Almost there!

To begin with, Torsten is doing amazingly well. We're not sure if it's just natural, but fast development or if it could be somehow related to his cord release surgery, but he has very quickly become much more flexible, is suddenly able to sit on his own without crying or falling within a couple of seconds and has started filling his diaper more easily and very regularly (less purple face and crying...). On the flexibility, Torsten could barely reach his toes until a couple of weeks ago - today he put them in his mouth for the first time. Also, before surgery, we had been working with him on sitting on his own for months. He could stay up for a few seconds before falling, crying or throwing up. He can now sit up completely by himself.

There are only a few lingering things that haven't quite gotten back to normal. We're still having a little trouble with pain. We tried to switch Torsten to ibuprofen at night a couple of weeks ago, but he screamed and cried for over two hours before finally going to sleep, so we put him back on the hydrocodone. Unfortunately, we ran out of hydrocondone a few nights ago and have been giving him ibuprofen since with the same reaction - screaming, crying and very little sleeping. I'm trying to give it a little longer before consulting with the neurosurgeon. Other than pain, we still can't give Torsten a regular or sponge bath because it hurts him and seems to badly irritate the incision (we thoroughly wipe him down with wet cloths each night), plus, we still have him in disposable diapers with the back folded way down, since the incision is still scabbed/peeling off/raw again. Even with these minor issues, we are so thrilled with the progress that Torsten has made and with the immediate improvements we've seen in him.

We met with the neurosurgeon a little over a week ago for Torsten's follow-up appointment and she too was thrilled with his progress. She thought that he looked great, that the incision was looking fine and that she wouldn't need to see us again, unless there were issues, for a year. She did recommend that we keep him on painkillers at night for a while and believes that, even though he's a tough little guy, he's still having pain. Considering our recent experience with the switch to ibuprofen, I think she's probably right.

So since everything is getting back to normal and the few remaining issues are very manageable, Torsten and I will be flying to Illinois this weekend. Ryan will be in Costa Rica for work, so we decided to head north for a week before I do a 10K in the Illinois Marathon on April 27th with my childhood friends Matt and Tim Hutti. I hope I can keep up with them!

We're so grateful for all of our friends and family and the support we've had over the past few months. We know how fortunate we are and are just so thrilled at how well Torsten is doing. We knew he was strong, but he still amazes us everyday. We're so close to putting this all behind us and are more than ready!