How are we doing?

I have had several people ask how we are doing so I thought I would respond.

Tom is doing much better --- physically. He is in alot less pain. He does get throbbing at night so he seems to end up being 'up' at night more and sleeping / napping more through the day.

I think the hardest thing for us is that we now have Dad camping out in the living room and while we love having him around --- it makes it harder to do school at times. He will turn the TV on because he is bored and pretty soon I have 3 kids and a Dad all watching TV. Not really conducive to getting school work done. So that has been an adjustment. He often times will listen to Netflix -- and will use his computer and headphones. That is wonderful as it is less distracting to the children.

At times it seems easier - I can run errands and trust that he will 'get after the kids' to stay on task. He has been very helpful at grading home work and working with the kids on their school work. That has been wonderful and extremely helpful. He has also gotten to SEE what I deal with every day -- how difficult our 6 year old can be at times with listening and following through and why by the end of the day I am crabby after dealing with him all day! Having Dad to discipline and really realize what I have to deal with has been extremely eye opening for him and helpful for me. (As I am typing this our 6 year old is now in the midst of throwing a huge temper tantrum. All because we asked for math to be done. Welcome to my world!)

It has been hard trying to get the kids to their things --- when I am the only driver.

We have noticed that the youngest is rather upset at times --- and we think it is just so much for him to process. He was really worried about Dad having surgery and actually thought Dad's whole foot was going to be cut off. So we are noticing some behavior issues with not listening, being rather destructive and rambunctious at times. We are working through that.

Tom has been in much better spirits than when he first came home. He was really depressed about the length of time and how painful it was. As he has healed and the pain has diminished - his spirits have been more up. Still, he has moments of really grumpy -- and feeling stir crazy. It has to be hard for him too - when the kids and I are too much - he can't just decide to go for a ride - or run an errand or go for a walk to get away from it all. He has to just sit and take it. (YUK!) That is hard on him and therefore hard on us at times.

We still feel so thankful that this wasn't cancer and that it was caught in time. We just ran into someone else that had a tumor in her shoulder and ended up with a prosthetic. Yet, due to catching it just in the nick of time and the skill of the surgeon - Tom's heel bone has been saved. I am not sure how they would have rebuild that and if he would ever have walked normal again. As it is this is expected to heal up and be just fine. (God certainly made our bodies with amazing ability to heal itself!) It will just take time.

People have asked if this was the result of an injury - nope - the doctor said that people that grow these - just grow them. We should be aware that Tom is one that grows tumors in his bones as what tends to be seen is that in about 10 years he will find one somewhere else in his body. People that grow these just grow them. Not much that can be done to stop it or prevent it. It just is. (That is not happy news for Tom - but it is just the way his body is and not much we can do about it.)