Humongous - Day 20 - Thurs 10th Feb

I was struggling for a title for today's blog as it's been a busy one, so I asked Evan to describe his day and he came up with "humongous". I guess it's pretty fitting, not only for today but for the last twenty days as well.

On Wednesday night, when I put Ev to bed, I was a bit concerned about his right hamstring as it seemed a bit sore so I wanted to keep an eye on this, but overnight he only woke up a couple of times. As opposed to the numerous times the evening before. He had been given some "PT homework" of 15 "sit-to-stands" and while the 5 we did last night were difficult, the two sets of 5 that we did this morning (5 before breakfast, 5 after) seemed much easier. However, the "extra credit" (to get a candy bar) of some walking on his frame was beyond us. He just seemed so tight in his legs - and you can understand why if you see the pictures from yesterday's blog.

When we got to PT, we had to own up to Mike that we hadnt done the extra credit and he said Ev could try and do it at the beginning of the session. It was really difficult to watch, he was still a bit cautious of fully extending his legs and was all "crouched up" and grimacing throughout. (Mike confirmed his hamstrings looked fine). So, it was with true amazement that he was straight onto the treadmill. However, as you can see (other clips on YouTube at ) he did really well. He also did some football and bike riding (again, see the clips on YouTube)

As we had a free afternoon, we popped back to the hotel and then out to Hard Rock cafe. He actually had a bit of a dip and went grumpy - combination of everything I guess, big effort in the morning, generally tired, bit overwhelmed and I guess - most of all - homesick ! Living in a hotel (as nice as it is) is bad enough, being away from family, friends, schoolmates, usual routine, etc is difficult for me and I would definitely hold my hand up to being homesick, so not sure how Ev is feeling (throw in a couple of operations, PT, etc...). So I let him have a bit of a quiet spell, but they dont last long and he is soon back smiling. We did manage to pop to a couple of shops in the Union Station (http://www.stlouisunionstation.com/) but he wanted to go home so we called for the shuttle. He was clearly zapped as he didnt want his DS ("what !?" I can hear you say....) and just leant on me for the rest of the journey home.

So, we headed back to the hotel and had a quiet afternoon. Will need to do our PT homework in the morning (I guess it's always the case that you do your homework at the last minute...) as he spent all afternoon on the bed - watching a bit of DVD, Skyping Loup (who is STILL on STL time!) and then we read a chunk of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.

However, probably the highlight of his 20 days so far was that we FINALLY got to watch Winter Wipeout on TV, and he insisted that I watched it with him. Not a problem. An hour full of giggles,cuddles, and the soundtrack for watching TW ~  "oof!", "ooh", "ow", "ouch", "wow", "no way" and "umph".

Some times life is humongous, other times it's pretty simple....