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By Margot | February 19, 2008

I haven’t felt much like updating lately.  I still don’t have the VMA/HVA numbers from last week but have a call in to Jayne today and should have them back shortly.  We went in to the orthopedic specialist on Friday afternoon to have them look at Sam’s ankles again as he was still limply a lot after running.  Dr. Chambers was out with the flu but there was a great physician’s assistant and back up doctor there.  They took a look at Sam’s left ankle which was slightly swollen and wanted to do another x-ray.  We did the x-ray right there in the office and though the right ankle looked clean, the left one did not.  The middle bone between the foot and the tibia was all pushed over to one side and there was an outer little bump on the ankle that was not there in October.  The doctor thinks it all may be caused by a small fracture that we can’t see but wasn’t sure and wanted to wait until Dr. Chambers got back and took a look at it before ordering an MRI.  In the meantime, he put a cast on Sam’s left leg because he didn’t want him to move it at all, he was pretty concerned about the way it looked.  Poor Sam cried because he was going to have to miss the basketball game that afternoon and kept saying the whole time they put the cast on his leg, “But Mom, it doesn’t hurt, I can play, I can play.”  The whole family was there and Andy was doing his best to make Sam laugh by bonking himself in the head so Charlie got into the act and they finally got a smile out of him. I told him he could help me coach basketball if he still wanted to go and Neil stopped at home to pick up some sharpies and the whole team signed his cast on the sidelines. He picked a red cast and kept saying he didn’t want to go to school with it on.  I think he’s still a bit worried about going to school but as fate or luck or whatever would have it, he came down with a stomach bug last night and is home today. He seems to be feeling fine now but was up most of the night.  He has rallied tremendously as he always does and has discovered how fast he can spin around on the kitchen floor on the heel of his cast. Since both ankles were hurting, there is either something else going on in the other ankle or the same thing.  They are hurting in the exact same spots.

Since we didn’t go anywhere for President’s Day weekend we had a little vacation in San Diego.  We went to the USD basketball game on Saturday night which was really fun for the boys and then went to Balboa Park on Sunday and took Charlie on the little train which he loved and the carousel (which he did not love) and ran around the museums and had a picnic out on the grass.  Yesterday, since Neil was working the boys and I went to Corondo and I rented a surrey bike, popped Charlie in the front and Andy and Sam next to me and pedalled around the island.  It was quite a workout for mom but the boys loved it and cheered me on up all the hills, I have to say that the way home with the wind at our back was much easier.

As much as I want to scream and wallow that it’s not fair that Sam has to walk in a cast and be the slowest in school, that he most likely has been playing basketball for an entire season with a broken or at least really screwed up ankle, that he has put up with and puts up with so much on a daily basis, I will not.  I will look at our glass half-full and say, “Sam is playing basketball and having fun, Sam is keeping up with his class, Sam is still our funny, sweet fighter who woke up on Valentine’s Day so excited to give Neil and I the valentine he made for us.  We are lucky to have our funny, rambunctious boys. My brother-in-law Matt reminded me of that last night after he talked to Andrew on the phone and Andrew casually said, “So, what you up to?”     Sam’s up and ready to help me coach basketball today. He told me yesterday in the car when I was teasing Charlie, “Mom, you almost made me laugh my head off again.”    

We have lost three more children this week: The beautiful Eden Brunskow died last night.  She was a wonderful little girl full of spirit.  Neil is going up to Michael Haley’s funeral this afternoon.  His parents and family went to Legoland this past weekend, his favorite place on earth, to honor him. Harrison Nichols died two days ago: http://www.caringbridge.org/nc/harrison/  Harrison defied the odds many times.

Austin Melgar has bone marrow packed with disease but is still fighting and in good spirits.  I so hope that the new treatments his parents are starting do something to stop the progression of disease.    Please think good thoughts and say some prayers for all of these families.

Margot 

 

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