About a month ago we counted down the seconds of our last leg lengthening. It was an extremely slow going process and even though you could see the results of the 6 months of lengthening it was hard to believe that each session was really doing anything. It was such a surreal feeling for both Zackary and I when it was complete. It was like the feeding schedule of an infant. It had to happen no matter our location, the time or how busy we were. Everything would stop 3-4 times a day so we could find a plug, listen to a lovely noise for 3 minutes and document the time and length. But that has quickly become a distant memory and we have found ourselves with a little more freedom away from the 3 days a week of PT we still do each week. Like I mentioned before, PT is a slow and steady race and his flexibility continues to grow each week. We started with 120 degree bend in his knee when we first got back into Albuquerque and now he's up to 132-135 degrees depending on the day! This is huge for him, it visually looks like more then he ever had in the past!
This picture reflects a non doctor victory that almost brought me to tears. We got him dressed like usual but that day he wanted to wear his new long socks, he had wore short socks all summer. We put them on and he just repeated over and over "oh my gosh, oh my gosh, OH MY GOSH!" I freaked out thinking there was something poking at his foot and he said no look! I've never had socks that line up before. They are in the same place on my legs! Yep, bring on the water works! It's the littlest things every once and awhile that truly shine light on how far we, HE, has come over the last 6 months. His socks lined up, that's all he needed to see and to understand and that moment was all I needed to take a deep breathe and realize how strong, amazing and grateful my amazing boy was...socks, that was it! I am truly thankful for lined up socks!
Moving forward in the weeks to come, after lengthening was over we finally were able to get our x-rays after a fun back and forth game between the doctor in Baltimore, the doctor here and the x-ray company. For the record that's one too many set of ears in the game of telephone! LOL We mailed the disc to Dr. Herzenberg overnight knowing he said it would take about a week to read once they got to him. Then on Wednesday I called to get a report, exactly one week later. I don't think he could have paid for a better excuse when his nurse let me know he took the CD with him to another country where he was teaching at for the week! So another week passed and was told via email he would get to them asap. Does anyone remember how patient I am? Yeah, it was a long 2 weeks to say the least. The weekend came and went and I reached out again on Monday knowing that was his clinic day and would be in the office. We finally received the review! A lot of big doctor words that I'm sure my nursing friends and family would understand and that our PT told us was great news! My favorite line was 'the bone is remarkably better', like they were surprised! HAHA do they know what type of amazing God is on our side? Anyways, overall it said that the bone growth on the sides are looking great, the front was doing okay but the back still had a bit of catching up to do. They said the hardware is all still in tact. This is great news because Zackary has definitely been a lot more active being home. They also upped his weight bearing to 50%!!! Like HALF! That excites me so much to get that feeling of a possible end in sight.
Though we are quickly approaching the 'average 8 month' mark of beginning to end process we understand how special Zackary is and no matter how much longer he takes to heal it will be worth it. I still feel in my heart that Christmas is a realistic goal for him being able to walk on his own but know it's all up to that bone, so we continue to pray, go 100% at PT, stick with his vitamins and bone stimulator machine and wait for the next x-rays that should be in about 2 weeks.
Oh and in case you wondered what took up the last few weeks of our lives here is a picture of Johnny's homecoming night (yes he's taller then me and old enough to go to homecoming) and the other photo is of Zackary and his cousin Quentin enjoying the 10 day long Balloon Fiesta where Zackary sadly had to miss out on flying due to his condition but did a great job at working the fan, handing out cards and not complaining once of how much walking or work he had to do or how cold it was outside each morning at 4am!
Until Next Time (hopefully less the 2 months!)~
Momma Miller
