Saturday Update

Sorry I haven't updated in a few days......Billy returned to school this week so we've been really busy....

Billy's doing really well.....He's getting alot more independant this week. Everytime I turn around he's grabbed his walker and is halfway across the room or he's scooting on his butt to where ever he wants to go. He's been quite the big boy. Pin site cleanings are still not going very well.....He still screams alot and now has his first pin site infection. I called the doctor on Thursday and they put him on antibiotics.

We tried to get him out of the house today and took him to the Monster Truck Show. He didn't really enjoy himself. After about an hour he was hollering to come home. He took a pretty bad tumble today trying to get himself off the couch and into the wheelchair so I think he was probably in alot of pain.. We brought him home at intermission and he was completely passed out before we made it out of Fort Smith.

We go back to the doctor on Monday so I will post another update after we get home!

Weekly Doctor's Appointment

Hey all, we went to our weekly appointment yesterday and they said Billy is doing fantastic. We have lengthened 1/2 cm on each bone for a total of 1 cm for his whole leg.....In just a few short weeks his foot will be sitting on the floor! It's very exciting to see the results and that we are getting somewhere with this! These are the pictures of the xrays. There is a side view, femur shot, and tibia shot. The tibia shot is the one where the break isn't aligned. This is because they are correcting his knock knee. Essentially, from what I gather, the bone isn't going to be straight, but his leg will be. I apologize for the black line down the side of the scans, there is something wrong with a sensor on my scanner apparently. We go back on Monday. Billy returned to school today for a few hours. He was a little whiny at first but seemed to make it just fine. I did my drug test today and will returning to work at his school when they get the results back. He's putting weight on his foot a little more and got to take a shower last night. We are now doing shower pin-site cleanings with a toothbrush and Dial soap......and boy does it make it a lot easier......he still screams alot but I can do all 18 of his pins in about 2 minutes.....I can deal with 2 minutes of screaming alot better than the hour that it was taking us cleaning with peroxide and QTips. I have some video of him walking that I am going to attempt to upload here so everyone can see him.

He actually ATE today.....He ate 3 helpings of mac and cheese with tuna......This is the first actual thing that he has eaten at all.......And he's way too smart for his own good. I bought him some Pediasure to help boost his caloric and nutritional intake since he isn't eating well, and he figured out very quickly that it is Pediasure instead of Milk and now won't drink it! We've now moved on to Carnation Instant Breakfast mixed with chocolate milk and he hasn't figured it out yet today that I'm adding stuff........So we'll see if I can start to get some weight on him! Hope all of you are doing well!

20 STEPS!!!

I am so extremely proud of my son today! He went to physical therapy at school and actually decided that he was going to walk today! He told his therapist that he was going to take 20 steps. Well he actually did a push the walker and hop thing, but the fact is that he got motivated enough to try getting up and around himself! I am sincerely hoping that he decides to walk on his own soon, cuz my back is killing me from lifting him (50 lbs of him vs 113 lbs of me!).
On a little more depressing note, we're not sure if he's trying to get sick or get a pin site infection, but he ran a 99.8 fever last night. I'm hoping that it was just from not being well hydrated but I'm going to have to watch him closely over the next few days.

One Week Update

One week after surgery and Billy is doing fantastic. He slept all the way through the night without waking up for pain meds. He still isn't eating very well, just mainly snacking so I'm going to start him on some Carnation Instant Breakfast and some Vitamins, so I can make sure that he's getting proper nutrition. He had his first formal physical therapy session today and did absolutely fantastic. There were no screaming fits, and he stood on his leg for almost 8 minutes with his walker. We're going back for another PT session on Friday. We started lengthening yesterday. Billy tolerates it very well as long as he gets to turn his one pin that he is assigned to. We've now lengthening 2 mms. After today we will only have 86 mm to go. The only thing he is not tolerating well is the pin site cleanings and it requires me and Thomas to both do it. Thomas holds his arms and other leg while I do the cleaning. So far it has involved a lot of screaming. If I can get him to stand tomorrow, I will try to take a picture of him standing to post it! Thanks for all of the continued support!

