Monday March 4th

Yesterday morning I drove Debbie to the airport she will be away for the next week attending the AORN conference in San Diego. Debbie and I first met at this conference in Dallas. A year later I was living in Australia and we were getting married. This was before email and with flying and the phone calls between Australia and ALABAMA, we figured getting married would be cheaper.

She was kind of cute, had a great accent and lived in Australia. What a deal, I married up! I lived in Alabama and had an accent, not quite the same in my eyes. The Australians liked my accent though; Debbie said they used to call the house just to listen to my answering machine message.

Well back to the present, from San Diego Debbie will be taking her team to San José del Cabo, Mexico for a training conference, bringing the teams from the US, Australia and Canada together to train as one. Tough work if you can get it.

Sunday morning 6:30am not much traffic, I returned to the house both Davis and Christopher still sound asleep. The dogs and Christopher started stirring around 8:30am. Christopher slept upstairs in his room; he seems to sleep better there.

This morning he was very active, a big smile greeted me as I walked into his room. The dogs lying on the floor sprang to life, obviously wanting some attention too. They sleep outside the boys rooms unless one of the doors are ajar, then they push their way into the room where they will sleep beside the bed or in it if possible.

I turned Christopher’s TV on ESPN Sport Center, (morning ritual) and went downstairs to prepare his breakfast. A few minutes later on my return, I see Christopher has flung his covers off and is sitting on the opposite side of the bed, looking out the front windows. Good morning dad, ready for breakfast.

Sunday night Christopher slept downstairs, around 3:30am I was awakened by a loud noise coming from the monitor. Christopher was trying to get out of the bed. When I got half way down the stairs I could see him, he had pulled off his sheet and blankets and had both legs up in the air, trying to throw his legs over the bedrails. I yelled “Christopher what are you doing” he turned and looked at me with a huge smile on his face and just laughed.

I finally got him back to sleep a little while later went back to bed myself.

Today we had another appointment with Dr Ellis, he is continuing to work on getting Christopher to relax the tone in his legs. While sitting in his chair he was able to kick with both legs. This is an action he has been able to do with his left leg with ease, but has not done easily with his right leg.

Most of the exercises Dr Ellis has introduced to Christopher he has been able to repeat on his own without prompting.

Many of these skills are continuing to be reinforced with the help of the moms who are sitting with Christopher during the week. Each of you are playing a huge role in his recovery. We can’t thank you enough.