Inside Gigi's World

When hardships and trying times happen in our lives it can feel like they last forever. We long so much to just get through it that often times we forget to open our eyes and watch the growth one goes through and the changes, good and bad, that have happened to get us through those times.

It was kind of like high school. I couldn’t wait for it to be over. And although there were points that I enjoyed, I just mostly wished it to be over. 4 years felt like a lifetime. Then before I knew it, high school was over. It had gone by faster then I though it would and I had been so busy wishing it away, I didn’t enjoy the ride as much as I should have.

Then there are moments that seem to swallow time and just go on forever and ever. When I found out my Grandpa had terminal cancer. It would end his life. Every moment went by so fast, we couldn’t hold on to anything. But then all at once, the waiting. Just waiting. It felt like an eternity. You want it over but you know what it means when it is.

October 2018, as most of you know, R.’s leg broke in three spots. He was 12 years old. I have dubbed it “The break heard ’round the world”.

Most of you know the tribulations we went through. Nothing was easy for him. But the doctor’s were hopeful that he would not need surgery, his growth plates would be fine and he was expected to make a full recovery. Until he didn’t. The health of his leg started to decline and with it his emotional health as well. He was always in pain. Always. And then the limping started.

After many and when I say many I mean MANY more appointments at his ortho’s office we were eventually told it was all in R.’s head and that we need to get used to the idea that our once healthy child would probably limp for the rest of his life, he may never play sports again and that the pain was all in his head, he was making it up and if he was constantly in pain like he said he was then maybe it was time to seek help at a pain management. Pain management for my now 13 year old, I don’t think so.

Thank whoever was in the great divine looking out for him and his pediatrician because she instantly called Shriner’s and set up an appointment for him.

We thought he was going to need some physical therapy. Never was I expecting that we were going to be told that he was going to need surgery. His growth plate was more then 50% damaged and the outside of his bone was growing while the inside was not and the other leg was now growing faster because of that as well.

Then the choice came, surgery on one leg and hope for the best, pray they will eventually catch up or do both.

What do you do as a parent? If we only did one leg, were we delaying the inevitable? Would one leg be in pain all the time still and if we only did one leg and the legs didn’t even out, then there was the possibility of shaving down or removing pieces of bone.

We could do both legs? One surgery, half of the recovery time doing it all at once instead of one, waiting and then the other and waiting more. However double surgery means double the chances of complications. Double the chances of infections, bleeding, being under anesthesia twice as long. And if the surgery wasn’t successful then that would have meant another surgery to damage the growth plates at the knees and if that didn’t work, the growth plates at his hips, permanently stunting his growth.

We asked him what he wanted. He wanted the double surgery. He wanted to be back for basketball. We talked about it and then we talked about it more and decided the double surgery was the best option for R.

October 2019, 13 years old and almost exactly a year to the day from the initial break, R. was signed in at 5:30 AM for his surgery. They day was super hard. But everything went great, so well in fact that he was able to by pass the hard casts and go right to the boots.

We knew though, going into that surgery, that he was still going to have a long rode ahead of him. He was going to have to be seen every six months for x-rays and bone scans,as long as his growth plates were open. Possibly as long until his 21st birthday. There was just going to be a lot of waiting to see what would happen, wondering if he was going to need surgery again.

He recovered fast, faster then predicted. He was hell bent he was going to play basketball and he did full steam ahead. Then he turned 14. His team won the championship and he could run again without pain. To be able to see him run without pain, to see him with his friends. When you were told he may never do those things again, that was pretty amazing.

Then the pandemic hit. R.’s first follow up appointment was approaching but it was cancelled. No one was going into Shriner’s unless they were surgical patients.

So we waited for Shriner’s to call us with a new appointment date.

They did last week.

He had his first check up today. As we pulled in to park, R. made me change my parking spot because he thought it was bad luck. It was the spot we parked in for his first appointment when we learned the extent of his injuries and that he would need surgery.

So I moved the car.

He had his X-Rays and then we waited.

R.’s legs are so healthy now, you can’t even tell that he had surgery to begin with. He has exceeded any expectations and markers they set for him. His hips, knees, ankles and spin are all aligned. You’d never even know that the injury had happened if it weren’t for the small scars on both sides of both of his ankles. R. is a whopping 134 pounds and 5’10”. She expects him to have a least two more serious growth spurts by the time he turns 16 and anticipates him “far exceeding 6 feet tall”.

He doesn’t need to be seen again.

No more X-rays.

No more bone scans.

No more surgeries, at least not for this. His ass better stay healthy for the unforeseeable future.

He has officially “Graduated” from Shriner’s and although it wasn’t the fancy pomp and circus that it usually is because of the pandemic, it still deserves a celebration.

He made it through this. Much better than I would have had it been me at any age. He has always had a big heart and has always been compassionate but I’ve noticed since this even more. He has grown so much. The tears. The heartache. The pain. All the lessons learned in between, has taken him from my little boy to my young man.

Today, as we left Shriner’s, I felt so many emotions flood over me. Joy, grief,happiness, happy that he got through this, happy we got through this as a family. Thankful that at the end of this road, the end we have been waiting for, he is back to his 100%, happy that this can all become a distant memory and mostly just thankful that we can say we came out on the other side. A little bruised but no worse for the wear. Maybe kind of like Rocky, tough and still standing. At least I think he won in those movies, but what the hell do I know?

Tonight we ate bacon, extra for the boy, he deserved it. Well, not just bacon, BLTs but mostly bacon for him.

Today I am happy to say we live with a “Graduate”.