Crutch-less

Eliza went to the first day back to school without crutches.  Sounds like it went pretty well and she only experienced mild pain and swelling. This was the first time without crutches at school in many months, probably almost a year ago.  It is a pretty exciting step in her recovery!

Back to Gillette Again

Eliza and I made a very quick trip back to Gillette this week for another recheck.  We had some crazy travel issues, but we made it there and back and had a good appointment.  The day started out so beautiful as we took off from a very overcast Traverse City airport and then enjoyed the sunrise above the clouds.

Though Eliza hasn’t ridden in the wheelchair for a few weeks now, it did feel like great progress to return it to Gillette.  It was definitely a help for the most challenging weeks of recovery.  Now we wish the next patient that needs it well, while being thankful that Eliza’s turn is over.
Dr. Novacheck said that Eliza continues to heal well.  The X-Rays show good bone regrowth.  Now the instructions are to work hard at PT to rebuild strength.  He challenged her to be off crutches when she goes back to school after Christmas break.  By spring she will hopefully be dealing with much less surgery pain and swelling with weight bearing and can hopefully be able to better participate in many physical activities. For nearly 2 years she has been so limited in what she is able to do, we are excited about the possibilities.

Sometimes you don’t really appreciate what you have until you don’t have it anymore.  I hope that is a lesson that Eliza and our family will internalize after this experience.

More Progress

Eliza continues to get a little stronger and more mobile each day.  Physical therapy has been a great help.  It’s allowing her to be more physically active, as well as work on walking again.  Though she still needs to use the crutches to walk right now, she is bearing more weight and has more range of motion in her ankle.  The biggest joy is that her pain now is located around her incisions and no longer in the arch of her foot where her chronic pain had been before the surgery.  She has a way to go before we know for sure how successful the surgery was, but the progress gives us all hope.
Pain and swelling are still a challenge, but Eliza hardly ever complains.  Finding shoes and boots that work is not easy, but we are managing.  We are so happy that she is back to school and many of her regular activities.  During this season of holidays and celebrations, our family realizes that we have many reasons to be thankful.  

Back to Gillette

We took a quick trip back to Minnesota for a post op check the other day.
 
Eliza was most excited about getting the cast off.  This part of the process was so much better than the cast going on!  We don’t need to remember that painful part.  She enjoyed being able to shower and lotion up her itchy skin.

Here are Dan and Eliza checking out her new and improved foot and leg.  After x rays, a visit with the surgeon, a fitting for a new orthotic and a PT evaluation we learned that Eliza is healing up well.  The new goals are to start bearing weight with the help of crutches and working on strength building in PT.  It was a huge relief for us to hear that everything is looking good.  In about 6 weeks we go back for another check. 

Better Each Day

Here’s Eliza on the way to school last week.  Sorry for the delay posting, time has gotten away from us.  The update tonight is that Eliza went from going to school for a couple of hours at a time 2 weeks ago, to staying for the whole day last week.  Today was the first day she went with crutches and not the wheelchair.  Pain seems much lower now and the swelling is less, even when she is up on crutches.  As she has started bearing some weight on her foot, she reports that the soreness is not the same as the ongoing pain she has dealt with for years.  That allows us to be cautiously optimistic that the surgery took care of the chronic pain.  It will probably be several more weeks or months before we know for sure.  We all look forward to her follow up appointments and cast removal back at Gillette Children's Hospital later this week.  Praying for a good report and that she will ready to move onto physical therapy.

Recovery

It’s been awhile since I updated everyone.  Though recovery is slow, Eliza seems to get a little better every day.  Since coming home, she has enjoyed visits from friends and family, movies, cooking shows, card games, and a lot of sleeping.  This week Eliza has been able to start catching up on school work.  Yesterday she even had a short piano lesson over facetime in our living room.  Hopefully next week she can start back to school.  She’ll try some partial days first and see how that goes.  In the meantime, she’s had a couple of outings, the first to a concert (pictured above) and last night to church for dinner.  Fresh air and a change of scenery seem to do Eliza a world of good.  The challenge she faces in getting back to a regular routine is that her leg still swells and becomes painful if it isn’t elevated.  Also, she wears out pretty quickly.  She is getting stronger and stronger and no longer needs a lot of the medications which were causing her to sleep through much of the day.    The prayers, cards, visits, dinners, love and concern mean so much to all of us and it helps more than I’m able to express in writing.  Thank you all so much.

Home Again, Home Again

After a couple of cold days of driving through northern Wisconsin and the UP, we are home!
 

Claire and Grandma Sue decorated to welcome Eliza home.  It was so good to see them and it feels good to have Eliza settled in.  Now for the next several days she’ll be resting on the couch or in bed so her foot can stay elevated to help with the swelling.  In general, Eliza is doing pretty well.

Over the past week, Claire sent around cards to Eliza’s friends at school, church and choir and they sent her get well messages.  Now she has a whole wall of fun messages to read over the next few days.  Thanks to everyone for all the love and support!