We are trying our best to make weekends a combination of rest for Ev and spending quality time together. This is definitely required after the week's activity which, on top of the normal schedule of kid's clubs, school runs, nursery pick-ups and coming and going to work, now includes extra trips to PT. This week it was Monday, Wednesday and Friday - and unfortunately most of the "to-ing and fro-ing" falls upon Loup's shoulders.
Not that we are complaining, we knew it would be like this and we are more than happy to have signed up for it ~ made much easier by Ev's attitude and all of the help and support that we continue to receive. However, we are constantly blown away by Ev's drive and determination. Take this evening for example - having done a bit on the treadmill (even though we were happy for him to take it easy) he wanted to do some more. In total he has done about 24 minutes today on the treadmill !
Yesterday we had a visit from Robin Carter who is also on his own journey towards St Louis. We did our best to offer some advice and support, and will hopefully be able to help out as much as we can - however, as we talked it was really interesting to note how much progress Evan has made since his return. One great example of this is that he is nearly in a position to move down from his initial set of splints to the newer, smaller, set. Which he can do somewhere around 6-8 weeks after his second op - next week is week 7, and it depends on how strong he is getting. This will be a massive change, which you can see from the photo below.
The piece of medical equipment on the left is the twister brace which he wore all day, every day, and which rotated his left foot outwards so that it fought against the muscle rotation and brought things back in line. The other pieces of equipment, almost tiny by comparison, are the "new splints" which he will soon move into. Even without all of the "he'll be walking soon" stuff, this makes such a difference to him, and when you explain to someone what he used to have to put up with, makes you feel quite guilty that we didn't do this sooner.
Another example is that we were only recently told that "pre-Op" Ev would have been in constant pain ~ as his body wouldn't do what he was telling his brain to tell it to do, this would cause him some pain. Perhaps like toothache or a headache - but just think what it's like when you haven't been feeling well and then you recover. As a result, he should be thinking "clearer" - as he can actually concentrate fully on things. Quite heartbreaking in many ways, but proof that the "after" is way better than the "before"....
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