The Most Amazing Day

Today has been the most amazing day!  Today was the big day for Jadon's cast to come off!  We were not sure what to expect.  Would we see new things right away?  We had heard other parents say that they did, but I did not want to get my hopes up too much.

Jadon had the appropriate shirt on.  I have been saving this shirt for cast removal day.  It says "Caution, Under Construction.  Please excuse my mess".  Then on the back is a warning label that says "Adult supervision required".  Dr. Kozin got a real kick out of this shirt.  Said it was perfect.

Dr. Kozin removed Jadon's cast.  He did not care much for this part.  It does not hurt but the saw is very loud and that scared Jadon.  Fortunately, Dr. Kozin was very fast.  Just cutting slits in the cast but leaving it on until we could go upstairs to see the therapists. 

Once we were upstairs in the therapy rooms they took the cast off but we had to continue to hold up Jadon's arm up.  They did not want it to fall rapidly and put stress on the tendon that is freshly healed.  So until they got his brace ready we had to hold up his arm.  It felt like it took forever for them to get his brace just the way they wanted it.  Jadon was getting a little impatient with us holding his arm and not letting him down.  Fortunately I was armed with plenty of suckers and fruit snacks to keep him happy. 

While waiting for parts of the brace to be adjusted the therapist stayed in the room with us and tried to get him to try a few things.  She took her badge and keys that Jadon had been interested in and held them above Jadon's head to try and get him to reach for them.  This is something we have never seen him do before but he did it!  I could not believe it.  He reach up over his head for the keys multiple times.  It was like watching a miracle.  I cried.  It was such a happy moment!   Then a little while later she got him to touch his head.  We kept clapping and cheering.  Jadon being the ham that he is loved every second of it. 

I found after taking the above pics that I was technically not supposed to take any pictures in therapy so I had to wait to capture the new movements until getting back to the Ronald McDonald House.

We went to a place called Reading Terminal Market for lunch.  Then we came back to the RMH for nap.  We all took a two hour nap.  After all that excitement we were worn out!

Pic of the Ronald McDonald House we stay at on Erie St.

Pic of Jadon in his new brace he has to wear for 8 weeks.  He will have to wear it when he is sleeping for 12 weeks it sounds like. 

After nap it was bathtime!  Time to get the stink off the boy!  He was happy as you can see from the picture below!

Then I got him to show me his new tricks with Righty so I could take some pictures.  We have never before seem him raise his arm to even shoulder height or out away from his body let alone this high!  Look at that!!

I am still trying to get him to reach up with both Lefty and Righy at the same time.  He is so used to them doing things separately.

Love, love, love this!

So that is what today was like!  We have a lot of restrictions right now.  We can't push his arm down.  Right now his arm does not go all the way down to his side.  Once the cast has been off longer and those muscles relax it will come down on its own.  We can't force it.  We also can't let him do any movements in towards his body either.  And no weight bearing.  For  today the brace was only supposed to be off for a half an hour but the therapists said that the goal is to have it more off than on by the end of the week. 

I did not mind keeping it on today.  I was so nervous about him doing something he was not supposed to be doing!  I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings! 

Why Awareness Is SO Important

The UBPN posted a link that caught my attention.  Could not access the whole article but the abstract pretty much says it all.  The article was about a study done tracking incidences of OBPI before shoulder dystocia training for maternity staff and incidences post shoulder dystocia training.

Conclusion

Shoulder dystocia training was associated with a lower incidence of OBPI and the incidence of OBPI in births complicated by shoulder dystocia.



Here is the link to the abstract: http://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378%2811%2900066-4/abstract.  Unfortunately you have to join the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology to view the whole thing....

This is why I tell everyone to TALK about this!!  Talk to pregnant women you know!  Pregnant women talk to your physicians!  Everyone talk about this!  Spread the word!  Knowledge is POWER!!

So a child close to you does not have to go through THIS!

Or this!

Ok...off my soapbox for now.

