january is a long month

Mason visited the ortho doc again yesterday.  The new bone growth looks great, and she has removed his lifting restrictions--he is now free to carry furniture around for me again! Woohoo! Now THAT is some good news!

He is still plodding away at the physical therapy part. As a matter of fact, he is now "functional" in the arm-straightening club, meaning he hit 24 degrees, down from a beginning 76 degrees. Less than 30 is considered "functional", I think by the insurance industry standards, and isn't that what rules the world? We are still aiming for zero, but he is definitely moving in the right direction!  He resumed piano lessons and discovered that his thumb didn't work! He could bend it at the last joint, but not straighten it. After the doc examined it yesterday she discovered it does work, it is just very weak. In fact so weak it couldn't overcome gravity--he could straighten it if he held his hand upside down, because gravity wasn't working against it. Pretty crazy, but something that can be fixed! Eureka!

We continue to be frustrated with supination, or lack of supination I should say.  Also, he is still feeling quite a lot of pain in that blasted elbow. :(  Our hope is that since we are just shy of 2 months post-surgery, there is still healing to come in that area.  Please keep your fingers crossed for that, because the pain is the number one problem here.