Heal Nick

Continuing the saga, Nicholas was examined by the neuro & abdominal surgeons, who performed the shunt procedure in May, on Thursday and underwent laparoscopic diagnostic exploratory surgery on Friday afternoon, which revealed the shunt catheter out of position. Instead of being “free flowing” the catheter had become attached to the colon by lesions. It is assumed this was the source of the pain/soreness. The shunt catheter was repositioned. Hopefully the problem has been solved. Nicholas will be quite sore from the procedure for the next couple of days, and it will probably take him at least a week to rid his system of any residual anesthesia. We expect he’ll bounce back in a few weeks and return to making positive progress.

Nicholas has had rough couple of weeks dealing with intestinal problems resulting in 3 visits to hospital ER’s & the involvement of the entire medical team (PCP, Neurologist & Neurosurgeon). There is a chance these problems could be related to the drainage area in the abdomen of the shunt catheter. There will be more examinations by doctors this week and, hopefully, the issue will be resolved. Needless to say the therapies have been put on hold but we hope he’ll get back to his normal routine this week. In the meantime it’s top of the 6th & 3 to 2. Go Sox!

It has almost been 1-year since I started working with Nick here at Manchester Athletic Club. We have had our good days and bad days, but it is truly encouraging to see how he has progressed over the past year. Walking on the treadmill, exercising in the pool, walking in the pool with no assistance (I am within reach however) and no floatation device, the strength training - and best of all….everytime now when I ask Nick, “Who am I"?, he responds after a few seconds of thinking, “Rob".

I am enjoying working with Nick and I look forward to watching him continue to progress.

I have a brief account to report. Last evening we, including Nicholas, were having dinner at our house with dear friends. They had not seen Nicholas in two years and were truly amazed at how far he had progressed. It takes moments such as these to put our situation in the right perspective. As we’re with Nicholas almost every day, it’s difficult to realize, unless reminded, just how remarkable his recovery has been to date. Go Nick! Go Sox!

Nichoals had 4 seizures in the last 8 weeks and as a result his anti-seizure medication has been sightluy increased. Unfortunately, this causes him to get tired quite quickly. He will adapt to the increased medicationns ovet he next few weeks. In the mean time he is extremely attentive in his speech therapy sessions, which will lead to very postive results.