almost there

Mason had a follow-up appointment with the orthopedic doctor yesterday, and the news was good.  His bone is looking great, no signs of infection or stress on the new bone growth.  So, he has been released from tight restriction and can now use his arm freely, lift weights, ditch the splint.  This is all welcome news!  He still is restricted from contact sports like basketball, snow skiing, jumping sports....so we have a few things to avoid for a few more months.  But all in all it was a satisfying visit.

Monday is the (hopefully last) visit to see the Infectious Disease doctor.  And the really big hope here is that his labs are good and he will be able to stop taking the bleeping medicine!!  I feel pretty confident that is the case - and so did the ortho doc, although she still defers to the ID doc.  I did tell Mason he could skip his meds on this Sunday, because it is his birthday :)  My baby will be 15 years old! Gasp!

Here is the latest picture of Mason's arm.  It is really weird to see it without a bunch of metal in it--all that is left is the guided growth plate that is supposed to keep his radius growing straight.  You can see the holes left in his bones from the newly removed plate pretty clearly, as well as the healed-over holes from previous hardware, and the larger, partially filled in hole from where the staph tried to eat away his bone (closer to the elbow joint).  Next time we x-ray him (in May) it will probably look a lot different.

Mason also received a prescription to start some physical therapy for his arm to try to improve his range of motion.  Before the surgery he had a lot of pain and limited pronation (palm facing down).  That made dribbling a basketball a big problem.  Now pronation is easy, but supination (palm facing up) is very difficult.  Although he probably will not regain full range of motion, we should see improvement - and ultimately without pain, although it may take a while for that. 

Looking forward to drug-free days ahead!