Jack's Back

This might be too much information for some of you, but I am posting pictures of Jack's back for those who might be interested. As you can see, the pressure sore is small, but if we didn't get on it right away, it could have become a very big problem. The second picture shows two lines which correlate to two separate areas on his back that protrude.* One line must be his spinous process (I have no idea which one) and the other line, I'm assuming would be hardware. Given their locations and the fact that they don't seem to line up -- I don't think they are the same thing. But, what do I know? We see the local ortho on December 6th -- we'll see what he thinks. I'm expecting to get the go ahead from the Phoenix ortho to allow Jack out of his brace and into his wheelchair. I needed a letter from the St. Louis ortho for our school district re: how long before Jack can sit in his wheelchair and in the letter he is still sticking to the 6 months schedule. I plan on emailing him regarding an early release, but I'm going to wait until we see the local ortho first. If the St. Louis ortho says "no", I'm inclined to get him up in his chair anyway because -- as I told the St. Louis ortho's nurse --- it's both insane and inhumane to keep Jack flat on his back for 1/2 a year! I'm also going to talk with Jack's neurologist before we get him up because I've got to believe that there could be some issues with sitting up after being flat on your back for 4+ months. If nothing else, I'd think you could get one helluva headache.

No word yet on how Mary or Shannon did in their competitions. Update: Mary's Ceile team placed 8th out of 23 and Shannon's Ceile team placed 6th out of 31; Shannon recalled on her individual dances, which means she placed in the top 50% and got to dance a second set. This was Shannon's first time to recall. Congrats girls!

Have a great week! Thankfully, it's a short work week.

* The lines are the result of some photoshopping on the pictures. I didn't actually draw lines on Jack's back, just in case you were wondering :-)

(btw, for anyone who might not know ... you can make a picture bigger by clicking on it.)