SamBeller.org

Saturday, April 22, 2000

Home Almost 2 Weeks

Dearest Sam’s Fan Club,

Every week there are new milestones on Sam’s recovery ... baby steps closer to his “norm”. Sam stood up in his standing frame this week (30-45 minutes at a time). He looks huge! He tolerated it very well and really liked being up. One by one, we’re getting his equipment adjusted for his new height. He’s so sturdy when he sits and stands now. He is also easier to transfer because his back is more solid - cool!

Sam has not required ongoing supplemental oxygen in almost a week. He still has times where his oxygen blood saturation levels drop when he needs to be suctioned through his nose/trach and we use a little oxygen with the ambu bag during these drops. This usually occurs in the morning when he’s been laying still more during the night. Then, when we start to move him around, it stir up all the secretions. However, he recovers fine and seems to bounce back from these episodes.

The three open infected areas in his back are still present (like 3 “pot holes"). We took him to see Dr. Bobechko (Sam’s surgeon) on Thursday. He sent Sam over to the Wound Care Clinic at Medical City Hospital. They measured the open areas, cut out yuck (called debriding) and gave us a game plan to implement at home to help speed the healing process. We go back to see them on Monday, April 24 so they can measure the areas again and see how it’s progressing. We’ll probably go there every so often during this healing process. It’ll probably take 2-4 weeks for these areas to close up. Please pray that the areas don’t grow in size (diameter or depth) and no complications arise.

Kelly met with Sam’s teachers at Greenwood Hills to make plans for the homebound teaching program. Sam will receive two 2-hour teaching sessions at home every week by a homebound teacher. It was a good meeting. However, it was very depressing to clean out Sam’s locker knowing that the school year at Greenwood Hills is over for him.

Sam is really missing his school and classmates as well. He attends Greenwood Hills because of their beefed up Special Education program - it’s not our neighborhood school. We just found out that Tevah got into a Richardson magnet school, so she (and Jacob & Simone) will attend Hamilton Park elementary. Anyway, on Tuesday, we took Tevah to register her for Kindergarten. When we were leaving, I told Sam that we were going to leave him with the nurse to go to Tevah’s school. He just got a huge sad face and tears started welling up. I told him we’d be back as soon as possible. The nurse said that after we left, Sam just started sobbing. This is so unlike him. Our sitter, Ursula, arrived shortly after we left. She saw how upset he was and talked to him about it. She said that once she explained that Tevah was not going to HIS school - but to another school, he calmed down. He really misses his school and gets pretty upset when we talk about him not going back this year. We’re going to just try to get him to focus on 2nd grade and how he’ll be back in 4 months when that starts. He’ll be so BIG and healthy by then!

Thanks all for the continued love and concern for our Sam.

Spring just makes us feel like everything is being made new. Certainly, the celebration of Easter reminds us how God resurrects and breathes life into death. We are certainly witnessing the power of His healing and the strength of His breath.

Kelly & David