Update 17

Hello all. It's been a few weeks since I sent out an update. Liam has been progressing with his weekly castings for his club feet correction. I've attached a picture below, and it's really quite telling on the progress that he's made from prior to any castings to now. As of yesterday he is now in his seventh set (14 total to date) of casts. Dr. Albanese's evaluation yesterday was that he is progressing well, but because of the severity of the deformity, he's going to require a few more rounds than normal to get things as good as we can via casting. The tentative plan, depending on how progress goes over this and the next two rounds of casts will be to then apply a set of casts for a period of about 3 weeks to "set" the progress that has been made so far. Then, he should get a break for a few weeks. Following that, he will need to have his Achilles tendon clipped (out-patient surgery) in at least one of his ankles - this is to release the ankle and let it drop into place where it should be. He goes into another set of casts at that point for about 3 weeks to make sure that heals. And that should be about it for the club feet. So, we're maybe a bit over halfway on that road. I know Erica and I really would love to just hold this baby without these huge foreign objects on his legs, but I know they are setting him up for much better use of those feet down the road. Looking more long term, after all this club feet business is resolved, attention will start to be turned to his hips, which are both dislocated. Dr. Albanese will do some imaging with x-ray and sonogram to exam the joints, some times these can be simply popped in, but he has suggested it's likely that surgical intervention will be required here. And then more casts - I can barely contain my enthusiasm. After that, they can begin to address the range of motion issues in Liam's knees. Short version - there is lots more work to be done on this little guy, and how all that comes out will in large part determine how much function he will have - will he walk is up in there air yet. I know that Emily was able to walk, and Liam doesn't seem to be faced with the muscular challenges that Emily has, so we're hopeful that will mean he's going to have some level of function there - maybe he'll just be a gimp like his father. We'd settle for that! In the realm of more normal infant concerns, Liam is doing pretty good. He was 12lbs 3wks ago, so he's certainly growing good. His pediatrician was impressed with how alert and engaged he was at his 3 month appointment, and noted that he has exceptional upper body strength, which is encouraging because he will surely need it in life. He continues to have a lot of reflux related issues with spitting up, he is on medicine now that does seemed to have helped him a little bit with painful reflux when feeds, but doesn't stop the messes that are a sure thing after every feeding. This stage should pass over the next couple months, man we just can't wait for that. He's giving us good sleep at night, and we're working as hard as two disorganized crazy people can to establish some sort of regular routine for him, which has helped some. We thank you all again for your continued support and prayers. I genuinely have felt that this is the toughest thing Erica and I've ever gone through in life, watching out first born go through all this tough stuff, from trying to change a baby with two broken femurs, to the torture of stretching of his feet at the castings, to the fear of the unknown about his future. Without all this support from family, friends, church, and my co-workers at The Hartford, I honestly don't know how we'd have ever come this far. Thanks all, for all your support, it's carried us through some of the darkest moments of our lives, and you can bet we'll continue to lean hard on all of you as we continue with the challenges the lay ahead.