sciatic stress

Ok, so I lied about Shawnie being ready to post her own updates.  It's funny how life happens.  Her back has been miraculously healing without much pain or any issues at all.  When Dr. Santora and Dr. D'Astous saw her before we left Shriners last Friday, they both said her progress was incredible, and even thought she would be ready for school in 3 weeks instead of 6 at the rate she was healing up.  She had a lot of pain in the hospital in her right hip and thigh, and after talking with the Dr.'s, we have discovered that that is not common, but can happen when the curve in the back is in the extreme lower lumbar region, as hers was.  Basically, what has happened is the side of her body that has been squished all this time has now been stretched, and her sciatic nerve is not liking it at all, and until it stretches out to the size it needs to be, it is going to be an issue. She is still feeling the most intense pain all the way down her leg, knee, and even foot.  We've tried heat, ice, massage, stretching, medicines, but nothing even takes the edge off of it.  She can only be in a position for 20 minutes or so, before having to adjust because of the pain level.  So she rotates from her wheelchair to the couch, to the other side of the couch, to her bed, with her legs bent to straight and back to bent, then back to the wheelchair to start over...  The pain is making her so discouraged, and every day she hopes that it will lessen, but to this point it has only gotten worse.  We talked with the Dr. today, and if she isn't getting any better in 2 weeks, we have to take her back in to look into a neuro-muscular type of medication to help.  We're hoping to not have to go there, as she has such a reaction to most medications, and these are a pretty major ones that we have to start out slow with and build up and then wean her slowly off when she is done.  We're in the process of looking for therapy ideas that are less severe, so if anyone has any ideas or connections, we'd love to hear...

It's been good to be home.  She has settled in pretty well and has enjoyed the visitors that have stopped by.  She always laughs and smiles for company, so I've decided we just need to keep friends around all day.  Hmmmmm. Maybe all night would be good too...   Christmas was better than we'd hoped, although all day, as we were rotating her from position to position, she just kept saying, "Christmas is interesting this year...."  She wasn't able to enjoy very much of it, but she kept her spirits up and was able to find good in all of it.  Please continue to pray for her.  It makes me sad to see the discouragement that comes with the pain, but I know that she has the inner strength to make it through this.