Friday (15 days post op, and Daniel gets his first trainers)

It's Helen back writing again tonight. While not well, I am much improved on yesterday. I think the last few weeks (and months) have finally caught up on my immune system. I am trying to stay away from the children, particularly Daniel, as much as possible, as if he catches this bug, he will not be able to have surgery on Tuesday. Still, to the news of today.....

Daniel tried hard at therapy this morning, but he was extremely tired at the end of a long week, and he struggled to stand or use his walker. However, he did manage a 60 second record of sitting on the bench (with hands in the air), and 30 seconds in a four point kneel (crawling position).

He also had the arrival of his spiderman decorated splints, which he will now build up wearing from 2 hours today, 4 hours tomorrow etc until he is wearing them full time. They will help support his feet in a good position.  As splints go they are pretty cool.

After a short break back at the apartment, we got down to the home exercises, as we wanted to get them out of the way before lunchtime. These are definitely getting quicker as he gets stronger. He has also started crawling again (short distances) to get across to toys etc.

The arrival of the splints also meant it was time to go shoe-shopping, because Daniel needed comfortable shoes a size or two bigger than normal, to fit over the splints. This may not seem exciting to you, but bear in mind that Daniel has NEVER chosen a pair of shoes in his life before. For the past 4 years he has had boots and inserts issued by the orthotics department at our local hospital. He has only been able to have one pair at a time, so has therefore had to wear the same pair for school, home, going to the beach, whatever. So, it was a big event for us to set off to 'Kids Foot Locker' in The Galleria and present Daniel with an array of 'sneakers', as they are called here, to choose from. In the end we bought him two pairs, a black pair that fitted really well, and will be (more or less) suitable for school, and a super-cool Nike pair, that he just loved. The smile on his face was something to see!

Tricky decision....

How do you like my new school shoes?

Since Lucy's old trainers were far too small she also got to choose one pair (of basketball sneakers!)

We are looking forward to the weekend, and a break from therapy at the hospital, although of course we will still have the home exercises to do, plus building up the time in his splints, and trying to do some standing and walking in his walker. Chris leaves tomorrow afternoon, but we are hoping to go down to The Arch with him in the morning (that activity got bumped from today due to the need to go shoe-shopping).