Never Under-Estimate the Power of Hope

anything could happen & that everything would // Cheryl Strayed

Life has surely been sweet and strong lately. I'm finding a way to weave gratitude into everything.  For instance the stumbling, the correcting the course, the difficulty finding balance.  This time around, the wisdom of knowing the journey we've been on and the path of healing, courage, of beauty, of love we are on. They've helped me stretch my soul.

Cruising With Lew from Jenn S on Vimeo. Video shows our guy stretching his calf muscles 14 days post botox/heel cord procedure. He's still really weak in the shin muscles (from years of such tightness in his heel cord) so we've been trying to help him develop strength by the stretches and activities at home.  Lots and lots of PT with his fabulous therapist Ms. L!  It's still so hard for him but he is a persistent little guy.  He does not give up.  He gets up day in and day out and begins again (and again and again). Thank you so much for teaching me the most powerful form of resilience training.

and starting off the Memorial Weekend with Lew, the Bruiser....  He had an incident in his activity chair whereby Annie our dog knocked him down (his brakes weren't on cuz we were moving toward the house) and consequently he hit his forehead on the corner of the ramp wall.  Coupla stitches later and a CT scan to be sure there wasn't a concussion. It was a deep puncture...on his forehead. Suffice it to say we had a lot of nice cuddles the rest of the weekend.  On this day, I surrender my heart to possibility, to listening, to asking, to helping me, to hope.

LJ and the Impressive Fracture

Happy Saturday. LJ is presently tearing around the house in his walker, terrorizing his cousins and brother. He's got a big grin on his mug. You'd never guess he has a fractured skull...

When last we saw our fearless hero, the X-rays were clean. That was Monday. On Thursday afternoon, we got a call from the Doc's office - the radiologists' report found some abnormalities. Please go have a CT scan right away, just as a precaution. LJ and Jenn ran off to the CT scan place and got that taken care of, straight from the swimming pool. Then back to the Doc for a preliminary read of the scan. Doc sent us to the ER at Children's hospital, since that's where they had a pediatric neurosurgeon on duty. Gulp.

I met Jenn and LJ at the hospital straight from work. I was supposed to be headed to the airport to pick up my niece, nephews and sister in law, coming in from FL. Luckily (for us, if not for them) their flight was delayed, so I was able to be in two places at once. LJ was in a great mood - he was very responsive and smiley while we waited. At this point, it had been more than a week since he banged his head, and he'd really been back to himself since shortly after it happened.

Truth be told, the three of us had a pretty good time hanging out in the exam room at Childrens. We were very concerned, but LJ calmed our fears by being very cuddly and curious. He practiced his baby signs with Jenn, played peek-a-boo and waved at every nurse and doctor that came by.

The Neurosurgeon said it was an "impressive fracture", starting just behind LJ's right ear and extending several inches. He even took the images to show his boss. (Apparently, a skull fracture can be "impressive" without being very serious, for a two year old. So that's good). Neurosurgeon checked LJ out and gave us the all clear around 8:30. The course of treatment for a minor skull fracture is to do nothing and let it heal, come back and see us in a month. By the time Jenn and LJ actually got to leave it was nearly 10 and I was out at the airport picking up the cousins.

I'm not sure what the moral of this story is, but we're all glad it ended well. It ended up being much ado about nothing, since there's no specific treatment other than time, but at least all of our questions are answered. Time to go have a fun weekend with the family.