Andrew's having surgery...

We've been updating our family blog and thought we should also post here since a lot of you follow Andrew's blog rather than our family blog. As we posted on our family blog a few weeks ago, we mentioned Andrew's Surgery coming up. I am providing a link to the description of the surgery Andrew will be having.  CLICK HERE
It explains the procedure but Andrew will be having this surgery at St. Louis Children's Hospital. The same hospital where he had his Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR). His neurosurgeon there is who referred us to the Orthopedic doctor who will be doing this surgery too.
Andrew will be having a Selective Percutaneous Myofascial Lengthening, (SPML). The reason for this is that even though he had SDR when he was 3, Andrew still continues to have tight tendons in his legs. Mostly the left. He walks on his toes and tends to fall a lot more lately as well as using a crouched gait because his tendons are so tight. We've had him wearing AFO braces on his legs and have increased his PT and it does not seem to be helping at this time. Even though the spasticity was eliminated with the SDR, children with Cerebral Palsy still have tightness which only stretching and surgery can help. It was inevitable that he would need this lengthening surgery but since Andrew recovered and did so well after his SDR that we were hopeful to one of the few who's child would not need the lengthening surgery.
We will be leaving next Tuesday for St. Louis and hope to have an easy flight without delays or problems. He will be seeing Dr. Park the next day after we arrive for a follow-up Neurosurgery visit as well as Physical Therapy, assessments, xrays and whatever other tests he'll need pre-op. We then meet with Dr. Dobbs for his Orthopedic Surgery appointment. They will explain the procedure in detail and let us know what to expect during and after surgery. Andrew's surgery is scheduled for the following day on the 30th. He'll be staying in the hospital and we hope all goes well and we should be able to leave by Friday.
Our anxiety levels are rising as the date is near, but Andrew is hopeful that this will give him a chance at a better life. One where he won't have to use the leg braces anymore. One where he won't have as much PT. He really wants to play basketball and wants to try wrestling, so he's hoping this will give him that chance. As parents we always want the best for our children and right now, we feel like this is the best we can do for now. We can at least try to provide him with the chance to be like the other 7 year old boys.
We'll keep you all updated on his progress. We'll also be getting ready to post before and after video and pictures which will also be on our Familiy blog too. We'll post links and updates as soon as we have anything.
Thank you all for your support.

Hippotherapy...

So, for all who's interested, And I assume you are or you would not be here, Andrew's Hippotherapy is going great. He still loves going and unfortunately, the colder weather is upon us. It's harder to get out there for him to ride, but thankfully, every session has had nice weather except one. 2 weeks ago, it actually snowed! But earlier in the day it was pouring rain and very cold, so we skipped the session. So this is his last 2 sessions for this season. We are planning to take a break for the winter and see if he would like to take swimming lessons. We will get him back on the horse come spring time. We wished that his Hippotherapy could continue through the winter but there is no indoor riding ring and the facility does not have the capability of clearing the trails for safe riding in the winter. We will still go and visit his friends, Lilly, Grace, Sheba and Dell to keep that friendship alive even though he is not riding. There is a winter program available but we feel that forcing him to go during those cold winter months, may deter him from wanting to go and ride come spring. So, it's best to find something else for the winter.
Andrew had his halloween parade at school last Friday, and it was adorable. He was a skeleten this year and fit the costume perfectly. The way he hangs his arms and his posture, made the costume look even more real! Halloween night was a fun filled night. This is the first year that Andrew has been able to go up the steps of each home to ring the doorbell without any assistance. A feat that comes naturally to the average child his age. But to see him carrying his treat bag, with his mask on and climb those steps without any railings, was something that brought tears to our eyes! Something that shows how much progress he has made in the last year. A year ago, we would have to hold his hand and his bag so the could make it up and down those steps. But this year he did it all by himself, without falling... except the one time that there were some tricky short steps in the middle of the neighbors walkway... still have no idea why they built it that way, even as an adult, we fall on them! lol.
Now that elections are over, Andrew has learned a bit about politics! He was sad that he could not vote. He knows what the president and vice president's jobs are. He knew that he wanted to vote for "the brown guy", "The Rock O'Bama" as he calls him! lol. When asked who the other candidate is, he says "oh that's just John Mccain, he's old". Nobody told him to say it, he has his own opinions! He's watched a few debates and has soaked it all in. He really wanted to go vote and said that the president is the boss and if he does not vote, the president will be angry with him! lol. So we've had to explain to him that one day he will have the right to vote and that if he tries really hard, he may even be able to be the president. That made him even more excited and he said to me last night "Mommy, I want to be president so I can be the boss of everybody, then no one can tell me what to do"! So you never know. One day Andrew could be president. We've always said that with his ability to bargain, boss and be so convincing, that he will either be a lawyer or a politician... I'm not sure which is worse!
Soon we'll be posting some photos and videos from this fall and we're getting ready for Christmas already!

