March. He really hates the sleep studies. And he has chosen to not be sedated for his MRI's. It will take 1-2 hours of him laying perfectly still in that loud, small banging tube. I think I would need to be sedated! But he has some decent experience with such things at this point and feels he can do it, and that it would be better than going through sedation. (Can I just say how proud I am of this young man!)
4) This is a stretch, but we have a big God. I would love for Sam to be able to get off his CPAP after the sleep study. I am not clinging to this being the outcome, but it would be wonderful for him to have a tangible benefit to all he has gone through.
Mostly I am just praising God for where we are. There were times that it seemed the outcome of this was going to be so much worse. I am overjoyed to be where we are today. Thank you, Lord!
