Lucas' update

[Guest guest]

sorry it's taken a bit of time to update, but here it is: lucas and

my husband went to erie on tuesday through a commercial flight since

angelflight had to cancel due to weather. he got the cast cut off,

and his skin looked really good although he really hasn't had any

real issues with skin breakdown. geordie thought that the shirt

really did a good job. just a reminder that lucas did not have the

waterproof cast, just the " regular " one although it was thinner due

to less padding because they used the shirt. he also had this cast

on for 20 weeks so it was on longer than " normal " even though lucas

is 4 1/2 yrs old.

on wednesday morning, lucas went into the or. dr. sanders came out

after lucas was moulded with a cast to be made into a brace. they

cut if off in the or and gave it to jonathan, the orthotist. he had

an out of cast supine/laying down x-ray. he was 13o (i have an e-

mail into dr. sanders about all of the #s since lucas does have an s

curve, but the thoracic is the major one, the rvad, and the

rotation. dr. sanders will be away next week so i'll get them after

that.) jonathan was able to make the brace that day. i am so

thankful of that because i was very nervous to get a brace mailed to

us to be used without jonathan seeing lucas in it. geordie and lucas

went to the brace shop down the street from the hospital, and it was

trimmed up. lucas picked a fish design. they went back to the

hospital to have a standing x-ray in the brace. this is the news

that i'm not entirely happy with. he was 20o standing. of course,

it is difficult if not impossible to compare x-rays laying down

(which is what he has had for the 2 yrs that he has been in casts)

versus standing, but this has been a concern of ours (and many

others) for awhile. anyway, dr. sanders said that we could go to

children's in boston to see if we could get an extra pad to be put in

although he thought since the brace was made from a cast that it

would already be pretty tight. i made an appt. for next week, but i

might cancel it until dr. sanders gets a better look at the x-rays.

also, i was very lucky that i ended up keeping the brace shirts that

he had from 18mos to 2 1/2 yrs old. they still fit. i have 5 so i'm

thankful i don't have to run in to boston to get more.

the brace looks exactly like the cast even with the mushroom shaped

hole for the stomach. i'll post the pictures on the group since we

don't have an attachment option. we already went swimming yesterday

at the y. he was a fish right away. i also have an appointment for

next week for water therapy. i'm quite excited about that. plus, we

have plans for some beach time with the hot weather rolling in this

weekend.

so, that's the news. i hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday

weekend!

deshea