August 6th Dr's Appt.

Well looks like Josh's leg grew another 3mm, putting him right about where he needs to be...so surgery right...WRONG the Dr. is going on vacation for 10 days out of the country...AUGH

The Dr. said that it would be good if Josh's leg did a little bit more lengthening like to 4cm so that when they replace the rod if there is some spring back that it won't be too short. Plus most people have a slight discrepancy in length and never really notice. Josh got to buy his first pair of shoes at Costco a couple of weeks ago (not sure if I've blogged this before) and this past Friday I bought him another 3 pair of shoes from Sears during the "tax-free weekend." It's nice to be able to pick out a pair of shoes and not have to inspect every little inch of the soles to make sure they will be able to be lifted, then take them to the shoe cobbler and have a lift put on them for $90 dollars...more than the shoes cost in the first place.

I had to fill one of Josh's prescriptions on Thursday after his appointment and it looks like the workman's comp has finally gotten on the ball about his medicine so we didn't have to pay up front...woohoo. That's great news, it was costing us about $70 on average for one prescription. Now we just have to wait for the reimbursement on those...and we're still waiting on the reimbursement for the previous 4 shoe lifts...workman's comp is a blessing and a curse.

The Dr. did officially release Josh to do 4 hours of work a day. He wants him to start off slowly so that he doesn't overextend himself or his leg. We're thinking it would be best for him to do like noon - 4pm because when he wakes up in the morning that's when he takes 2 pills and sometimes he's nodding off quite a bit. (but if you know Josh he nods off easily anyway :o) So now we're waiting on workman's comp to get him a ride to work, Lord knows I can't take him every single day.

The Dr. also said he could try driving very short "controlled" distances. What is a controlled distance anyway? He said that his reaction time could still be way off and that just because he CAN doesn't mean it's SAFE. So Josh has driven to church which is right around the corner only about 2 miles. I had him drive to his parent's house the other day so that I could be in the car and see how he did, and to my surprise I didn't freak out......too much :o) I did get a little irritated when he was trying to point something out to me on the side of the road and I told him to keep both hands on the wheel and concentrate on driving because he was limited...but that's the only time I really ever thought about it. Luckily his parent's house is pretty close too.

Well next week is just an x-ray, so there won't be much to post. The Dr's assistant should call us and give us a quick update about length so that's all I'll post next week on the progress. I think once the Dr. comes back they will want to put the external rod in place to keep the rod from stretching any further...we'll see.