We're home...

As you've probably heard already, we got home safely.
On Friday (1 day post-op) Andrew went to Physical Therapy at the hospital. He woke up this morning and was not in hardly any pain. He slept well too aside from some leg twitching throughout the night. We arrived a PT and unfortunately Dr. Dobbs was unable to meet us at PT and we couldn't wait until later to see him since we had to catch a flight home. His session went well and the therapist was able to get Andrew to put weight on his legs and got some stretching in. It was hard to get him to try to take steps. He told us after that it was "complicated" to get his feet working right and said they felt funny. (strange to him but normal for us). It's going to take some time to get him stretched out and on a better walking pattern. 7 years of toe walking is a hard habit to break.
So our flight home was pretty uneventful. We had to again take a train to the airport and two different flights to get home then a 2 1/2 hour drive & a stop to pick up Matthew at his grandparents house. Needless to say, we were exhausted!
The next morning we all went off to Matthew's soccer game (which they won, yay) and then came home to do some more exercises with Andrew. We came up with the idea to have him push around our large suitcase that has 4 swivel wheels on it. It was great to see him take a few steps on his own. We stretched him gradually all day and had him wearing his tension leg braces that force his foot and heel cord to stretch at a resting position. He didn't complain at all.
By Sunday he was ready to play with his friends, so we had lots of company and it really motivated him to get moving instead of sitting on the couch moping all day. By the end of the day he was able to take some unassisted steps.
So today was his first day back to school and he was really scared to go. He asked lots of questions about how he was going to get around school and what happens at gym and recess. So we went to school to drop him off (I was prepared to stay for the day) and he was determined to walk across the entire school all the way to his classroom (the furthest from the entrance to school) He did great! Little shuffling steps, but he did it holding my hand the whole way. His face lit up when just about every single child he passed in the hall welcomed him back to school. We knew right away that he would get more than enough help to make it comfortably through the day. His teacher assured us that he would be fine. We met with his PT to give her the scoop on what to expect on his first few PT sessions. Of course today was also "gym day". So the gym teacher adapted his gym time accordingly and Andrew was able to play on the scooter chairs in class.
So by the end of the day when I went to go pick Andrew up, he was actually walking completely independent! Slow, but steady and the best part was that his heels were DOWN and his feet were FLAT! Now we just have to work on strengthening those heel cords, gastocs and hamstrings and at the same time keep them stretched out. Then we'll work on his form.
We're are excited but it makes me sad to hear Andrew say "I wish I never had this surgery now". But when I ask him why he says that and he says "Because now I can't play with my friends today"... But I've assured him that it is just a matter of time he will be back to running down to his friends' houses and he'll be happy he had the surgery.
Take a look at some of the videos we've uploaded to www.youtube.com/thefavilles
We uploaded some before and after videos and will continue to track his progress. Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you won't miss any videos. You'll get an email any time we add a video.
Since I was off work today and didn't have to spend the day at Andrew's school, I started "Project Organize"!! I took 4 hours today to sort and dump papers, file bills & receipts, put away 2 school years of the boys work for keepsakes and feel good about how clean my kitchen and their bedrooms are becoming. Day 2 tomorrow and hoping I can take another chunk out of the mess and clutter around here.

(below is the first video in the series in the progress of Andrew from Pre-Op to recovery. Visit our YouTube channel to see more videos... www.youtube.com/thefavilles)