Short Wet Summer....

So this summer is almost over already! It seems like it took forever to get here, and now it is almost gone. If you've been following our other family blog, you will see what we mean. But with August here, it means that we only have about another 4 weeks of warm weather before it starts to dip into the 40s.

Andrew is doing well. He started the summer session with a new physical therapist and speech until he starts kindergarten! Which, by the way is right around the corner! I think we are much more scared than he is. It's just so hard to believe that he will be going to a big school this year. I know we will cry and I don't want to in front of him. He's been reading "the Kissing Hand" which is a book about a mother and baby raccoon that the mother kisses the baby racoons hand and tells him that whenever he wants a kiss to just put his hand to his face and there will by mommy kisses. Andrews been asking all kinds of questions about kindergarten and seems a little nervous but yet excited. We will be out shopping soon to get him all of his supplies.

Andrew will be starting Therapeutic Horseback Riding Therapy soon. We are waiting for all of the paperwork to go through from his doctors etc to get clearance. We are VERY excited for this to happen. We've been researching the benefits for quite some time, at least 2 years, and now the chance for Andrew to have this type of therapy is finally going to happen!! It is a 6 week program, but we hope to try and continue for longer. We're praying that it is something that Andrew will enjoy. We know he loves horses and all animals, including reptiles... But we're sure that he will love the horses. Now, wheather riding is something he will enjoy, is another story. If Andrew gets any idea that it is "therapy" he will probably resist. We're told that it can be very tiring for him, so hopefully that will not deter him. But, if we can get away with him riding a horse and loving it and at the same time getting great therapeutic results from it, We BOTH win! So he should start mid August if everything goes to plan.

Be sure to check Matthew's blog and our family blog... links are to the side if you've forgotten them.

This will be a long post....

It's been so long since we've updated Andrew's blog. It's been a LONG winter and we're finally able to see the brown grass that's been underneath all that snow. You still see snow piles everywhere, but it is really starting to feel like spring... except when the forcast for this weekend calls for snow showers!!

So we had Andrew's Kindergarten prescreening and they were impressed by Andrew's intelect and had no concerns at all with him starting Kindergarten in the fall.

We just had his CPSE (Childhood Preschool Special Education) meeting on Monday and it went VERY well. He will still receive all of his services over the summe excluding Sp. Ed and 1:1 aide. we were surprised that they planned to do his CSE meeting for public school at the same time and were totally unprepared but luckily it went very well and we all agreed without any dispute about what services we were requesting for the fall. We are so glad that he will be able to go to the school that we want him to and we are so glad that they gave him all the services he needs without any issues!

He also had an eye exam since his Speech Therapist has observed some minor vision problems with his functional vision. We've also noticed his eyes going all different directions too but when we asked the ped. he told us it was nothing to worry about and he'd outgrow it. Unfortunately he did not out grow it and will be wearing glasses now! He looks so handsome in them and he enjoys wearing them. Yesterday he wore them to school all day without any problems. He likes to take them off when he eats because they get steamed up and he is afraid that he will break them. We try to explain that they are hard to break but just be careful with them is all.

We also wanted to update everyone about the March for Babies that will be taking place April 27. Anyone who would like to donate and sponsor our team, click on the link on the right of the top of the page. We are not even close to our goal this year and need to keep moving so that Andrew can get his Plaque this year! He will be sad if he doesn't. Weve gotten one every year since we started.

Thanks for checking out his blog and we invite you to take a look at our www.youtube.com/thefavilles we've uploaded some videos for you all to enjoy!

March for Babies Video