Baby Steps

12-month-old Tristan

Jon and I continue to muse over the strange parallels between bringing Tristan home as an infant and bringing him home this time. His Physical Therapist had him take a few steps this week without the walker, and it was just as exciting (and unsteady) as when he did it at 12-months-old. It's going to be a while before he'll be able to let the walker go, but it was so good to see those first steps.

Wednesday was the follow-up appointment with the Ortho Team at Harborview for additional x-rays. The attending doctor said everything looked like it was healing well, but Tristan is having pain in his knee when he tries walking any farther than to the bathroom, so we asked about this. He was unsure of what the cause might be, so he called in another MD to take a look, and Tristan and I both got the impression he wasn't pleased at all with the request. The aggressive way in which he started manipulating Tristan's leg around made me feel queasy and frustrated, and left Tristan in more pain than he was in to begin with. We had hoped it would calm down once he was home and resting, but it's still giving him grief today. His next x-ray appointment is July 20th, and if the knee is still painful at that point they'll do an MRI. Fingers crossed that isn't necessary.

Today was the long-awaited eye exam and Dr. Smith was extremely kind and thorough. We breathed a sigh of relief as his vision didn't suffer a huge change due to the concussion and orbital fractures, which Dr. Zhang had warned was very possible. We were able to get Tristan's glasses ordered today and he should be seeing clearly again within 10 days.

The Prevacid has been a life-saver, and Tristan has been able to up his calorie intake this week. We're still being very cautious, and avoiding spices and high-flavored foods, but he's able to eat consistently without nausea and pain. It's such a relief to be able to feed him without worrying that I'm adding to his discomfort by doing so.

The weekend is supposed to be dry and sunny, and I'm going to do my best to convince him to spend some time outside. I think both the warmth and vitamin D would be incredibly good for his well-being. I hope you all get to be out there enjoying it as well!