Mike has had a good last few weeks. He did a great job on the last blog entry but is very humble to talk about his accomplishments. With the last break (10/24) he needed a bone graft from his hip and restructure of the bone. The doctors put back in two plates and 14 new screws to give his arm the strength it needs to heal itself. The recovery from this surgery was much easier on him and with less pain. We saw the ortho-surgeon yesterday to get a 2 week post operative update and to get his staples removed. The doctor let me remove the staples (and yes it was fun...not in a cruel way but one less thing to practice when I eventually go to nursing school) and he gave Mike the clearance to use his arm as he wishes...this means he can start some strength training...Mike's really happy about that. He's been on a "no weight baring" order from his doctors up until now. This allows him to final start working out and building back up his muscles.



On another "great" note...Mike has regained about 70% of his facial muscles and nerves back. His smile gets bigger each week and can now close his eye with out using his hand. This is huge! We are now eliminating the possibility of needing the eye surgery. We saw his ENT dr earlier in the week and he is just blown away at Mike's progress. He told us he can now say with confidence that he thinks there's no reason Mike won't get all of his movement back...but if he didn't he looks really good...he looks and sounds "normal". He had also mentioned that Mike's voice is much clearer (almost back to were it was before the accident) although he still can't yell. This is because the right vocal nerve is still paralyzed but the left is compensating quit well.

Mike has also had another great accomplishment. Last night he left to go on his first camp out since the accident with Tommy, Mikey and the scouts. I don't know who was more excited...Mike or our boys. The camp out was suppose to be for our 12-13 year old scout group but had 3 tag alongs, Mikey and two friends (high adventure scouts)..they all wanted to be there for Mike's first trip back.

In the next few weeks we will be celebrating many things. On Thanksgiving Day we will be celebrating Mike's 6 month anniversary of recovery and a few days later we will celebrating out 16 yr Anniversary. Mike and I are grateful everyday to have each other and our family together.