Doctor's Appointment, The Dressings Are Off

Well we went to clinic to see Dr. Aronson today for our post-op appointment. They removed the bandages. It was kind of gruesome while they were cleaning his pin sites, and there was a lot of hollering about it too......He got a kick out of the actual lengthening part, though, because it involves a wrench.......Billy, being the typical little boy, wants to do that part himself, so Dr. Aronson said that he could assist us. Here are the pictures of the fixator without the bandages.....

Friday Update

Well Billy is still doing wonderfully. He went to sleep about 11 last night and slept through without any more meds until 5:30 a.m. I woke up to my bedroom door squeaking, looked over and he wasn't in bed anymore. He was scooting down the hallway on his butt, pulling himself with his good leg. He said he was getting up to watch tv. So somehow he managed to get himself out of the bed! He said he put down one leg and then the other leg and it hurt real bad, so I gave him another dose. He has played some computer games (his wheelchair fits perfectly under the desk), took a walk with Daddy, and then layed down to watch some cartoons and passed out completely. He's been out for almost 2 hours now. Thomas has a project of building a wheelchair ramp out of the door in Billy's bedroom so we can get him in and out of the house a little easier. Ally is performing with the cheerleaders at the Varsity football game tonight, so I think if he isn't too worn out we're going to take Billy. I figure he'll get a kick out of showing off his wheelchair to everyone. Here are his presurgery and post surgery pictures that I took. He get the bandages off on Monday so I'll take more pictures and post them then.

Update to Billy's surgery

Well Billy's surgery went very well. They didn't get started until 8:45 a.m. and got done at 12:45 a.m. They have decided that we are going to try to lengthen him 70 mm or 7 cms. This is a little overlengthening, but it will get his little leg ahead of the other one so it will take longer for it to get behind. Billy has amazed me. He has just been a little trooper. His main complaints right now are the pulse ox moniter on his big toe and not being able to bend his knee. He wants to get up and walk already, but we will be doing that tomorrow. We've already met his physical therapist here, who is his current therapist's at Kids Firsts niece. Kim was awesome and put in a special request without me even knowing! He's getting x-rays first thing in the morning and then he'll go to therapy. I will try to post more tomorrow. I probably won't be able to post pictures til we get home because so far I'm not finding a computer with a card reader! Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!

Surgery time!

Well Billy's surgery is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. so we get to get up at the lovely hour of 2 a.m. to drive to Little Rock. We won't be back til Friday or Saturday. I will try to get online in the family connection center to post updates, but it will mainly depend on how he's doing and if he will let me get out of his sight. I probably won't be able to post any pictures until we get home.

Billy's Pictures

Here are Billy's pictures, If it will come up.

Billy's Tour of the Hospital!

Well we went to the hospital yesterday for Billy's pre-admission tour. We met a really nice lady named Crystal who led us around (like we haven't been there before). All Billy really seemed to care about were the bubble guns in her office and the Foozball table in the playroom on the ward where we'll be staying while he's in. Even though he really didn't care about the tour, I think this is all starting to sink in with him. She showed him a doll with a fixator on and he asked Why the Metal Pins were going into the dolls leg. so we got the lovely task of explaining that the pins were going to go into his leg also.....I think he's getting it but I am not really sure. He's been throwing a lot more temper tantrums and having more potty accidents lately. I'm hoping its just anxiety and not another of his bad behavioral phases. We have unfortunately had to stop his anti-inflammatory medicine because it can slow bone growth. So maybe this is all just pain from his knee. It was a very long car ride.....It's definitely going to take some getting used to going up there every week.


Last Friday was my last day at work, but now I'm looking at going back to my job at the real estate office a couple days a week, just to help out around here with the bills.


We got Billy's pictures taken on Sunday. They turned out really cute. So far they aren't available online, I'm hoping I'll get them in the next few days. There are a couple of shots that will definitely be blackmail pictures when he gets older. The lady who took the pictures was really good. She actually let Billy be himself and captured the "real" him in the pics.

I think thats about it that's going on in our lives right now! Oh, I got new glasses ordered today! I'll post pictures when I actually get them in!