Aaron: Unhinged

For you who have been following the Aaron Wiley story, here's an update. For those of you new to the story, you can see the background in the right hand column above the blogroll.

I talked to Rhonda yesterday, unfortunately our weekly get together was upended by back-to-school-madness. Meet the Teachers, tour the schools, give five zillion dollars to the school because "field trips, playground equipment, art, blah, blah, blah" aren't covered by the school system. What? My tax dollars don't cover this stuff? You have got to be kidding. There are as many fees at the public school, as when my kids went to Montessori. But I digress.

Aaron has some momentous doctors visits coming up and the family would like lots of prayers. First up, the week of September 25, Aaron has a CAT scan to check out how the healing is going. If his wonderful neurosurgeon, Peter Shedden, MD, feels that it looks good, the chest harness and some of the spokes come off.

Here's where it gets dicey. Then, Aaron will be told to flex and extend his neck. Rhonda is completely freaked out about this. Wouldn't you be? I know I would. If all goes "okay", okay being what? No shrieks of pain? No disruption to his breathing? No instant paralysis? If all goes okay, they'll take the rest of the halo apparatus off and he'll be in another, less restrictive contraption.

Taking off the halo is not as easy breezy as it sounds. It means unscrewing it from his (very thick--ha!) skull. Other than sounding totally disgusting, it sounds painful, too. Anesthesia and a hospital visit may be involved, too, depending. So that's what's next.

Please pray that he's healing well. The disappointment to learn that he isn't healing would be abolutely frustrating for them, I think. Aaron has been so cheerful and upbeat. Those of you who know him won't be surprised by this, but even the most optimistic person can get discouraged. I don't want that to happen.

Which leads to another point. He is off the hard-core meds. He graduated to Tylenol PM and Aleve PM. Both of those have muscle relaxants. He is trying to give those up, too. He has had a couple uncomfortable nights, but of course, he needs to sleep to heal, so it's a balance.

As an aside, my son is sitting on the kitchen table and coloring. Should I be alarmed? (I've tried to give him all the stuff on the floor, but it is just not as fun for him for some reason.)

So that's the update today. If all goes as planned, they'll be making the 3/4 mile adventure to our house Saturaday night for some cards or dominoes or something. Only thing: at the Clouthiers, the house rule is simple--we get to win!