31st August 2011

Hiya
I’ve described many times that Steven is walking. I’ve also tried to explain that the “walking” is very primitive, slow, unsteady, and is painful. Steven is gradually getting stronger, more confident, and has a good centre of balance, and now he is being taught how to walk. Remember Steven suffered severe brain injury involving the breaking of several neurons in the inaccessible centre of the brain. These neurons or nerve pathways have had to be re-routed to make the body function correctly in all manner of ways. I should think most of us have “taught” a child to walk, but if you think about it, how do you do it? Generally speaking when a child is at an appropriate age, say 15 months, parents will hold the baby’s hands high, in effect stretching the child’s legs and encouraging the child to move forward. The child moves his/her legs and lo and behold he/she is walking. However, do we actually teach the child to walk? Or does it come natural through the encouragement received? We’ve all gone through this process, and walking comes naturally. Steven has walked, he knows how to walk, but he’s forgotten, and he feels that his body doesn’t belong to him. Consider the movements necessary to walk. All parts of the body are in motion with their own particular job, the toes, instep, ankle, knee, hip, pelvis, shoulders, arms, all have a job to do, and many of these parts were damaged, as well as losing some direct connection to the brain. Steven has to physically think of all this, and “tell” his body what to do, to enable him to walk. The faster he walks, the less time he has to think about what he’s doing. He is doing this through the pain, and with time and an increase in speed, we’re confident his walking will be almost normal. Steven cannot use any sort of walking stick due to the calcification of the left elbow, and because he cannot straighten or bend it fully.
On Tuesday 30th August we had a meeting with a surgeon, and he confirmed that Steven does need a hip operation. He explained that Steven’s left leg was pushed up 1” into his pelvis, breaking the pelvis, and locking the leg into it’s new position. This is the cause of his pain. Hopefully the operation will take place in 2 to 3 weeks time. At the same time they will operate on his left elbow to remove the calcification. The doctor further explained the problem with Steven’s left foot. Although the new foot supports are doing their job in improving the motion of the foot, the instep tendon is stronger than the outstep tendon. If the foot doesn’t improve, and it may once he’s walking better with his new hip, the doctor will consider swapping the tendons. We all felt relieved with the news, and Steven had a good nights sleep.
Best regards Terry