Update on the boys

Well, since that includes me, I'll make it brief on my end... I'm graduating/walking for my graduation on Thursday and Friday :-D. Masters in Computer Science, wahoo!

Camden...

Has some new favorite toys...

He rides his tricycle everywhere and loves to build train tracks with his train set from IKEA. Thomas and McQueen are still his top two favorite toys though.

The doctor said it was time, so it was time - Camden has gone binky-less. We cut the rubber end of all his pacifiers and told him they were broken. He was pretty heartbroken. He stopped asking for them almost immediately though (success!), but without a binky to help him fall asleep for naps or when he'd wake up at night it was a rough week of transition.

Xan...

After wearing a cast for 3 weeks following his surgery Xan graduated from casts and was fitted for the "dobbs" bar and boots system. We took pictures of all the casts (minus at least 3 we weren't able to grab) as a memento.

So, as you can tell, Xan is ok with his boots at various points in the day, and can be his normal happy self. Unfortunately, it's really hard to see him in pain - which he is very obviously in pain for much of the day. Here's why... Fresh out of the cast, his incision from the surgery still wasn't quite healed:

The boots have to be put on tight (very tight), otherwise in all the baby's movements, he'll get blisters. We followed orders to the T even though it meant a lot of hard work and enduring the crying and struggling each time we put the boots on. Sadly the result was still a blood blister (likely due to the amount of pressure put onto the heel) right around the incision:

Which eventually opened up:

And after opening up and draining out, rather than healing, things got a bit worse. Over the weekend the blister area started to discolor and form puss. We thought the blister had become infected despite the neosporin we faithfully applied.

However, when Alene took him in to the doctor today it was diagnosed as a pressure ulcer. Unfortunately an ulcer like this is not treatable by antibiotics - which would have been tame compared to the treatment he will likely have to go through.... debridement. Debridement is where they'll scrape off the dieing tissue and clean the wound. Not fun.

We've been referred to the wound clinic at Primary Children's to get that done after getting a second look at the wound by our Surgeon Dr. Stotts. For the meantime, Dr. Stotts is letting us keep Xan out of the braces to relieve the pressure. We're just hoping we don't lose too much progress and that Xan's wound will heal swiftly.

Our poor little Xan... It's tough to see him have so much pain as such a little guy. A sweet, happy little guy - like he is - doesn't deserve this kind of trial. Probably for that very reason, he is able to endure it so well.