It’s been a couple of months since I wrote a regular monthly post, but it feels like it has been a lot longer than that. I think things are back to normal…if there is such a thing. As long as James doesn’t throw us another curveball and remains healthy, I should be able to get back to a regular monthly posting schedule. He has this knack for keeping us on our toes, so I can’t guarantee anything.
There really hasn’t been much going on lately, so this should be a relatively short post. A lot shorter than each of the “A Long Six Weeks” posts I did. If you haven’t read those, here are the links to them:
A Long Six Weeks, Part 1: Pneumonia
A Long Six Weeks, Part 2: Adjacent Tissue Transfer
A Long Six Weeks, Part 3: An Expensive Uber Ride
Before I talk about what’s happened in James’ life over the past month or so, I want to say thank you to a couple of his fans, Mary and Jeff, who sent him a get-well card and some stickers when he was in the hospital with pneumonia in early July. That was very thoughtful of you.
I’ve been contemplating getting a PO box at the post office for James so people can send him stuff there instead of our house. I’m a little uneasy about giving out our address, but I think it would be cool if people could send James stuff, like shirts or postcards from trips they have taken; or get well, birthday, and Christmas cards; or little gifts if they want. Prices range from about $200 a year to over $600 a year depending on the size of the PO box so I’m not sure. Still thinking about it, but I think I’d rather put that money in his medical expense fund.
Health Update
As I mentioned earlier, James has been remaining healthy since his last hospital stay in early August. We’re all thankful for that, Maggie included. She seems to be a herding dog and must always have her eyes on her herd, which is us. When James and Stacy were in the hospital for several days, she seemed a bit lost, like she didn’t know what to do without her herd.
Stacy and James had a virtual appointment with the infectious disease doctor who saw him during his last hospital stay. If you didn’t read that post, there was a concern that there was an infection in or around his tailbone. James had to have some blood drawn a week prior to the virtual appointment and the doc said that the bloodwork looked good, and she doesn’t think there is a bone infection.
James turned 12 on August 29th, which means that he in now old enough get the Covid vaccine. He didn’t waste any time and got the first dose on the 30th.
Instead of taking James to the doctor who repaired his tailbone wound for a follow up appointment, they just had a phone call. When the appointment was made, the doc wasn’t sure how the healing process was going to go and didn’t want James to be sitting in his wheelchair to travel to the appointment and risk the healing process. Stacy had emailed him some pics before their phone call, and after looking at the pictures and talking with Stacy, he was cleared to go back to school on September 2nd.
Back to School
James missed the first couple weeks of school to give his tailbone some extra time to heal after surgery. Once we got the surgeon’s approval to be in his wheelchair for extended periods of time, he was off to take junior high by storm. It’s weird. Stacy and I were in junior high for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Here, junior high is just 7th and 8th grades. I don’t know why.
I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to enter a plug for Stacy’s Thirty-One business. They have a new item, reusable snack bags, that she is using for James’ rescue meds. They come in different sizes. She used the small one in his wheelchair, so it is with him at all times. The medium sized bag has a couple of doses that she will keep in her backpack/purse. The school nurse will also have two doses to keep in the locked box in her office. The bags are plastic and easy to wash (by hand) if they get dirty, and they’re also see-through so you can easily see what’s in them.
Update on the Viral Post from 2019
Two years ago, on September 6th, 2019, Stacy posted what she thought was going to be just a simple message:
That simple post quickly went viral. In just four days it had reached 1 million people. A month later, 9 million people reached. As of August 27th of this year, it has reached almost 18 million people. That’s just crazy!
