The Beat Goes On

13 Aug The Beat Goes On

While the beat goes on, we’re ready for a different beat! Colleen has been working her way down on the steroid dose more slowly. A little over a week ago, we got the good news that her sed rate (the blood work number that tells the level of inflammation in your body) was all the way down to 5! Her doctor was hoping it would get down to 20-25.

She got the ok to go down to 50 mg, and did so for one week, then took it to 40 mg. Monday to Wednesday, she had just a slight sense of what she calls “awareness” in her chest. Told her doc about it Wednesday morning, and she ordered her to remain on 40 mg for an additional week. Wednesday afternoon, the “awareness” faded away, which is good.

We had planned to head to Pismo Beach after church tomorrow for a quick getaway. However, a slight mishap has changed our plans.

Early this morning, Colleen headed out for a walk with the dog. Getting to the driveway, she noticed someone coming around the corner with his two dogs, neither of them on a leash. She stopped on the driveway with our dog, Charlie, to wait out the two unleashed dogs. She did not notice that one of the dogs slipped around one of our cars and approached from behind, attacking Charlie.

In trying to separate the dogs, she fell backward and landed on the driveway in a sitting position, immediately feeling severe pain in her lower back. Apparently, the unleashed dog owner was very apologetic, and Colleen expressed her displeasure that his dogs were unleashed. None of that helped her back any. She’s never had a back injury.

After two hours of meds and ice did nothing, I took her to the ER. Between steroids and low bone density, she’s subject to fractures. Fortunately, xrays showed nothing broken. They sent us home with pain meds and rest orders. If she’s not better on Monday, we’ll call her regular doc and see what they want to do from there. We’re praying for the best for complete healing, but cancelled plans for Pismo. Too much pain to consider driving 3 hours or being anywhere but home.

We did get to find out that as long as Colleen is well by then, we’ll get to see Jonathan in Utah September 22-26. That’s when Heritage has their next Parent Weekend, and the timing seems like it would be right for our first visit with him since May. We are very much looking forward to seeing him and trusting all will be well for Colleen for the trip. We covet your prayers.

Jonathan also decided to go out for a part in the Heritage school play and actually got a part! One of the things Heritage is well known for is their performing arts program, and we had hoped he would go for it. We encouraged whenever we could, but he was not biting at all. Apparently, his therapist was able to talk him into going for it.

So, he’ll play some part in “A Christmas Carol” in December. It plays the week of his birthday, so we’re shooting for seeing his play and being with him for his birthday as well. In the mean time, we have Thanksgiving and Christmas up in the air, wondering what we will do with those holidays and whether we will be with or without him.

This week, we attended a parent support group for the first time that is specifically for parents who have kids at a residential treatment center. It was a great group, and we hope to take advantage of it regularly. From what we hear, they’ll really be able to help us work through all these kinds of difficult decisions.

Onward and upward….