May 9th - May 15th: Summer Break Begins

Saturday and Sunday were a quiet Mother's Day weekend spent as a family, still quarantined due to COVID-19. It was peaceful and a blessing.

Mason and I wearing masks at the 

surgeon's office. 

Monday Mason and I headed to the city to see one specialist, get x-rays, and discuss upcoming surgeries. At this point Mason's scoliosis is stable, which is my favorite word to hear from a surgeon. We don't need to do anything for his spine right now, which is a giant blessing. His right leg currently has a growth restrictor plate on the femur correcting a valgus (leg bone is growing angled instead of straight). He has had the plate in for over a year and we are finally getting close to removal. Mason's growth is slower than average, and the plate needs a certain amount of growth to do its job. We go back in 3 months to evaluate and see if we are ready for surgery to remove the plate. At the same time, we will reevaluate three other potential surgeries. The right knee is contracted, and will need a muscle and tendon release in the future as it worsens. The left leg has begun to have a valgus and will at some point need it's own growth restrictor plate placed, but isn't quite severe enough for surgery yet. And the left foot has a contracture that will also need muscle and tendon releases at a future date. What may happen is that all three of those issues will be severe enough to do in the same surgery as the removal of the current plate in the right leg. Yes, that would be four surgery sites at once. Currently, Mason has had 23 surgeries. We know he has quite a few ahead as he grows up. The task now is to manage when is the appropriate time for each surgery, trying to wait as long as possible before addressing issues that are likely to reoccur as he goes through his growing years, so we don't have to repeat the same surgeries over and over. At the same time, if we wait too long, some things can't be corrected as well.

Today my husband also was able to see a surgeon. He has some vein surgeries that it has taken nearly a year to get through the doctor process to schedule, and we still can't schedule yet, as his surgeon isn't allowed to do these semi-elective surgeries. Unless a blood clot worsens a lot, it is a waiting game for surgery. The doctor has signed off on surgeries, which is good. Now we wait for restrictions to lift in our state.

Tuesday we woke to frost at nearly the middle of May. Brr. The morning and afternoon were spent playing. In the evening we turned on a movie - National Treasure. The older kids mostly remembered it, but it was new to the rest of the kids. It was so fun!

Wednesday the weather was beautiful, so outside we went. The kids play a ridiculous number of rounds of hide and seek in our backyard. We are so thankful that so far there are no mosquitos out. I have a couple kids who are allergic to mosquitos - every bite swells up into giant hives.

Thursday the kids were deep in play with the toy food, pokemon cards, and art materials. I got to work on my summer reading list. The rain kept us mostly indoors. We did get outside for a bit in the morning when Caleb dragged us out. He had been taking trash cans around from the curb and found a young bird in the backyard, hopping around but not flying away.

Friday different people worked on projects for current interests. There were art creations (Star Trek theme for one teen, robots for a younger boy). There were Lego builds and photography for a few boys. Rebekah is still loving the play kitchen and toy food, so she and Tobias spend large chunks of time cooking for people. We are still reading aloud Trapped! by James Ponti, the third book in a series. Dinner was homemade pizza. As I type this at nearly 10pm one teen is baking white chocolate lime scones. Tomorrow we have a list of cleaning projects to do, and some sorting/organizing/decluttering I hope to get to as well.