Adjusting

Things are returning to normal around.  Well....as normal as life can be with a toddler in a full arm/torso cast anyway.  Jadon is adjusting to the cast well.  I even found him sleeping on his stomach last night and he is waking up less and less in the night now.  Today is a week since surgery.  I can't believe one week is done already!  We return to Philly for cast removal and a week of therapy the week of April 4th-8th.  They will do therapy twice a day for that week.  Once in the morning and once after lunch.  I have a feeling we are going to have one tired and cranky boy that week.

We are discovering that the 4T shirts I bought are fitting the best.  The child size 5's I bought are too big but some 5T Garanimal shirts I picked up at Walmart are working out pretty good.  So I would say that in most brands shirts two sizes too big are adequate. 

In the pics below Jadon is enjoying a get well treat from his Great Aunt Marilyn.  She sent him a get well card with a dollar in it.  She said she heard his favorite treat was M &M's and to use this dollar to go and get some well deserved M&M's!  So we did ! 

Shoulder/Tendon Surgery

Sorry it took me so long to give everyone an update!  We got home late Saturday night from Philadelphia and spent time with our older kids yesterday.  Jadon's surgery went really well.  I was really nervous about how he would handle being taken back for surgery.  I was worried that as soon as we got back in the pre-op area that Jadon would figure out what was going on and start to have some anxiety.  Fortunately he was in a great mood and we were able to distract him by being silly with him.  It also helped immensely to have phenomenal nurses.  They are always so good with him at Shriner's!

Jadon waiting for surgery.

The pre-op nurses had me give Jadon some medicine that was supposed to relax him and maybe even put him to sleep.  It kinda had the opposite effect on Jadon however.  It made him a little crazy and loopy.  He was being silly and when the anesthesiologist came to take him back for surgery he did not even care.  Off he went happily.  I was so grateful there was no screaming, crying, or tears.  Thank you Shriner's staff for not breaking this Momma's heart!

We got multiple updates from the or nurses then finally got the call we had been waiting for.  The call to say we could come see our baby boy!  As we were walking up to the PACU doors we could hear a child screaming.  Matt said "oh, someone is not happy".  When the nurse came and opened the doors to let us in we quickly realized the "someone" who was not happy was our child.  Jadon came out of anesthesia spitting mad.  He was going nuts!  It tooks Matt and I several minutes to get him calmed down.  Finally Matt got him to rest and relax a little.   After they made sure that he was doing okay they moved him to a room.  Once they transported him we were able to pick him up and hold him again.  That is all he wanted.  Just to be cuddled in our arms and sleep. 

Resting in the crib for a little while after surgery.  Spent most of the time in our arms though.

The nurses could not believe how much Jadon was resting.  To me it seemed like he was just trying to make the world go away.  He would wake up every once in awhile and realize that darn cast was still there, get mad, then just go back to sleep.  We felt so bad for him. 

Here Jadon is during one of his brief awake times in the hours after surgery.  He got morphine twice after surgery then overnight they tried just ibuprofen to see how he did.

Finally in the evening Jadon went from this......

to this!

I was so happy to see that smile!  We got him to drink some juice and he started to perk up a little.  Talking to us and smiling.  Eventually we got him to eat some crackers then a turkey sandwich.  He was slowly starting to come around.  Mommy stayed with Jadon overnight and we had a great night.  He did not fuss much.  Just wanted to sleep.  He would sleep in my arms for awhile then sleep in the crib for awhile.  About 6 in the morning he decided he was ready to be up for the day.  So we watched cartoons and waited for Daddy to bring us breakfast.  Later in the morning we got Jadon up to walk around.  This was the first time being on his feet after surgery.  The first time he took a few steps he said "woa, woa".  It was so cute.  It did not take him long to figure it out and before we knew it we were making lap around the unit getting some exercise.

The doctors came in around 8:30 to check on Jadon.  They looked at the cast and decided there were a few places that needed to be trimmed because the cast was digging into his skin.  So we went down to the fourth floor clinic and Dr. Kozin trimmed his cast to make it more comfortable.  He did not care for that at all!

Once that was done we went back upstairs to wait for our carseat to be checked out and approved.  Our carseat passed the test!  Jadon fit in it with his cast with only a few adjustments!  Woohoo!  That was the last thing we had to do before we were discharged.  We were back at the Ronald McDonald House by 10:30!  Where Jadon rested, played, and watched Elmo for the rest of the day.  Here he is sleeping with his Project Linus blanket that he got after surgery. 

