Jackinator

The Hip is Healed!

Hello Jackinator fans!  As I had hoped, I did not have any Perthes related info to post over the summer; Jack spent the last 6 months being a 'normal' kid.  A follow-up xray earlier this month showed that the ball of the hip has grown back and is contained in the socket, and the thigh bone is all filled in, where the plate & screws were.  The doctor said in a perfect world, it would be a more snug fit between ball & socket, but Jack has no pain and hardly limps at all.  And at this time, his leg length discrepancy is not an issue, so he's good to go!  He needs to stay active and can pretty much do what he wants, barring major contact sports.  Running is a great activity because it keeps the hip rotating and since Jack has a slight build, he's not putting undue strain on his hip.

Over the summer, Jack kept up his running and ran another 5K in September, again way faster than me, who has 2 normal hips.  He is able to ride a bike well now, and regularly bikes around the neighborhood with friends.  And after a 3 year wait, he finally got to play flag football, which he loved!  He was a receiver and scored several touchdowns, had some interceptions, one for a touchdown, and his team ended up winning the Super Bowl in their age group. 

Thanks to everyone for all of your support over the past 3 years; you certainly made a difficult situation much easier to get through.  We are all different because of this, but hopefully in a good way.

Here are some pictures from the summer and fall:

Climbing on the rocks in Jamestown with no (well, hardly any) worries.

 

Jack as King Richard in the summer play, Robin Hood.  He is still showing an interest in acting and is currently auditioning for his school play, Aladdin. 

 

Touring Gettysburg in 104 degree weather.

 

At the beach (with no crutches!!)

 

Jack can finally take the bus again!

 

Jack came home with about 140 pieces of candy; his hip didn't slow him down this year!

 

Socks and Stomping

We met my college friend Amy and her 3 little ones, Hal, Julia & Robert at Patriot Place today.  But don't worry, Jack made sure to stomp on the Patriot's logo and he even pulled his favorite Steelers shirt out of the hamper to wear today.  After he OK'd the shirt with me, he then informed me that he occasionally does the same thing with his favorite socks.  Hmmmm...and here I thought his feet were starting to smell more because of his increased activity level.  Well, he certainly has increased his activity level - Jack can now walk/jog for 2 miles without really getting tired, and he just biked 5 miles the other day!  This time last year, he was stuck in a body cast, so he's definitely come a long way...

Mr. & Mrs. Mayor

Here's a small video clip of Mr. & Mrs. Mayor, their daughter Jo-Jo and the Whos of Whoville, courtesy of our local on-line newsgroup, NK Patch.  Amanda & her friends thought it was cute that Jack was the smallest member of his 'family'...

    

 After the show:

    

Sub-Zero Running

Jack & I started training for the Forest Park 5K this first week of 'spring' amid sub-zero temps.  OK, it wasn't really that cold, but on our first training day, it was miserably sleeting out; the kids were 'forced' to run inside the school, around the halls.  On our second training day, we got to run outside amid snow flurries, which luckily only amounted to about an inch.  For our 'homework' this weekend, we needed to run/walk for 15 minutes straight, so I took Jack & Matthew to a local park this morning.  We did a warm-up lap, stretched and then walked, jogged & skipped (their idea) for our 15 minutes.  It was a balmy 36 degrees.  They did great, though!  I also felt much lighter on my feet.  This is the first time I've run on land in probably 20 years.  Earlier this week, I was so clunky and was thinking 3 miles may as well be 300!  But I was much encouraged today, and it also looks like Jack & Matt will be compatible runners. 

Oh, and here's something Pop-Pop Tony will find especially amusing:  At the park where we ran, there are some unusual trees that I was using as landmarks.  I would say, 'OK, now we're going to run to that creepy tree.'  Well, Jack & Matt named one of the creepy tress 'spider tree' and every time we came near that tree, they would start singing the Spider Pig song from the Simpsons Movie!

