Rory Walks!
Most of you reading this are friends and family who probably saw Pete and I share on social media earlier this week the amazing news that Rory has taken his first independent steps!
He was pushing his walker around pretty much as soon as he wore his first prosthetic leg back at 12 months old, but it's taken a lot of work to get him to let go and take steps on his own at the grand old age of 20 months. Pete and I have practised with him, grandparents have practised, and we have a fab physio called Beth who sees us regularly and has given us some great advice along the way. We're over the moon that he's finally managed it! We can't wait to let Beth know as she has been part of his journey of standing, side-stepping, walking with and then running with his walker, cheering him on every time.
It hasn't been easy for him that his prosthetic is straight (due to the length of his stump not being short enough yet for a knee joint) and also the shape of his leg making the prosthetic come out at an odd angle.
Nonetheless, he made it! We're so incredibly proud. He can finally toddle around with his little friends now... although does still find crawling a quicker way to get around.
A very special milestone.
Surgery wise, in my last post I shared that our plans for 2022 including surgeries in January and February. Unfortunately, neither of those happened.
Urology surgery was booked for January; we got up at 5am on the day, preparing to be in Theatre Admissions for 7:30am, but Rory was spiking a temp of 38.5 that we just couldn't get down. We rang ahead to the ward and they told us not to bother coming in; that they wouldn't anaesthetise him with a temperature. It was a real shame as we've been wanting to lose his stoma for a long time. He was under the weather for a few days, nothing serious and nothing that calpol and cuddles couldn't fix. It now means we are back on the waiting list and hoping that we can get booked in for May.
With regards to the leg surgery planned for Feb, this was trickier to plan as the diaries of both Miss T in Plastics and Mr F in Orthopaeds had to be aligned, and they only have one overlapping surgery day. Initially we were given a prospective date of 25th Feb, but this was 3 weeks before we were due to go on holiday and the last thing I wanted was a wound that wasn't fully healed, on a beach. It was important to us that Rory gets to fully enjoy his first abroad holiday without bandages nor the pain of a wound. I also knew I'd spend the whole time paranoid about the wound becoming infected while we are in a foreign country, therefore negating the point of the holiday - to relax! No, if he was to have a recovery period after the surgery, I wanted to be within driving distance of Sheffield Children's, and as much as they'd have loved it, we don't quite have the funds to fly Ward 2 on holiday with us as an off chance!!
Instead, we're waiting for a new date and again that's expected to be in April or May.
So for now we'll keep plodding on, keep practising that walking, and next week will enjoy a [much needed] holiday!
So proud of my family, love you all xxx
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