This is for our helpers... please read a letter meant for YOU....

A short update, and then a letter for all of you who read, help, pray and support...

Shea has stayed out of the hospital for 4 days now!  He is stable and not in pain.  His cares are increased right now, and that proves  a bit challenging as we try get back to our normal work schedules, keep up with Christmas day and Simon's birthday craziness, as well as have all the kids home for a long school break.  (shea has a habit of being dc'ed the night before a major holiday and long school break! ) Next week he see's ortho to check the xray of his fusion and one sided hardware integrity ... then we see neurosurg for follow up and suture removal from 6 incisions, GI and endocrinology in the next few days.  Hopefully with in another week or so we will have some news on when he will be cleared to return to school...as he's been out since mid November!

I am overwhelmed in both the good and wonderful way and the plain old overwhelmed way ... So thankful and so blessed that he is home and healing, that we are all together, that we had christmas together, that he is recovering so well.  So thankful for Dan who has done so much to keep everything afloat.  Thankful that it was my son Simon's 11th birthday today, and that he is thriving and beautiful, and has been with us 8 years now. 

Now to get to YOU, all of YOU.  Some have prayed, some have encouraged, some have cooked or brought meals, some have given christmas cookies, some have helped with childcare, some have given christmas gifts, some have given monetary donations and gift cards to help with the extra expenses of hospitalization out of town, some have given more christmas cookies :), some have given a listening ear and mentored, some have written shea cards and letters, some have given christmas cookies, and some have helped with christmas prep and delivering items.  We have some blessings we can't even account for... some clothing donations, a pointsetta, and on and on.  Pal Mac has made videos and checked in often, rallied behind Shea....Bottom line is you guys are wonderful, we don't take any of it for granted... we appreciate you and your support for our son's rehabilitation and support of our family, and lastly for supporting my cookie addiction ( and helping me to gain at least 5 lbs or more this month... )

We hope that we can bless you all someday as well.  For right now we will continue to adjust to our new and hopefully temporary normal, try to catch up with sleep and count our blessings as often as we can when we start to feel overwhelmed.

Another big prayer request is this.  It is with a heavy heart that we will opt to not persue the imaging that would have been planned to see if mechanical compression remains in shea's mid spine ( the decompression from june, that may not have been complete, or because of so many structural changes may be recompressed. ) I think the test itself may be too risky because it could involve dye in the spinal cord.  Also even if we found he is still compressed, I don't think it would be a good choice to put him through any additional surgery to try to correct it.... just too risky for his delicate system, and too much for him to endure.  Prior to the domino effect that started in october i would have said shea had 75% of his baseline strength back in his right leg, and 50 ot 60 % in his left leg.  I hope and pray that once we recover from bedrest and atrophy, and once he is allowed to stand again... that we will get that much back once again.  I hope and pray he can get all that he had once back somehow.... but i don't think anymore intervention would be wise.   Please pray for a sense of peace and not mourning in this matter...

I think of how his life might have been if not here, with these hospitals and doctors... and i feel grateful.  Things could be much much different for him.  I think of how things might have been for him without his extended family... all of you.  We are blessed...even in trials.