Almost to one hundred

     I'm going to have to make this quick because Amaya keeps moaning and crying in her sleep. Last night she moaned quite a bit, but only needed one dose of pain meds. She woke up with little pain but complained of hip pain throughout the day. We did her hip stretches and then Melissa did some at therapy, then we did more before bed. Hopefully we'll see some relief soon. It's so weird how you can be in pain, then pain free then back in pain. Each day is so different, very unpredictable, that's why it's hard to make plans. Melissa is going to do more stretches tomorrow before our trip (we're going to drive to Arizona to visit family, its about a five hour trip). Melissa said that's a long time for her hip to be in one position so we'll have to get out and let her stretch and walk around a few times. This will be our longest trip with the fixator so I hope we do okay. As I packed today I realized how many fixator related things I needed to bring (gauze, tape, bar, scissors, towel, soap, etc.). Packing with a fixator is a little tricky and requires some extra thought, I'd hate to forget something. We're planning to swim at Aunt Patty's house so we had Amaya try on her bathing suit today. I was so relieved that we were able to stretch it over her fixator (its so much easier without the turning rod). I'm glad I don't have to modify it like I had to do her underwear. Although it did take a few minutes to put it on and off, and we had to be careful not to bump her pins.

    At therapy she did great today! I was a bit nervous because she was in pain, but challenged her to do her best regardless of the pain. And she did. At first she said that 90 would be her goal for today, but I told her that going backwards isn't a goal. I suggested 95, but if she got 94 that would still be one more than yesterday. She said, "I'll make 100 my goal so I could get my highest number of the week!" Her starting measurement was 55. She did four sets of fifteen pulls/bends and was able to get to 98! She was amazing! She was in more pain that she has been all week, but her determination helped her get so high. That was a five degree jump since yesterday! She's hoping to get to 100 tomorrow. After the stretches Amaya's knee was at 69 degrees on its own and her pain level was only a three. That's pretty impressive.  

Amaya being silly on the couch yesterday.   

Amaya rode the bike today thru the kids gym, down the hall, around the corner, around another corner then thru the adults gym. She rode a long distance and started to get tired toward the end. I could tell a huge improvement in her pedaling. 

Then Amaya did some knee bends on this machine (I still have no clue what its called). 

Dad and Lidie watched and cheered her on. Josh looks so proud of her. She worked hard, and even when it got tough she kept on going.

Here you can see by Amaya's face how tough and painful it was getting. Her hip pain was hurting her as much as her knee was. She did quite a few of these today, over ten.

After the machine Amaya walked over to the balance beams and walked over cones. Lidie got to pick a number between one and ten, she picked ten. That was how many cones Amaya had to walk over. Lidie was a junior therapist and helped set up the cones.

Here she is towards the end. You can tell she's tired and she loses her balance a couple times. After that Melissa had her step over them sideways, but I took Lidie potty and didn't get any footage of that.

Here's Lidie doing it. It's funny because he did it just like Melissa had Amaya do it (stepping over with the left foot only). She really pays attention to what's going on. It's amazing how quickly Lidie does it, in comparison to Amaya, that just gives you some perspective as to how hard Amaya has to work to step over the cones.

Before we did our bends Melissa stretched Amaya's hip out so that it wouldn't bother her so much when we did the bends. 

It was a big stretch and Amaya was in pain, but Melissa reminded her that a little pain now was better than a lot during stretches. In Amaya's inner left thigh there's a bulge, for lack of a better word, that almost looks like your Achilles tendon. I asked Melissa if it was a tendon but she let me know that no it wasn't. It's Amaya's muscles that are so tight. She said that its a group of muscles (I forgot the term she used for it) that are so tight and that's why they look so big. I had been wondering what that was for weeks now.

This may be too gross for some of you, so I apologize. But I just wanted to show you what a typical scab looks like when it comes off from one of her pins. This one came off during her shower (that's when most do). She has one that size on pretty much all her pins if not bigger, except the ones below the knee. And yes it is painful when they come off.