The excitement of what the serial cast could bring about , ....... the frustration of the discomfort and lack of mobility it was causing Jordan, to the decision to keep him in a wheelchair for these past two weeks while at school and even then, a few days of having to pull him from school early because he was in pain and could not focus in class.
We made it to our first official 2 week change over ( after what seemed 8 to us) last Thursday the 5th. By this stage ,Jordan had begun to walk small distances without our help and without pain.
One of the technicians came in to cut off the cast and took Jordan for an ankle xray - as we had discussed would happen two weeks prior. Thankfully, that came back with no red flags of damage to the joint.... this was a concern of ours due to the amount of pain Jordan had been experiencing.
Next Dr. Camp came in for his consultation and announced Jordan's ankle had reached a sufficient angle of flexion ( his whole sole was in contact with the floor) and was ready to progress to an articulated brace!!! Nearly 4 weeks ahead of the original guestimated time frame. Dr. Camp was extremely surprised at the speed of Jordan's progress as were we.
Tomorrow we go back in to have his brace fitted and move into the next phase of recovery. It will need to be worn approximately 10 hours a day but it will mean we can resume his other therapies; massage, hyperbaric ,physical and occupational.
We have noticed his posture returning to a more neutral one and the torso rotation has also lessened..This is a very exciting time for us as it could move Jordan closer to his former physical self..... to be able to start full body conditioning and stretching and a return to basic gymnastic training. Even if he should decide not to return to gymnastics as intensely as before we feel the disipline of the training will be good for him to get back in shape.
This weekend , we have also experienced some milestones. Both yesterday and today Jordan came out on his own between 9 and 9:45. Sundays are usually his day to sleep and we wake him around 11:30-12. He then instigated going to the park to shoot some hoops with Dad and also took on the various parts of park equipment ,such as the climbing rungs ,Slide and even gave the monkey bars a go. Just to see him outside like that was very exciting for us and something we shall definitely be incorporating more of , adding some friends as we go.
Lastly, we went out to dinner on Friday night and for the FIRST time since his accident Jordan didnt ask for his earplugs....HUGE step for him and one more reason to make us smile really big smiles.
Yes, it has been a very BIG week. Here's to a other one to follow.....
MJ