Ben is getting stronger day by day.  We have now renamed his left hand ‘Lazy” and Ben has to reach up and touch some hanging gorilla/bear to pay for special treats he wants…ie:  ipad = 5 Lazy touches.  It seems to be helping.  We have shortened our traction times to make it more manageable.  Today we were able to do traction four times for about 20 minutes each time.  On top of that, we are now walking to the bathroom any time we have to go, which is strengthening him little by little.  He always say “let me go by myself mom”, which I don’t do.  He’s still super wobbly, so any time he walks I follow him on a rolling stool with usually one hand on him.  Occasionally I will let him walk by himself, but I am always within arm’s reach.  It is very important that we prevent falls at this point.  We have been going out on little walks – less than 50 steps, and it is going ok.  Ben continues to struggle with severe neck pain, and we are doing a lot to help him strengthen his neck muscles in the hope that it will reduce the pain.  My greatest discouragement right now is the fact that I can’t really get him in the wheelchair for more than 10 minutes at a time until the pain becomes too great.  We are working, strengthening, and distracting, so we’ll see what happens.

We still do physio twice a day.  Our physio at this point involves a lot of stretches and strengthening exercises – legs and arms, and a bunch of neck stretching and strengthening exercises.  We combine this with walking exercises and sitting exercises, which are usually fun, silly, and distracting, but it only works if the pain is tolerable.  We continue to work hard at school too – Ben is having a spelling test tomorrow.  BUT – tomorrow is movie day, so he should have a little break in the afternoon.

Let me show you how I spent my afternoon –  beanbag surgery – I was a cross between Martha Stewart and Laura Ingalls.  It’s amazing the talents you can acquire when you are homeless, jobless. and bored.  It wouldn’t surprise me to be paged to the OR tomorrow to close someone up.  I (too) kicked butt today.