He's got legs... and he knows how to use them!

Have we ever mentioned that Isaac does things in his own time, in his own way? Because if anyone does things to the beat of their own drum, it's that kid. 

When he was just out of surgery, and waking up from anesthesia, Dr. I (neurosurgeon) asked Isaac to move his legs, Isaac couldn't. Then he asked him to move his toes, and Isaac got super frustrated and said "I CAN'T. I DO IT WHEN I GET HOME." We quickly moved on, stayed optimistic and asked the poor kid 9 gagillion more times over the course of his 12 day, all-inclusive stay at CMH, if he could move his legs or his feet. Each time seemed to frustrate him more. 

Ryan and I went through lots of emotions processing all of this. On one hand, if we had opted to not do surgery, he would lose function of his legs at some unknown point in time, because it was made clear to us that where the spinal cord was compressed, the bone would eventually grow closed, essentially severing his cord. Ryan was the first to say that we needed to think of it this way - we are no worse of than if we had chosen to not go forward with surgery, either way, there was a chance of this happening (one had the immediate chance (surgery), and the other was 100% chance of it happening, just not knowing when).

Then we brought him home from the hospital - talk about gut wrenching. I set him on the floor to play, and he quickly tried to do his usual crawl to play, and quickly realized that his legs did not work. He let out such a desperation cry - and in such a sad voice 'I can't do it.' 

The guilt - oh the guilt. This is something that I did to him by having the surgery. Then the quick move to the thought of we made the decision to move forward to give him the best chance possible at retaining everything he had. I told myself over and over that we couldn't second guess this decision (and really - in retrospect - I honestly still feel that this was done at the most optimum time). Ryan came home from soccer, and then went through many of the same emotions. I'd reminded him of what he'd told me about We've shed tears, had mini melt downs, many hugs, but know that we have to be strong for Isaac.

So take a quick second and think of ALL of those emotions. Then we go to put the boys to bed on Monday night. Isaac had a quick bath to wash the incision, and Eli was taking a shower. I was doing a lotion massage on Isaac's legs, as we'd been shown to do, and all of the sudden - I felt him flex his quads. I yelled for Ryan. I stepped back, and he flexed his legs on his own a few more times, not in reflex to anything. He even flicked his feet a bit! Oh.My.Goodness. We were seeing the hope that Isaac needs to start rebuilding the communication in the motor pathway of his spinal cord. Hope that we'd thought might possibly be lost. Commence tears of joy. Hugs. High-fives! You should have seen the smile on Isaac's face! 

We don't know how much he will regain in his legs, if it will be more or less than what he had before. We have him in physical therapy (which he calls exercise class), we'll be working with him multiple times a day, and doing everything in our power to give him the best chances possible to do whatever it is he wants to do! What we do know is that it's going to be a long road for him, and it will be 6-9 months before we know where he 'stands' (no pun intended!), with what motor skills he will have in his legs. But for now - we'll keep our optimism and keep praying! 

Thanks for your continued prayers and following our family's journey! 

Hugs to everyone!