On the Road Again & Our New Vlog

Three weeks from today Brendan and I will be in Texas again for another week of intensive therapy. I am excited but nervous because recently he had a tendinitis flare up. Last month we started really pushing him on the treadmill. He was amazing us and beating records by the day. He walked 30 minutes straight without one single break. It was incredible. But then his knee started hurting. He had been complaining about it for a few weeks and I kept saying I need to bring you to the doctor and figure out what is going on. He never ever complains about pain. I knew something had to be bothering him. His orthopedic randomly called and said it was time for hip rays so I figured perfect timing, let's go! The doctor told us he has tendinitis and we had to calm down his work outs. It really bummed us out because we were finally pushing him, finally seeing progression and BAM we had to hold back. Cerebral Palsy always wins.

He had a regimen of advil and icing his knee and he said it only hurts a little bit but we haven't been working him out as hard. We haven't had him walk on the treadmill at all but kept him walking at school and to therapy. We had a few amazing days of warm weather and he rode his bike for two days and loved every single second of it. I worked on some leg exercises and basically let him heal. I have to bring him in for x rays and back to the orthopedic in a few weeks.

Then we will be Texas bound AGAIN! We will head to Walk this Way USA for one week of therapy with Mike Poole. I have no idea what to expect this time. I am concerned that his knee will act up. I am worried because he is still crouching and I don't know how to fix it. I have done my research and asked a few people and we all believe it is due to weak quads and gluteal muscles. It has been such a long process and progression is so slow but I still feel SDR surgery was the best decision we could have made. He is a spastic quad so he will most likely never walk on his own and I am okay with that. I am happy where he is and the fact his body won't deteriorate as fast or as badly as it would have without SDR.

We are also visiting Dr. Yngve since we will be in Texas for his SPML post op appointment. We will drive 1 1/2 to Galveston after therapy one day and then we are planning on staying for the evening. We are going to check out a candy shop that Brendan wasn't up for due to surgery last time and go out to eat.

Our family has decided to Vlog. Why? We thought it would be a really fun hobby for our family. We are horrible at recording the kids and this will 'make' us. It will be awesome for them to look back at all the memories created. It will help us bond as a family since 4 of the kids already love YouTube and making their own videos. We are just going to show our real life. Life with 5 kids. Life raising a disabled teenage boy. We just posted our first video and plan on posting weekly. Brendan loves it and is probably the child most into it so far. The girls both act like teenagers already and think their parents are annoying so we will see how it goes. It is called 5 kid Life. Subscribe to our channel to see more.


I will leave this blog with Brendan loving a roller coaster ride in Disney. Did I even write about Disney? I may have to create a new post. Brendan absolutely loves going on rides. It is difficult especially when I have to get him into a tight space all on my own but I will never not take him on because just look at that face: (Rock 'N' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios)