Today we were at the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital for the greater portion of the afternoon for Drew’s pre-op. We were hoping that there would be no bloodwork, but with surgery and especially having a history of a blood disorder involving heavy bleeding, we figured it was a high hope. When the nurse came in with…

The first two days with the cast were extremely hard.  Drew was incredibly distraught at the fact that he had lost what little freedom he had even with the fixator which allowed him to freely sit up.  He took being confined to this cast harder than his previous two casts and there was a moment…

Originally posted on drewunarmed:
Arriving at the hospital It has been a 19-hour day for us so this post will be quick.  We had to wake up early this morning to get dressed, fed (not poor Drew though! per anesthesiologist’s instructions), and drive the 20 minute drive to the hospital to be there at 5:30.…

It’s been really good being back in Kentucky even though it snowed a lot at first at times making me regret leaving Florida.  But, one thing I didn’t realize I missed so bad was real alternative rock music.  West Palm Beach provides a respectable variety of music ranging from 80’s to Top 40 to Latino and even a country…

Seventeen hours and 1,013 miles later, we have successfully made it back to our ol’ Kentucky home.  The trip was pretty good and the most eventful thing that happened was a massive, loose and rank bowel movement that Drew made shortly after making a stop.  Diaper changes don’t normally cause so much stress, but y’all…

Our morning was off to a very early start as Nathan and I awoke a little after 5 am in order to get dressed and head off to St. Mary’s medical center for Drew’s 5th surgery since May 2012.  We both eeked in as much sleep as possible only waking up at the very last second…

I’m realizing that I have quite a few new visitors to my blog and maybe it’s a little difficult to get a handle on what’s going on with Drew, with over 100 posts.  So, I thought I would sum it all up in a post in case you need some more context to our adventures…

Drew had a follow-up with Dr. Paley yesterday to evaluate both legs’ progress.  I was a little anxious at first because just as we started to enter the building, Drew started complaining about pain in his legs and I had forgotten the pain medicine.  And, Drew was already disgruntled having to be there as I…

Well, it’s been a week and a half since Drew’s femur fracture and a new cast and I’m surprised to say it hasn’t been as bad as we anticipated.  It’s still an adjustment, but I haven’t been at the verge of pulling my hair out like I expected.  Drew needs a little more pain medicine…

The day started out really great.  After Drew’s knee and toe stretches to warm him up for his daily walking routine, Drew stood unsupported, maintaining his balance completely on his own, for 10 seconds.  It was amazing.  All of this hard work, pain, and pushing was starting to really pay off.  He was walking faster…

Well, things have finally turned around and we are smooth sailing for now.  Of course, that’s relative: smooth sailing.  If I look at this from the outside, I see a chaotic, stressful mess but from my perspective, this has become our new normal.  Sometimes I think about the removal of Drew’s left fixator and think…

Things pretty much have stayed the same.  Drew’s foot is still discolored, but it seems as if the time period of agonizing pain after adjustments just started slowly decreasing each day. And, he’s finally going longer than four hours without pain meds, sometimes greater that six hours. Drew is mostly cooperating during physical therapy and his  therapist is…