Thursday, September 20, 2012

Recovery Continues

Getting some fresh air
Since we have been home, Will has progressed very well.  He is no longer taking any pain medication, and has resumed a lot of his normal activities.  He is eating like a horse, and over-indulging in his favorite snacks, Goldfish crackers, Golden Grahams, and Cheez-Its snack mix.  To be perfectly honest, we are having a hard time telling Will no when it comes to food.  Actually, we are having a hard time telling him no when it comes to just about anything.  We are just too overjoyed to see our happy little Buster Beans enjoying life again.

One look at Will's incision line and crazy haircut and it is clear why you will never see a neurosurgeon moonlighting as a barber, although Will's reverse mohawk is slowly growing into a nice stubble.  Earlier this week we took Will to his pediatrician who was a great sport and removed all of his stitches.  We aren't sure how many there were, but suffice to say that there were a lot.  It took 5 of us and about 1/2 an hour to get them all out, but it is done.  He is still sporting the skull cap when he goes outside.

He had his first post-surgery session of occupational therapy, as well as a physical therapy assessment.  He did very well with both, and was even jumping on a miniature trampoline at the physical therapist's request, and he loved it.  His excitement and smile was so charming that it brought her to tears.

The front of Will's "Reverse Mohawk"
Will's strength is continuously improving.  Since the surgery, he is clearly left side dominant, preferring to throw with his left hand, eat with his left hand, and so forth.  However, the really good news is that he is still using his right side, and threw a ball to Dan with his right hand today while holding a book in his left hand.  This indicates to us that he is able to integrate both sides of his brain for normal physical functions which is a very good thing!

The back of Will's incision
The most difficult thing that we are seeing him deal with and adjust to is his vision loss on the right side. The visual cortex on the left side of his brain was removed during surgery (as we were told to expect) and he has lost the right half of his vision in both of his eyes.  The presence of an obstacle to his right is difficult for him to deal with.  He tends to bump into things if he walks to the right. We are told that in time all kids compensate for this by quickly scanning toward the blind side every few seconds.

The most amazing thing that we have seen him do is feed himself his entire dinner using a fork.  This may sound pretty simple, but we have never been able to get Will to use silverware on his own and it is something we have worked on repeatedly for over 2 years.  Also, we have not been able to simply put a full plate of food in front of him, as he can't figure out what to do with it, or how to take one piece in his hand and feed himself.  He just stares at it and looks at us, even when it is something he wants to eat.  So, we have always had to put one piece in front of him at a time, and let him pick it up and eat it, then put another piece in front of him, and so on.  Putting an entire plate of food in front of him and watching him eat it, on his own, using a fork is something that just doesn't happen, so to see him make this adjustment so quickly after surgery was very encouraging to us and simply awesome to see.


5 comments:

  1. This is great, prayers will continue. Gold fish must be a Slattery thing, Joey G. is obsessed with them too.

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  2. What a remarkably resilient boy you have! Go Will go!

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  3. What a wonderful update!! I am thrilled to see how much he is improving. I hope everyone is getting the rest they need and the tension is lowering a bit. Will continue to keep you in prayer and think of you daily.

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  4. Yeah for good news (and Cheeze-Its). Keep it comin'! The Ondrlas

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  5. Amazing news!! So happy for all of you!! Bug hello to Jack!! Hooray!!

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