December 24th

Sofie is becoming more mobile and less weak. She is learning how to crutch but her leg is dead weight because she has no muscle memory in that leg. Its largely a new and thus foreign body part in which she will have to learn from scratch how to use. She cant hold it up in any way so while she is crutching we have to hold her leg out front for her. We can do this at home no problem but outside of home, she needs a wheel chair. Sof was in great spirits today and even went to a 2 hour catholic Christmas mass where we have dear friends. I was a little nervous it might be too much for her. Sometimes her pain meds cause her heart rate to go down and she feels she needs more oxygen. It triggers an anxiety response which we then have to treat with benedryl. Although I had her meds with me at mass, I forgot to bring the benedryl. When anxiety hit she just put her hand out and asked me to hold it while she breathed. Ten minutes later mass was over and she was able to get passed it. We finished the day off with lots of good cheer and are now anticipating the arrival of Santa (yes, I still have one more child who believes!). Merry Christmas everyone and thank-you so so much for your love, support and untold generosity from acquaintances and strangers alike. Your gifts always come when we need them the very most and even the smallest gestures are so very HUGE to us and to Sofie. This is what Christmas means to us and thank-you for catholic mass telling us the story of Jesus and the reason why we celebrate Christmas.
Bonnie