There was a familiar face standing at our door.  Dr. Killian, who has guided us, counseled us and been a phenomenal pediatric orthopedic surgeon for Cole had finished the surgery and stood ready to give us the report.  All in all, the surgery was fairly quick and successful.  In one hand, he held and x-ray and in the other a baggie with Cole’s hardware.

As he proceeded to share with us the medical details of the procedure, our hearts breathed a sigh of relief just in hearing the words, “Cole did great and he’s waking up in recovery. He’ll be back in here in about 45 minutes.”

But the big takeaway from the surgery is that the healing of the hip is continuing while the disease enters the final stage.  There is about 20% of his femoral head that hasn’t fully grown back yet.  That hip as it has grown back is nearly double the size of his healthy hip.  There isn’t really an explanation or solution… just something to watch as he continues to grow.  But the size may cause problems in the future and lead to an hip replacement at a later age.  There was still some inflammation in the hip surrounding some of his tendons.  But praise God, everything was successful and Cole’s prognosis is good.

After a while, the next sight we saw was a hospital bed with an alert Cole, complete with popsicle in hand heading our way.  We were overjoyed to see him and to see him doing well.  As he transitioned into the room, his vitals looked good and we were given the go ahead for discharge.  But that is when a wave of pain set in and we decided to stick around a bit to let him rest and get another dosage of pain medicine in.

So for the foreseeable future we’ve got stitches (for about 2 weeks) and stillness (for about 4 weeks).  Honestly, he isn’t excited about either.  But since he has a void in his bones where the screws were, he is at a high risk for the bone breaking with any impact or fall.  He’s fitted with a leg immobilizer, walker and wheelchair.  So stillness here we come.

Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.”  It’s a prayer I pray over my own life as slowing down and finding rest in God is often hard for me to do.  And while this verse speaks of a spiritual stillness, my prayer for Cole is that in this period of ‘forced’ physical stillness, He will find a God who is with him, loving him, healing him and sitting with him over the next month.

Thank you for your prayers today.  The calls, texts, FB messages and simply following us on this journey mean the world to Brooke and I and also to Cole.