 

 

Low Key Vacation Week

It was a low key week for Jack.  He had a friend over every day to play video games and he also played a lot of hide & seek.  I noticed, though, toward the end of the play date, he would start to get rambunctious, but for the most part, he kept himself toned down.  Next weekend, he's allowed to swim again, so that'll be good to give him something active to do.  Here's a recurring conversation from this past week:

Mom....Jack, stop jumping.
Jack.....I'm not jumping.
Mom....Yes, you are; I saw you.
Jack.....But it's not much jumping.

So, he still bears constant watching.  This weekend, he's been keeping the score sheet during Amanda's basketball tournament.  This is something he loves doing, AND he doesn't mind sitting at the score table for hours on end!  One of the team's little brothers, who Jack played with during the entire middle school season, is quite dismayed by Jack doing this rather than playing with him.  He said yesterday, 'Jack, I don't see how you call this fun.' 

We'd also like to wish PoP-PoP, and our little friend Robert, a very Happy Birthday!!

Surgical & Super Bowl News

Jack goes in for surgery tomorrow to remove the plate from his hip.  We need to be at the hospital at 11 am and I figure they'll probably start around 12:30 or 1 pm.  The procedure will take about 2 hours, followed by an hour in the recovery room.  If all goes well, he'll be able to come home after that.  I'll be posting updates throughout the afternoon tomorrow, so check in often.

Jack enjoyed the weekend, stocking up on DS & PS2 games for his recovery period, and going duckpin bowling with Dad.  We had him annointed after mass, too.  It makes me sad that he's only 10 years old and has already been annointed twice.  But hopefully he won't need annointing now for another 90 years.

Despite the score, it was still kind of festive around here for the Super Bowl.  We had Jake over to watch the game because his parents seized the chance to go to Dallas, lucky them!

 

Go Packers

We are, of course, rooting for the Steelers today but now we are also rooting heavily for the Packers.  This is Pop-Pop Tony's favorite team and he just had a heart-attack yesterday.  He's in stable condition but is having triple bypass surgery on Tuesday.  He normally gets pretty worked up during football games, so we need the Packers to win handily today.  A Steelers - Packers Super Bowl sounds like a great game!

Snow Central

Yet another day off from school due to Snow.  The one good thing about this is that Jack should be pretty sick of snow by the time his surgery date rolls around.  Because after that, no more going out in this weather.  He'll have to be laying low to let his leg heal. 
 
Jack had Isaac over today and spent the afternoon playing outside & mildly torturing Amanda and her 2 friends.  The price for major torture was shoveling the driveway, so that forced them to keep it under control!

P.S.  We'd like to wish Uncle Tommy, our little friend Hal, and cousin Molly, all avid followers of Jackinator, a Happy Birthday!

Jack's day today, by amanda

Jack woke up early, and was loud, which did not go unnoticed by aMaNda who was trying to sleep. Then he played video games/watched TV, got dressed and went to rec basketball which he did well in. thennnnnnn he came home and ate lunch, played more video games/watched TV, went out and got new sneakers and then called Jordan and played kickball in the yard. yeppp.  and he refused to put a coat on even though it was 42 degrees, but Mom and Dad made him.

 
oh and jack just started trying to do handstands.  he can stay up for a few seconds and his longest (unconfirmed) is 8 seconds. 

posted by:

aMaNdA     =D

Happy Halloween!

Jack had a great Halloween - he was a bloody zombie and was clever to incorporate his limp into his costume!  And boy did that blood look real - it was quite gross to apply.  He made it 3/4 of the way around the neighborhood before he got tired.  He went trick-or-treating with his friends Matthew and Jordan, and Isaac met up with us, too.   Amanda was a crazy ghost and spent a lot of time mapping her route for maximum candy retrieval.  She managed to go through 2 complete neighborhoods and says she thinks she pulled a hamstring.  So, she can run a very hard 2 mile race for the State championship one day (she finished 25th out of 200+ varsity runners from around the state!!) but gets 'injured' the next day while trick-or-treating.  Hmmmm, it seems Halloween candy is dangerous; I may need to confiscate it :)