We made it home!! It feels so good to be here.


When we got home yesterday, there was a nice crowd down at the midget football field waiting for Chance. It was very nice. He seemed so shy at first and then started working his way around to everyone. He even went out on the field with a group of the boys and played some football.


Today has been a bit hectic. We went school shopping and till we got home, we were just tired. Chance's mouth hasn't stopped since he woke up this morning. It is nice that he is back to his old self but we think that Dr. Jallo added a couple of amps to his talking ability and maybe a giggle box with a snort machine. We want to ask him about that when we go back next month for his check-up.


Chance starts school on Tuesday and I get to go with him. It will be good to see him meeting up with all of his friends from school. He missed everyone so much. Wednesday afternoon, we have appointments set up with a rehab in Carlisle. He will have to go for outpatient PT, OT and speech for a couple of months. He still needs to get a little bit stronger, but he is almost back to where he was with abilities from before the surgery. He is still a happy-go-lucky little kid. The only thing that he is afraid of, is that his friends are going to be scared of his scar. Somehow, we'll work through that just like everything else that we have gotten through.


Even with the heartwrenching week and a half after surgery, seeing the way Chance is now, how happy he is, we would choose to do this surgery again. Monday morning will be 4 weeks since Chance has had a seizure and he is glad they are gone.


Another thing that we realized today - we picked up Chance's new prescriptions. He is on the same meds and will stay on them for at least two years or maybe for life, we don't know yet. But, we noticed that his dosage was different. He used to take 7.5 ml of Keppra twice a day and 450 mg of Trileptal twice a day. His Keppra dosage has been changed to 1.5 ml twice a day. I called the hospital to check and make sure that was right. I thought for sure that someone had made a mistake and thought the 7 was a 1. They verified for me that nope, it is supposed to be 1.5 now, not 7.5. The whole time he was in the hospital, they have been giving him 1.5 and still, no seizures. I take that as another very good sign.


I am going to eventually figure out why I can't post pictures from my computer and you all will be able to see Chance in his water battle, trying out the split treadmill and his welcome home pictures. Quinton has a football game tomorrow and Chance just can't wait to go. It will be the first one for him to see this year. He said that he is going to cheer for our team. I don't know though. Historically, Chance has always cheered for whatever team Quinton's team was playing. We'll see.

Well, we have one more day here. We just can't wait to get home.


Chance got to pick out new braces for his feet and new splints for his arm/hand. I'll give you all one guess as to what colors he picked......yup, you're right. His braces for his feet have yellow pads, black velcro and a camo strap. His day splint is going to be black with yellow velcro and his night splint has yellow and black velcro straps with a Steelers logo in the center.


Tomorrow is the BIG day!! I keep trying to get him to go to sleep and he won't. He is working on keeping his night time splint on his arm so that he gets a sticker for the night. If he keeps it on tonight, he will have met his goal and gets a gift card to Best Buy. This morning, it somehow fell off. Bryan kept checking it all night and it was on as of 5:00 am. When Chance woke up, he woke up Bryan and was upset because his splint wasn't on. So, we gave him the sticker because we felt that he didn't take it off on purpose.


He said alot of goodbyes tonight. It is sad to leave these people and the friends that he has made, but we just can't wait to get back to Perry County.


Chance told Bryan and me that when we get home, we have to go back to our room because alot of people have missed him and they were going to come see him. Since there are going to be so many people coming to see him and he is going to be so busy, we need to be in our room so that there is room for all of his 'people' to sit. And he doesn't want us to get in the way. He is such a funny kid.


We're working on getting him one of those bikes that he was riding so watch out Newport. You may have a new crazy driver in town (or close to it). I have some new pictures that we will put out after we are home. Miss you all.......only one more sleep!! !!

Hi All!!


Not too much new to tell you about. Chance was kept very busy today. For the last few days, he hasn't even needed to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon. I just don't know where he gets the energy. He is in constant motion from the time he wakes up until the time he goes to bed. And talk!!!! Non stop. And I mean non stop. (but I'll take that over not talking anyday)

We're just gearing up to come home. We're trying to get Chance to run. It's kind of funny because you always hear - Don't run in the hall. Now I'm hearing - Run Chance, run!! He's afraid of falling so he won't. We hope to have him there or close to there before we go home. Every day he gets to ride the bike. He LOVES it! That is one thing that we are going to miss. Seeing that look on his face when he is riding.

He gets to leave his wheelchair out in the hall by his room tomorrow. He doesn't even need to use it to go from floor to floor. Everyone down here gives him a hard time about being a Steeler's fan. The speech therapist and him made a sign for his 'parking spot' that has a picture of Big Ben. We have two of them just in case 'something' happens to it. You never know with the jokesters down here. The yellow/gold could suddenly turn purple. Chance will have a cow.

Chance is sleeping already. I can't believe it. I'm going to go to bed early tonight. Hopefully, he doesn't wake up again at 6:00. I know that when I am working, I get up earlier than that but man, it's just different. Talk to you all later.

Apparently, Pappy Joe and Chance had a really good weekend together. Everyone was talking about the mischief the two of them were up to and how they giggled all weekend.

This morning, Chance tried out the split treadmill. He did really good on it too. It has two tracks instead of one and each track can go different speeds. They put little infrared lights on him and that enabled them to track his movements. When he was done, he got to see himself in a stick figure form on the computer.

They had a water fight this evening outside. The kids had a choice, do you want a gown to cover your clothes or not? Chance, being the brave soul that he is chose not to wear a gown. They used big syringes filled with water. He was soaked when they were done. His wheelchair was still dripping water when we got back to his room. I took him to the playroom and left for 10 minutes and when I came back, they were having a beanbag battle. The people that play with these kids are great. They are always doing something for everyone. Everyone is included regardless of ability. They make you able to participate. They are talking about doing flashlight tag tomorrow!!!! When you get off of the elevator, you can hear the whole room laughing. It makes the heart warm.

Dr. Vining and Diana Pillas came to check on him today too. They are very pleased with his progress. They think that he looks brighter than before surgery and that his speech is clearer too.

He got his stiches out today. There were 9 stiches. He said they tickled when they were taken out. He doesn't have anything left to be taken out now. YEAH!!!

He has a few bald spots in the back of his head. They are from the surgery where the posts were holding his head. We hope that his hair will grow back there soon. His incision looks great.

Our days here are very full. He sees the speech therapist twice, the occupational therapist twice and the physical therapist twice (at least). There are also other activities going on all of the time and the kids have such a great time. Chance even had a chance to skip one of his PT sessions today because of working on the split treadmill but he chose to go to all of his PT sessions (the harder he works, the stronger he gets, the sooner he goes home is the philosophy.)

Watch out Coach Rick. I told you on Sunday that Chance was only walking, not running yet. The therapist told me that alot can happen in one week. Who knows???