Causes for Celebrations...Never, Never, Never Give Up

Travis turned the corner in his recovery the weekend of April 11th. We enjoy seeing him with his increased laughs, giggles, smiles, energy, and more. :)  Yea! Saturday night after the Salt Lake Bees game (AAA baseball team), Travis ran the bases using his walker. Love this video...

Appointments and exams filled this week for Travis. Tuesday brought his first Physical Therapy appointment since the fracture last month. The orientation of T's muscles and bone changed when they removed the ~5cm of femur and that could affect how T's left leg/quad muscles operate. Travis' muscles answered the question in the first exercise with a resounding YES!!! We all shared a look of wonderment and amazement when we saw that.

The quad is working!

With the tumor load and little muscle in the left thigh, Travis' medical team is surprised at how well he gets around (and that he gets around). Thankfully Travis' determination to move around never got that memo about tumor load and muscle function. Weekly PT remains in T's near future; however, the therapist (Mr. Mark as T calls him) wondered if there was enough muscle function to pedal a Shriners bike. Watch the video below for the answer...and have Kleenex nearby...

Travis saw the ortho guy (Mike Pond) at Shriners for his routine 6 month check. While Mike saw the smaller leg length discrepancy a few weeks ago when we adjusted T's shoe lift, the smiles on his face told us all we needed to know regarding T's progress. X-ray imaging showed signs of healing, plus a HUGE bonus as a cause to celebrate.

Femur comparisons (Mar 27th left and Apr 23rd right)

As shown in the images above, T's creating LOTS of new bone just to the right of "new bone" in the image. This is amazing!!! T's not even 6 weeks out from surgery. Lots of signs of healing. Now for the bonus...before the surgery in March, the top of T's femur was partially out of the hip joint (Mike said he thought the hip would go before the femur did); however, the shorter femur relaxed the muscles thus moving the ball of the femur into the hip joint nearing the normal position. Absolutely incredible! I shed many happy tears today. :) A definite win/silver lining from this.

Travis looks so good, the medical team at Shriners felt this summer would be a good time to correct the valgus (knock-knee) on the left side. We knew this surgery would occur this summer before Travis' femur broke in March...not surprised. The best available surgery time for this procedure was Wed, Jun 24th. We are on the short notice list incase a longer surgery cancels and we can take that surgical slot. This surgery would be a day surgery with a small incision to insert the "8 plate", relatively minor compared to the 2 surgeries this past year.

This afternoon brought Travis' annual IEP meeting, nothing surprising. Travis works hard in school, the teachers and staff notice his effort and improvements. Goals for reading comprehension, writing, and speech remain in the IEP. Travis performs consistently at grade level in math, so a math goal was not included (the school is great to add in where needed).

Thank you for all the prayers, thoughts, support, and more for healing, happy tumor, and T's spirit. I know that they contributed a huge part in the medical wins for T. I am overwhelmed with joy.