Much Improved

Elias has improved since our last update. Thank you all for your  thoughts and concerns. His pulmonologist wasn’t certain if what we had was viral or not. We had already started Ciprodex over the weekend which he felt was the best thing to continue, unless it was viral. If there was not any improvement by Tuesday morning then we would need to do something different. Fortunately, there was improvement and he has continued to improve today.

Elias had a wonderful physical therapy session today. He really was in a fantastic mood. His walking today was much improved, especially his stamina. We are so proud of his determination and hard work towards getting back to pre-surgery ability. Most of it has been on his own, without us prompting. Such a fighter and unrelenting spirit he has. That is a huge blessing. During therapy today we attempted walking with shoes again, which he had just mastered a week before his surgery. At first he was very tentative. He did not want to leave the furniture and simply cruised along that. Then he got determined to try and cautiously walked to the nearest chair. After about 5 minutes of this cautiousness he set out and began doing laps around the downstairs. His PT was very pleased to see all this progress from her visit 2 weeks ago.

Yesterday, we had an unfortunate incident involving Elias nurse. She had fallen asleep in a chair. I was upstairs working and heard what appeared to be snoring, loud snoring. I walked to the top of the stairwell and confirmed that was exactly what I was hearing. I came quietly downstairs and circled around through the kitchen to enter the living room. She had stirred and was readjusting as I walked in. I told her she had been snoring, which meant she had fallen asleep thus compromising Elias safety. I asked her to leave, get some sleep and that she had put us in a very bad place. This unfortunately was not the first time it happened. A few weeks ago during PT the same thing happened. Quite embarrassing as the PT noticed it about the time I did and gave me look. While I addressed it then, I suppose I should have been more stern about it. Happening a second time, in such close proximity to the previous incident, left us with no other choice but to dismiss her from the case. When we sacrifice and compromise on any of our values and standards for Elias care and more importantly his safety, we become, at that moment, ineffective advocates for him. That is why the decision had to be what it was. The timing of this could not be any worse. We can only hope a competent & reliable replacement is found soon. I have been very aggressive with my job search with little to show for my efforts. That is the demoralizing part. This puts a huge cog in that wheel and worry that opportunities will now fly in at a time when nothing can be done because of this. Murphy truly needs to stay away here. As always, we cling to faith, that everything happens for a reason, and that a better blessing will come of these trials. Elias is living proof of huge blessings that come with difficult times.

We certainly hope everyone has a happy holiday, which ever it is that you celebrate and to our family we hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!