January 9, 2006
January 9, 2006 | Updates
Hi everyone. I’m sitting here waiting for little Samuel to fall asleep and wanted to let everyone know how he is doing. We went to the doctor today to have his cast removed. I was a little hesitant to do it because I really wanted an x-ray to ensure that it is fully healed before removing the cast. The doctor felt, however, that if it had been on 3 weeks and if the break was just a slight buckle fracture, it should for sure be healed. However, he just took my word for everything since it was one of his assistants that actually saw the x-rays and placed the cast. He didn’t even have Samuel’s records with him to make sure my memory was correct. Let’s hope it was and that his leg is fully healed. I did insist on a copy of the x-rays of his leg to take to Primary Childrens later this week so the doctors there can evaluate whether or not Samuel’s bones are demineralizing and causing them to be weak. We’ll see.Samuel’s leg looks great except for a sore that developed on the top of his ankle from rubbing against the cast. I guess it’s a good thing we took the cast off today if only for that. Poor little guy, it must have been bothering him! (One good thing, his right foot no longer points down since it was in the cast so long. Good!)I want to finish this post by telling everyone how much better Samuel has been since that night he was so upset. We actually gave him another blessing on Christmas Eve to bless him that he might start to be calmer and begin to improve more. Then just 2 days later, he had that awful episode and broke his tooth in half being so upset. It was so hard to watch and so different than what we had expected after his blessing. But just a few days later, he seemed so much calmer, and it has lasted every day since. It is so nice to see.
Some of the funnest things are that now he is calm enough that we can play with him for short periods of time and he seems so interested - like he is having a little fun. He will watch things so closely and seems to really enjoy some of the toys he got for Christmas. He especially loves his little farm animals, train and new movies and he seems to be trying more and more each day to participate as we play. It is so good to see!
Two major things we’ve noticed are that he is bending his legs on his own and attempting to use his left hand. He was trying to use his right hand a few months ago, but doesn’t seem very interested in doing so now. But now his left hand is always busy trying to move around. And he seems to be able to have the ability to grasp and release things with it. It still needs a lot of work, but I do think he can do it. We are pretty excited about that. As far as his little legs, for the first time in nearly 6 months, when I lay him on his stomach he tries to pull his knees underneath him. That is such a huge step from arching his back and pushing his legs into the air. If he can get to the point where he can pull all 4 limbs underneath him, he can relearn to crawl. That would be wonderful!
He also suddenly seems to prefer to turn his head to the left. I don’t know if you remember, but for months, he kept his head tightly turned to the right. Then, he began to turn it midline, and SOMETIMES to the left. Now, I have to really coax him to turn to the right. Little stinker! But it’s not as bad as it was, and he can turn his head when he wants to. He definitely has control over that - although he still cannot hold his head up on his own.
Which leads me to one other bit of good news - our insurance company approved sending each therapist to our home twice a week. That will make for 6 hours of therapy from them and about 2 hours of therapy from the up to 3 program each week. It still isn’t as much as we would like, but it’s a step in the right direction. It is probably as much as Samuel can handle at this point anyway.
Thanks again to everyone and please keep praying for our little guy!
Love,
The Jewkes
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