Right before my surgery, we found a new social worker. The last one we had for his six month PPR (Post Placement Report) met with us over lunch in a restaurant. We only spent 45 minutes with her, and the report showed it.
The recommendation for this one came from a friend of mine whose son is also from Russia. This woman is WONDERFUL.
She came over to the apartment, spent several hours with us observing us, our interaction with Connor, and what he's up to.
The bottom line is we're doing great things with him, he's made wonderful strides, and to keep doing what we're doing as he's heading in the right direction. *AHHHH*
Can I just say that we slept very well that evening.
I can't believe he's been home just shy of a year. In some ways it seems so much shorter ... and in others, like he's been with us forever.
Yesterday I took him for his two year check up.
He's 34 1/2 inches tall and 24 1/2 pounds.
When he came home he was 16 pounds and 29 inches. A year ago, he wasn't even waving to the size charts. Not even in the same room with them. (Ok, his height was at the 1 percentile, but you know what I mean.) This year? Smack dab where he should be.
I slept well last night, too.
The Next Step in life is often the most frightening. This is my attempt to understand it, think it through and move on to the next.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Surgery and all that stuff
This past May, my little man was sitting in his high chair. Little man was done as he could be with his lunch so I took him out of his high chair and let him down on the ground. I didn't see that he had grabbed my fork off the table on his way down to the floor.
So as he starts to sprint by me, I plant my feet, turn my body, reach for my lovely son. *POP* *SNAP* and all of a sudden my knee is in excrutiating pain.
Of course, Connor at this point, sees that something is wrong, turns around, gives me the fork, and turns around and jets off to play with something else.
Meanwhile I'm on the floor trying hard to push my knee back into position so I could stand up.
Fast forward to that weekend. My knee is four times the size of the other knee, and the doctor at the urgent care clinic we went to was happy that I hadn't broken my kneecap.
It took six weeks for the swelling to go down to only three times the size of the other one.
By that time I'd seen my Primary Care doc, and gotten a referral for a good orthopedic surgeon.
Because of all the happenings and travelling I did, I had a nice prescription for pain and a great knee brace for the rest of the summer.
By the time I got the MRI and had everything confirmed by the surgeon, the only option was surgery. I had torn the meniscus in my right knee. Not a significant surgery by any means. Out patient, and I was to recover in a few days/weeks.
My parents graciously offered to come down to take care of Connor while I was recovering. So while they hung out with the little man, I went through my procedure (took the doc 20 minutes to fix it!) and laid in bed for a week (ok, as much as possible LOL) my folks took him to Gymboree, swimming, and tried to stay cool through a nasty heat wave. They even took us to the beach for a week once I'd felt almost normal!
So I spent the first week in bed. Second week trying not to take the good drugs, and trying to work the knee out. I was really limited in activity until the stitches (all two of them) came out. They were just in the wrong place to bed my knee more than a slow walk would allow. Third week at the beach, and week four, I can honestly say, I'm back to normal.
Every now and again, I do get a twinge of pain/discomfort, but its usually because I'm moving my knee/leg in a way that I haven't in a very long time. I'm now working on building the muscles of that leg back up, because there is a visable (at least to me) difference in size between the two legs.
So as he starts to sprint by me, I plant my feet, turn my body, reach for my lovely son. *POP* *SNAP* and all of a sudden my knee is in excrutiating pain.
Of course, Connor at this point, sees that something is wrong, turns around, gives me the fork, and turns around and jets off to play with something else.
Meanwhile I'm on the floor trying hard to push my knee back into position so I could stand up.
Fast forward to that weekend. My knee is four times the size of the other knee, and the doctor at the urgent care clinic we went to was happy that I hadn't broken my kneecap.
It took six weeks for the swelling to go down to only three times the size of the other one.
By that time I'd seen my Primary Care doc, and gotten a referral for a good orthopedic surgeon.
Because of all the happenings and travelling I did, I had a nice prescription for pain and a great knee brace for the rest of the summer.
By the time I got the MRI and had everything confirmed by the surgeon, the only option was surgery. I had torn the meniscus in my right knee. Not a significant surgery by any means. Out patient, and I was to recover in a few days/weeks.
My parents graciously offered to come down to take care of Connor while I was recovering. So while they hung out with the little man, I went through my procedure (took the doc 20 minutes to fix it!) and laid in bed for a week (ok, as much as possible LOL) my folks took him to Gymboree, swimming, and tried to stay cool through a nasty heat wave. They even took us to the beach for a week once I'd felt almost normal!
So I spent the first week in bed. Second week trying not to take the good drugs, and trying to work the knee out. I was really limited in activity until the stitches (all two of them) came out. They were just in the wrong place to bed my knee more than a slow walk would allow. Third week at the beach, and week four, I can honestly say, I'm back to normal.
Every now and again, I do get a twinge of pain/discomfort, but its usually because I'm moving my knee/leg in a way that I haven't in a very long time. I'm now working on building the muscles of that leg back up, because there is a visable (at least to me) difference in size between the two legs.
Hi!
Hi there. My name is bethee.
I figured that since I abandoned my little corner of the net for so long that I should reintroduce myself to y'all.
So hi there. :)
I'm going to make individual posts for each event/topic since otherwise, well, we'd be having a HUGE novel in one post. I won't torture you that way. Promise.
So, Topic 1 ...
Surgery, and how it all went down.
I figured that since I abandoned my little corner of the net for so long that I should reintroduce myself to y'all.
So hi there. :)
I'm going to make individual posts for each event/topic since otherwise, well, we'd be having a HUGE novel in one post. I won't torture you that way. Promise.
So, Topic 1 ...
Surgery, and how it all went down.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Normalcy
Connor had his first day of school today (for the school year) and spent the morning settling into the classroom again. He has grown by leaps and bounds, and is SUCH a happy boy.
We completed his one year post placement report and sent that off this morning. Two down, two to go.
HUGE update coming, I promise. So much happened during this crazy summer.
The knee surgery was successful, though. For which I am extremely grateful.
We completed his one year post placement report and sent that off this morning. Two down, two to go.
HUGE update coming, I promise. So much happened during this crazy summer.
The knee surgery was successful, though. For which I am extremely grateful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)