I am finally getting around to writing an update tonight, inspired partially by the significance of it being Sandy (and of course his two brother's) birthday eve.  It certainly entered my mind how fortunate I am to be able to celebrate and see him turn 7 tomorrow.  It wasn't all that long ago that I thought I would never have seen that happen, or at least not in the mostly normal manner that tomorrow now will be.  I was not sure for a period if I might ever be able to speak to Sandy again and/or if I could, if it would even be the same kid I had known.  These thoughts give some quick flashes of what tomorrow would have been like if some of these darker scenarios had become reality, but they are mostly too overwhelming thankfully to really explore.  Instead, Sandy is back to mildly terrorizing and bothering everyone (mostly Grayson) and while it is quickly seeming almost as normal and infuriating as it was before, there is definitely a softer response on my part to it all.

We are very thankful to be able to experience the chaos much more than before.  It was an extremely busy long weekend.  The kind that you feel like you made the most of the time you had, but definitely did not really set aside much in the way of any time for yourself.  What Sandy is already back to doing (basically everything), is nothing short of unbelievable.  We finally got a few inches of snow at the end of last week and had a few sledding adventures.  Sandy is full on walking up some very long, slippery hills in all his gear no problem.  He is running and jumping into his sled to get going.  This makes my older knees hurt just watching, but apparently not his.  Sandy went to a birthday party at a trampoline park and was on everything.  I have to keep telling myself that he is able to weight bear as tolerated, which apparently must encompass sledding and jumping on trampolines?!

He definitely was limping more noticeably and had some pain after the birthday party, but with just a bit of rest, he is ready for more.  Sandy still has a limp, but it is generally much improved over a week ago.  At his last physical therapy appointment this past Thursday, he continued to work on exercises while having electro-stimulation to his injured leg.  He was impressing overall with his improved muscle function/strength and his ability to do one-legged squats.  

Sandy gets to start his birthday morning off by going to a couple early appointments (occupational and physical therapy).  I assume this will be his last OT appointment, and his PT appointments are going down to once a week.  They ordered PT for eight more weeks.  I feel like in keeping with the entire recovery, he will graduate out of this much ahead of the time frame as has been his style throughout.  It definitely seems that regaining a normal walking gate free of limp will take the longest to master of anything in this journey, but I bet he does it easily in less than eight weeks.  Sandy is still signed up for soccer in mid-March.  He obviously missed his chance at hockey this time around, but I don't know, it wouldn't be the craziest thing about all this if in a month he was out running around and kicking a soccer ball.  We are very grateful for everything and especially all of you.  Have a great week!