It has been a crazy week filled with some good and not so good news. 

Dakota and I had a wonderful weekend.  We went to the Arts Festival downtown, and we even saw people that we know from South Dakota!  We had not seen them since we moved, so it was a really pleasant surprise.  Dakota met a wonderful potter who was very kind and spent a lot of time with him.  Dakota spent his allowance on two of his tiny pots, and both were tickled with the sale.

We had so much fun on Saturday that we spent part of Sunday at the Arts Festival, as well, drinking frozen hot chocolate (heavenly!) and listening to music.  We then headed back to the Rainbow House.  Dakota met a wonderful boy whose brother has autism and Tourette's, and all three boys were instant friends.  Dakota played wonderfully, and he was trying to go across the monkey bars just like the other boys.  He ended up falling, landed on his elbow, and broke his arm in two places--right above the elbow and right below it! :-((

He was a real trooper.  We find out next Wednesday if he needs surgery.  The question is what to do about the reactive bone problems that he is having.  Dr. Esposito was going to call around to othe orthopedic specialists to find out if there is anyone else with such highly reactive bones.  He is thinking that some of this might be NF related (the over-growth side of it) and made worse by the pamidronate.  However, he clearly needs the pamidronate due to the fractures.  If he needs a pin, they are afraid of the reactive bone growing around the pin and causing an infection.  So, he wanted to give him a week to heal, and then determine whether he really does need surgery.  If it looks like it is even scarcely healing, then he won't do surgery right away and do regular x-rays to see how things are progressing.   If things look good, then he will let it heal on its own and worry about the overgrowth as it comes.

More good news--we have an end in sight!  Dakota has been doing wonderfully, and Munroe-Meyer was just amazing with Dakota on Monday when he returned in a full cast (fingers to shoulder--an all black cast like Luke from Star Wars).  They just hung out with him for an hour to see how he would respond, and they were amazed at how he was managing.  Dr. Roane and Kasey ran most of the sessions, and Dr. Roane even had his 11 year old daughter in on some of the preseverative speech sessions to see how Dakota would talk with his peers and how he would handle them not understanding him or not knowing about something.  They tweaked the program from last year, and he did great!  I ran all of the academic afternoon sessions today and passed inspection!  :-)  So, they are thinking that we will be discharged by next Wednesday or maybe sooner.  We need to do some of the compliance in the home and stores sessions, and if all goes well, then we will be temporarily discharged.  They will leave it open for follow-up sessions as needed. 

So after three months, we are heading home!  Unless of course something comes up with his arm.  We will need to return for follow-up appts with orthopedics and physical therapy, but at least we have an end in sight!

Thanks for checking in and for all of the posts!  We love reading them and are so glad to see all of you looking in on our little guy. 

We will let you know what happens with Dr. Esposito next Wednesday!  We have the next pamidronate scheduled for Thursday (if they let him continue), and then home on Friday.  So, we may be seeing you some of you soon!! 

We hope you have a wonderful 4th of July.  Charlie and Joshua are heading here despite the discharge date.  They want to give Dakota a big hug and just can't wait another week.  :-)