Tuesday March 11th

Christopher continues to amaze us, two weeks ago Dr. Seiler injected Christopher's left arm and wrist with Botox once again. Dr. Seiler and the staff at Georgia Hand are so wonderful. We went in for the pre-op visit on a Monday and they did the procedure on the Wednesday.

We were met by Doug and Dennis (pre-op & post-op nurses) on arrival at the new facility, on Peachtree Rd. just down from the Shepherd Center. Dennis and Doug used to work with me at Piedmont a few years ago, they also cared for Christopher during the first procedure Dr. Seiler preformed last year.

Another familiar face was that of Dr. Jim Beatty who monitored the anesthesia for Christopher. Dr. Beatty and I worked together on the Perioperative Governance Committee at Piedmont Hospital. He is a great guy, ask for him if you are having surgery at Piedmont Hospital, he is a great person and even better anesthesiologist.

Most of y'all know Christopher has continued to have issues with his left arm and wrist. He still has very limited use of his fingers. We are trying the Botox again because we are just not ready to have him undergo another surgery at this time. Also if he does have to have surgery to correct the spasticity, he will most probably lose any chance at regaining the use of his hand and fingers. So we are trying everything possible before making that decision.

The injections in the past have helped some. So far, we are seeing better results than before. His range of motion has been increasing, it seems daily, and he is so proud. I have been trying to encourage him while we are riding in the car by getting him to try and put his hand out the sunroof as we are going down the road. He thinks that is so funny.

This past Monday night we were all sitting in the living room talking and watching TV. Christopher was showing us how he could raise his hand above his head. All of a sudden I heard Debbie say " do it again, do it again, show me your fingers". He was able to wiggle his fingers on his left hand. This is the first time he has been able to do this in over a year and a half. So exciting.

Tuesday morning during his speech therapy session, I was showing Jenna (his speech therapist) how Christopher was doing with the horn exercises, both Jenna and Cathy Zingler (teacher at Lassiter High School) have been working with him on. He has homework each day practicing to close his lips around the horn mouthpiece, once he can do that he will progress to blow the horn. He has to be able to blow the horn 25 times to move on to the next horn. The progression through the various horns will help strengthen his tongue and lips, and help him to eventually talk.

Well sorry or rambling on, to much information. The exciting thing was, while trying to get him to close his lips, he stuck his tongue all the way out of his mouth, this is another first. He got so excited because we were excited. He just laughed, we were pretty much done with the session after that. He had to show everyone. We even drove down to Debbie's office to show her his new trick.

Christopher's walking continues to get better, I was able to get a new walker for him to use at home. He continues to get stronger, we joined the local Lifetime Gym to help with his strength and conditioning. They also have an indoor pool which has been great for him.

I have included a short video of him walking with the new walker below, I hope you can see the improvements he is making.