Neverending story...

Tuesday we made the trip to Indy for more appointments. First we saw Ethan's hip doctor. The xrays showed everything looked great. No new bone growth. Doc said his strength and flexibility has greatly improved since his last visit. Due to his lower back deformity he will always be at risk for another hamstring injury so he needs to spend a lot of time trying to lengthen those muscles as much as possible. Other than that the nerve seems healed and he has been cleared. We can cross that one off the list.

Then it was on to the back doctor. Unfortunately that appt. did not go quite as well. We learned that the L4 vertebral fracture had not healed at all in the last six months and apparently won't without a bone graft...which may or may not even work. We want to avoid that at all costs so we all decided to just leave it as it is. Then we learned that L5 now has multiple stress fractures and he has three bulging discs. His spine in that area is starting to bow outward instead of curve inward. Explains all the increased pain. The reason behind all of these injuries boil down to a combination of two things... he has Scheuermann's disease, which is a juvenille degenerative disc disease, and he has a rare deformity of his 5th lumbar vertebrae. It is fused to his sacrum. He has no movement at all on one side of the joint and very limited movement on the other side. This causes a lot of pressure on his lower back and also causes his hamstrings to be short and tight...so the original avulsion fracture of his hamstring and pelvis was related after all.

So, now what to do. There is no quick fix. They were very clear in telling us this is a lifelong issue he will have to deal with. The extreme end of the treatment options would be to go in and fuse L3 L4 and L5 together which would give him very limited movement and end any sports he might want to be involved in pretty much forever. Because of his age we don't want any part of that until it becomes a necessity...which down the road it most likely will. There are other surgical options in between but for now we decided to do the least invasive and most conservative which would be to brace him. He will wear a custom made brace for the next 12 weeks in hopes that some of the new fractures in L5 will heal and the inflammation will calm down. If it works, he will move back into more therapy to focus on core strengthening and hopefully be able to function somewhat normally. If it doesn't work.... honestly I'm not even going there yet. We will just be praying very hard that it works.

He is taking it ok. He just says he is frustrated, and who wouldn't be. Poor kid has had almost 3 years of pain now, had an extremely invasive hip surgery that has left him with severe numbness in and around the 10" incision site, and for the last 6months has been very restricted on what he can and can't do. It's nothing an almost 17 year old should have to be dealing with that's for sure. But like I have said many times, he is an exceptional person and his faith is strong. We will just continue to take it one day at a time.

When life hands you lemons.....

I can tell you I have enough lemonade to last a lifetime. :) To say that we have had one crazy happening after another would be the understatement of the year. So much has happened in the last couple months I can't even remember it all....and if I did try to recount it all here no one would believe it anyway.

As I type this I am in bed recovering from a lovely hysterectomy. I got really sick at the end of january... had a blood transfusion, several iron infusions, three surgical procedures and now this, which I am hoping will put an end to all the madness. A couple of people have asked me if I feel "different" or "sad" or if I have an "empty" feeling now that my uterus is no longer. Even though this baby factory unofficially closed its doors five years ago...it's still a little bittersweet when the final shutdown comes. I find it a cruel twist of fate that they put recovering hysterectomy patients right across the hall from the baby nursery so you can lay there and hear the babies crying while you mourn the passing of your childbearing years. Oh well, such is life.

Before my surgery I managed to get Ethan to Indy for his back follow up. His lower back fracture has shown no sign of healing in the last six months and he has a new host of issues on his latest MRI, spondylolithesis being the most pressing, so that will be the next mountain to climb. The specialist will present us with our options for treatment on the 17th and has assured us we won't like any of them.

Between mine and Ethan's issues, Jaden and Ava both had stints with pneumonia. Ava's included her usual hospital stay. Prom came and went...as did Easter. Thank goodness and knock on wood the only thing Austin has in the works is braces. So far the first quarter of 2011 has been a big ol out of control blur. I'm hoping these last three weeks of school will go by peacefully and the Jones family will catch a much needed break. Here are a couple of recent pics...

Ethan and Victoria before the Shoals Prom

Ethan and Morgan (aka The girlfriend:) before Loogootee prom

Easter Sunday

View from my bed while recovering