where to begin....

An update is long overdue, I know.  I guess the main reason I have not updated is because I was hoping for some good news to share.  Unfortunately, there is a shortage of good news where Mason's arm is concerned.

It became obvious fairly quickly that the physical therapy was not helping enough to warrant continuing.  As a matter of fact, it got more difficult instead of easier, and Mason's therapist cut him loose around the middle of May.  She said she felt there was more wrong than muscles and tendons, and she was right.  We went back to the surgeon and the x-ray showed that Mason's radial head is not where it should be.  It looks dislocated, but its not quite that simple.  The theory is that the ulna has a bow in it that is forcing the radius out of its normal alignment.  This means Mason has bone rubbing against bone at the elbow joint, and it is pretty painful.  It only seems to be getting worse as he continues to grow in every other bone in his body, and is making most everything more difficult and more painful for him to do.

After much deliberation with colleagues, the doctor has a plan to fix this surgically....and is willing to do this right away.  However, Mason wants to wait until marching band season is complete, as he has really been looking forward to participating in drumline. Band camp starts in 4 weeks. He just completed summer PE today - he took it this summer to make up for dropping it when he was on restriction from the last round of surgeries.  It seems there is no good time to have a surgery that will take you out of commission for 4-6 weeks, and put you on restriction for 4-6 months.  And of course, this is all best-case scenario, which we now know is not something we can count on.  Mason has an increased risk of infection because of the last bout with staph, so there is a very real possibility that he will have to take the evil medicine for an extended time after the surgery. Sadly, that would be more desirable than other possibilities lurking.

And of course, this will not be the end of things, but we can only look at the immediate future or we will go crazy.  We may go crazy anyway.

So, one can see why he would like to salvage a little summer, after living through a pretty crummy winter.  Because of this, Mason has tentatively scheduled the surgery for November 18.  This will give him Thanksgiving break to recover, and we can avoid having final exams the week after surgery.  (That was not the best planning last year!).  Of course there will be other things that will be missed or ruined as a result, but letting Mason have some control over this is important on many levels. There is a possibility that the pain will become too much for him to handle, in which case we will have to schedule in surgery and just deal with the fallout.

For now we are trying to enjoy summer, which is flying by at a record pace.