Teaching the body to walk

Life has been full since my last post. Kaleb is now a teenager. I just can't believe it! He is such a great kid. I know every parent feels that way about their own children but I just have to say, he is such a blessing in our lives.

We do have good news on many fronts. We went to Cleveland Clinic in September 2008 and we were told that Kaleb's hips are no longer showing signs of necrosis. They gave us the approval to undergo physical therapy and try to get Kaleb walking again. We have been going once a week to two wonderful physical therapists. They are motivating, encouraging and just a lot of fun to be around! Our goal is to have him walking 10% of the time and then once he's done growing, we may look into additional options for the hips, such as resurfacing. We'll see because you never know what advancements will be made in the medical community by that time.

Kaleb is enjoying the 7th grade. He's now in a completely accessible school and that has impacted his life in many ways. He is just 'one of the kids' now. He is able to get in the restrooms, the lunch lines, the gym, everywhere!!! His building is a two story building so we have worked with the school on emergency plans if Kaleb were ever on the 2nd floor and needed to quickly leave the building. The 2 custodians will come to Kaleb's room (after being radioed of his location) and remove him from the school. We're happy with that and glad to see them thinking of all possibilities.

I'm back to work now. It's been a blessing to have a job again and in this economy, we can all understand how thankful we are to have a steady income. As a parent of a child with a chronic, life long illness, I can say that it can drain the best bank accounts around. The bills do not stop. The $40 copays, and $2,000 per person deductibles. With the amount of visits Kaleb makes, it could kill a family quickly. We have received over $3,000 with of physical therapy bills alone since September! Can you even imagine??? It's amazing. But again, to end on a positive not, we are VERY blessed and thankful for the job to help with all those bills.

Blessings to all. If you or anyone you know is affected by osteopetrosis, please feel free to contact me at ldavi29@columbus.rr.com. I'd love to talk with you and learn from our combined experiences.