On November 30th Grade 7-12 students in Alberta switched to online learning due to COVID. Matthew was only back at school full-time for one week before the switch. So for the next three weeks of school this is pretty much what his classroom looked like:
Well, to be honest, he spent a decent amount of time at the kitchen table as well, but his preference place was his bed. This meant for the last three weeks of school we did not have to carry him in and out of the house and he spent almost all of his time at home. As far as the learning aspect of school goes he prefers online learning, and if it weren't for sports he'd be quite content to do all his schooling this way.
This has also meant that he's had more free time and even though he couldn't walk he found lots of ways to keep himself busy. For a couple weeks we had beautiful weather and he got pretty handy at coming and going on his own. He would bum his way down the stairs and into our second wheelchair that was left in the garage for him. (This wheelchair came from Red Cross, but did not have arms that lift on the sides for transferring in and out of the chair to the toilet, bed, etc. Once he got better at moving around he was able to get in this one even though the sides do not lift). Once in the other wheelchair he could be found in the garage working on his bikes or doing wheelies around the neighbourhood. When he was done outside he would bum his way back up the stairs and was able to get himself back into his "inside" wheelchair all by himself thanks to being allowed to do heel pivots. Overall he became pretty self-sufficient and independent when he so desired.
He learned to do wheelies on the Red Cross wheelchair since it overall lighter, but also did not have the heavy leg elevators on it. But it wasn't long before he was able to do wheelies in both wheelchairs and it was seldom that we seen the wheelchairs with four wheels on the ground.
Occasionally we would see them would no wheels on the ground 😱 Or we would just hear the thunk and a yell for help.
When the weather isn't so great he likes to spend time putting together videos. He's made a few video's about his surgery, which can be found here: M7Guy YouTube Channel
At the four week mark he developed a small infection in the stitches on his right foot. They suspected it was likely a stitch abscess. We were told to apply polysporin several times a day and leave it uncovered and open to air as much as possible. This was not hard to do considering he rarely leaves the house. So for the next couple weeks he seldom wore the boots, only putting them on if he had to go out or wanted to go downstairs and Rob wasn't around to carry him so he needed his heels to bum down the stairs. For a few days the infection seemed to spread along the stitch area, but by the end of a week it was looking pretty good again. And now two weeks later it's decently improved.
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| The infection didn't look bad, but considering there was no redness beforehand it's an indication that something was brewing |
On Monday evening was the big moment when he tried to walk again for the first time. The doctor had told him he could start walking in his boots and then move to without the boots, but he did not give very specific instructions for this and so we are currently waiting for more guidance in this area. At the time I did not ask much as I figured it would take a bit of time for the transition, but Matthew has gotten up on his feet and walked the last couple days and does not really have any pain in the Accessory Navicular area. Once he got the hang of balancing he found that most of his discomfort is in the upper foot area and outside ankle area from having to lift the heavy boots, which he's not used to, especially since he hasn't worn them the last two weeks since he had the infection. His knees also have a bit of discomfort, probably a combination on being non-weight bearing for six weeks and walking awkwardly with having two boots and feeling like you're walking in ski boots.
For now he is not doing an excessive amount of walking, just walking from bed to table, table to washroom, etc instead of wheeling. This is going well and once his feet get used to the boots or the doctors office gets back to us to tell us whether he can just wear his shoes with his orthotics, then he can start increasing the amount of walking he is doing each day.
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| He can't get over how tall he feels standing up again ... and then to have an extra inch and a half added from wearing the boots |
As I was finishing off this post last night Matthew had just completed a shower and was getting ready for bed and tells me that his right stitches are flared up again and it hurts in that area. I took a look at it and it definitely looked flared up again so I decided to wait until morning to post this and see what came of it. This morning when he woke up it was bulging in the one area of the stitches that previously looked infected and there was puss coming from that area. We sent pictures off to the clinic and they have since advised us that it looks like a stitch abscess, so in other words, we calmed the surface the last couple weeks, but the problem is below the surface and it needs to come out. We were advised that it is like a pimple that will become more painful and eventually "pop" and push out the stitch that has not dissolved as it should have. He is to put warm compresses on it to encourage it to continue to drain and continue to apply polysporin.
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| The abscess stitch trying to make it's way out |
His doctor was not in the clinic and the doctor who went over his file advised that he should continue to walk in the boots until his appointment on January 6 in order for his muscles and such to regain strength and not to walk without the boots. This is not what our doctor had said, but with this abscess he won't be walking much anyways as he doesn't even want to put the boots on or walk since it rubs against the area. Seeing as we're mostly stuck at home and there isn't much going on, we'll just take it one day at a time and hopefully he'll be back on his feet again soon. Regardless we are excited that he can walk if he feels comfortable doing so and that he did not have pain with walking as we had really expected more pain and discomfort when he first started walking. In the meantime, we'll just have to be patient about getting this abscess out of the way!
And so since it's so close to Christmas I will end off with wishing you all a very Merry Christmas from our family
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| "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have touble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" John 16:33 |