Here are some more pictures of Jadon's precious blanket.  Just add this organization to my list of things I am so grateful for!  Our life is so full of blessings!  We were blessed to stay at the Ronald McDonald House of Philadelphia for the 7th time this stay.  We are blessed to have such an amazing hospital like Shriners with their amazing doctors and nurses.  Now we are blessed with comfort for our sweet boy in his time of need by Project Linus.  Truly amazing.....

A few other blessings were sent our way during this trip.  While staying at the Ronald McDonald House we met Mia, a sweet little girl just a few weeks older than Jadon who was back at Shriners for her week of rehab post shoulder surgery.  It was really great to see her progress and to be able to talk to her Mom and Grandma about the surgery.  It really helped calm our nerves and Jadon got to make a new friend.  I would love to post a pic of Mia but I forgot to check with her Mommy to see if it was ok.  If she emails me soon I will ask her if I can introduce Ms. Mia! 

Our first night at the Ronald McDonald House a cute little doggy named Stella came to visit the children at RMH.  We love when it is pet therapy night!  Jadon and Mia LOVED playing with Stella.

We are home now and Jadon is doing well.  We left for home on Saturday barely 48 hours after surgery.  Jadon did not sleep well Friday night so we made the decision to drive straight through to home in one day instead of splitting it up into two days.  Our thinking was that perhaps Jadon would rest better at home.  We left Philadelphia around 7:30 am and arrived home around 9:30 in the evening.  By the time we got unpacked, visited with my sister (our house/kid sitter) and the older kids, and did the bedtime routine it was 11 before we got Jadon to bed.  He was asleep right away and slept through the whole night!  He woke up around 8:30 the next morning.  It was so wonderful! 

Today (Monday) is the first day that I did not give Jadon any ibuprofen.  He had a great day and has not been complaining about the cast.  Seems to be getting used to it and the shirts we bought about 3 sizes too big seem to be working out very well.  Overall, we are all adjusting and recovering.  Linda from Shriners is supposed to call me sometime this week to set up our return visit in four weeks for cast removal, and five days of therapy. 

Original Kinesio Blog

I have been so busy I almost forgot to look for this!  Here is the blog post over at the Original Kinesio Blog that has Jadon in it!  I love the pic they used!!

Original Kinesio Blog 

They contacted me about a month ago and said that they loved the blog.  They asked if they could use some of the pics from Jadon's Journey that have Jadon using Kinesio tape therapy in some of their publications.  I agreed!  They told me they would include a link back to our blog.  What a great way to continue to spread the word about Brachial Plexus injuries and educate people!  

Lovin' This Reach!!

We had a great therapy session today!  Jadon has really been working hard in therapy lately!  His therapist is so impressed with his progress.  I got some great pictures today of Jadon reaching for the bubble wand.

I could look at these pictures all day long! I can't wait to see the progress he makes after his shoulder/tendon transfer surgery! Exciting things!

Therapy and Other Stuff

Jadon has been doing great in therapy.  His occupational therapist, Ellen, had her baby so she is on maternity leave.  I was a little worried about how he would handle the transition to another new therapist but he did great.  It really helped that Karen was there for several therapy sessions along with Ellen before she left for maternity leave.  Jadon has been working really hard in therapy and his therapists are really good at making sure that there are new and fresh activities each week.  Jadon's hand function continues to be pretty weak so we have been working on fine motor activites.  Little peg puzzles and blocks are perfect.  I keep praying that his hand continues to strengthen.

Jadon continues to use righty more and more without us reminding him which is wonderful.  It is important the he continues to try and use righty for everything he possibly can.  Here are some pictures from last weeks therapy session.  He is chillin' in the bean bag chair and playing with legos.

Surgery time is closing in.  Only a couple more weeks.  I have clothes in about three different sizes.  I am just not sure what is going to fit over the casts after surgery.  It should be interesting packing things in his normal size for before surgery and then things in a couple different sizes for after surgery.

The closer is get the more and more anxious I get!