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We are doing our part to keep the economy going in the medical community.    Elijah had four appointments and a couple of lab visits this week.  As I posted earlier, we had a huge praise on Monday.  Elijah also had a follow-up dental appointment that was much better than we had expected it would be.  Yesterday we visited the pediatric cardiologist and the doctor pronounced Elijah to be a “normal boy”.  Wow!  Two years ago one of set of doctor’s in China said his heart condition was “inoperable”, but through the ministry of PHF and a wonderful church here in the States (thank you Salem!) he had successful surgery and is now a “normal boy”.  We also dealt with some infection this week and now have clear labs for that.  Thank you again, God!

The only concern we had this week is Elijah’s arm.  We went for follow-up x-rays this week and they did not look good.  The bones had slipped and the first doctor was sure we would need to reopen things and insert pins in the morning.  The “fracture specialist” looked at it and said there is a good chance that the bones will be fine to heal as is and that with all the growth time Elijah has ahead of him, the growth will totally compensate for any deformity right now.  The risk is that in a year or two there may be a little loss of range of motion in his forearm.  If that’s the case we will definitely have to have surgery in a year of two.  We decided to take the conservative approach that the fracture specialist recommended and go with the better odds of things healing on their own and being fine in the long run.  We will go back for another set of x-rays on Wed. and if the bones have slipped more we will have to go ahead and open things up, cut through what has fused, insert pins and start again.  We have been trying (with a lot of failure!) to encourage Elijah to totally baby his arm and keep as inactive as possible.  Even just bouncing down the steps or accidently bumping his arm into a wall could jolt things.  Aside from keeping him bubble wrapped, I don’t think it’s possible to keep him totally safe!  I honestly don’t have much confidence in what the x-rays will look like next week, but we are praying for the best and know that God can heal once again!

Despite the medical “trials” and lots of time spent in doctor’s offices, God has continued to use these times to expedite our bonding process.  We have had lots of laughter and snuggles, and also times where Elijah has shared more of his past with us.  I ache for what he has endured before, but know that God can use it all for His greater glory.  Elijah is one amazing kid and I grow to love him more and more every day.

While I’m rambling on, I’ll share that we’ve also had a good week of school.  We are more comfortable in our routine and Elijah is already making visible progress.  We’ve starting reading lessons and figured out more where he is in math.  He’s using more vocabulary daily and understanding a LOT.  We have built in some incentives that he is excited about and he is anxious to learn!

Here is a picture from “movie night” last night.  We found out that Elijah has some fun dance moves. 

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 10:55 am and is filed under Ami, Benjamin, Elijah, Family, Johanna, Michaela. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.