Here we go again in 2010

Well, we are backkkkk! Matthew turned 8 years old on February 18, 2010.T he last 3 years have been almost uneventful. Seizure are controlled to about 2-3 every six months! Email if you want to know how he's doing this!

For the last year, Matthew's muscle tone has slowly pulled both of his hips out of socket. We waited as long as we could before putting him through surgery. For the last 2 months his hips have really been bothering him because the femur heads are rubbing on the hip sockets bones. It is almost impossible to change a diaper because he keeps his legs pulled up close and tight. He is in pain any time he is moved.

The orthopedic doctor says he can either put them back in the socket or do a femoral head removal but he wants to see if a Baclofen pump will help first.

So now we are in Blair Batson hospital in Jackson, MS. We had a baclofen trial on Wednesday which involved injecting baclofen directly into his spinal colulmn. Had to be done inpatient becaues of the risk of infection and the fact they had to drain out spinal fluid to inject the baclofen.

If I had to describe the results in one word I would have to use PHENOMENAL! He was feeling no pain.. well maybe a little if we stretched him out too far or accidentally caused his femurs to rub the hip sockets. It even took away the spasticity of his right arm. So he is definately a candidate.

We're ready to go home now.. just waiting for the surgeons nurse to come by and do a consult and set up the appt. for the surgery which will be on Tuesday. Wish she would hurry up. 99 percent of our time up here today has been just WAITING on people.... Ya'll know what I mean.

So the plan is to take a video Matthew's spasticity before and after surgery. The surgery works right away. I posted a video of a guy getting a baclofen pump. It's not pretty and is graphic so don't watch if you can't handle it.

I'll update more on Tuesday. I wonder how much money it's costing MS medicaid for us to sit here in the room waiting on someone to come by and talk to us???


ANother update.. I earned 2 associate degrees and graduated May 15, 2008! since no one wants to pay me enought to pay a CNA with those degrees, I decided to try to go to nursing school. Right now, I have all but college algebra and will try to get in in the Fall of 2010.. I know Big Plans, Dreams, but I'll reach them, even if it's not this fall.

OH, my youngest son & his wife gave me 2 identical twin grandsons, Brendan & Brantley Nov-2009.. They are awesome... still don't quite know who is who sometimes..

Charlotte