Hello everyone! Its been a while since I have given an update about Ian.  He is doing fantastic, practically back to normal.  He is slowly getting back to work (after 20 months of being away,) working on his own projects, and even coaching Jack’s soccer team.  Last weekend he went up in our attic to get our fall decorations and I just about lost it.  I’m so impressed by what he is able to do every single day.

We have known that Ian will need to have a few more surgeries on his hands to make them more functional.  We’ve decided to have these done by the end of this calendar year.  He met with his hand surgeon this week and the first of these surgeries will be this coming Monday.  The surgery will open up the web space between Ian’s short thumb and index finger on his right hand, which will help him grab things better. They will take a skin graft from his hip again to close the area. His right hand is currently his better hand, so we want to make sure that any surgery will not worsen his ability.  Please pray for that.  His hand will have to be in a cast for three weeks after that.

A second surgery will likely happen soon after that.  This one will be more complicated.  The surgeon will take an unused tendon from Ian’s left palm and attach it to the small thumb he made Ian back in February.  Again, this will help him grab things better and give him more strength to hold things.  This time his left hand will be in a cast for six weeks.  There may be a second surgery for his left hand after that one.  We will know more as we go.

We are surgery pros now.  We will show up for surgery and get to go home later that day.  Pray for the surgery to go smoothly and for no pain for Ian.  Last time he felt the most pain on his hip since the skin graft had been taken from there.  Also pray that I can find a sitter for my boys.  Ian says he can drive himself, but I really want to go with him.

Thanks for continuing to read our updates.  We appreciate you!

love,

denisse