Diego Walking!

Diego is now walking regularly with his walker :) Here is a clip of his recent milestone! His is wearing HKFOs for support.

Healing Time

It has been a couple months since the surgery and Diego is doing just fine! His cast has slowed him down a little but has not stopped him :)

Here is a photo of him at the Ft. Worth Stock Yards.

From Recovery

Another helping Daddy at home

From Recovery

And here just after having his cast removed and replaced with a splint. He insists on wearing the splint 24/7. Even in the bath tub he refuses to take it off. Luckily we have an older splint that doubles for bathtub duty :)

From Recovery

Coming Home

As expected Diego was discharged from the hospital this morning. We could tell he was happy to be leaving.

From Coming Home 9/3/2009

He didn't sleep well thru the night but that was to be expected. It's hard to sleep when attached to monitors. Especially when they throw alarms every 10 minutes. For pain control we were given a prescription of Tylenol w/codeine. Daddy has to administer the drug because it's a big fight every time.

Diego spent most of the day napping and watching cartoons. He ate one good meal at lunch then lost his appetite. We even took him out for pizza and he was not interested. As of this writing he is up watching Madagascar 2 and it's way past his bedtime. Oh well, we are just happy to have him home safe.

From Coming Home 9/3/2009

We want to thank everyone back home for their kind words and support. Also want to thank the wonderful staff at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital. So far you have given our son feet to walk on, a hip to stand on and new hands for work and play. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Never have we met such caring medical personnel.

From Coming Home 9/3/2009

We plan to stay in Dallas into the weekend and return to Austin on Sunday. It will feel good to finally be home.

Surgery Update

The day of surgery we arrived at the hospital at 7am. Our room was assigned to us the day before so all we just had to settle in. Diego was in good spirits.

From Surgery 9/2/2009

At aproximately 9:30 we moved from our room down to the surgery holding area. Several of the OR nurses stopped by to say hi. They remembered him from his last surgery in Feb of this year.

Diego was given an oral sedative shortly before his move into OR. They call it 'goofy juice'. Five minutes later he was visibily goofy :) He smiled a lot and kept kissing mommy and daddy.

At 11am it was turnover time. Mom placed Diego into the nurse's arms and we watched her dissappear into OR. Always a tough moment for us.

We were given a pager and told they would call us half-way thru the procedure for an update. The surgery was scheduled for three hrs. Two hours later they called to let us know he was doing fine. Then shortly after 3pm, we were called down to Recovery. As we approached his bed we could see he was half awake and quietly looking around. He immediately started crying when he saw mom. She worked her mom magic to keep him calm. We stayed in Recovery for about 20 minutes then moved to his room where he slepted for another 2 hrs. When he woke up he was pretty hungry. He had a good meal and didn't get sick which was a good sign.

From Surgery 9/2/2009

If all goes well, he should be out of the hospital tomorrow (Thursday). We'll post and update when we know for sure. Here are a few photos:

Sugery Time..again

On 9/2 Diego will have surgery to his left hand. The procedure is called 'Carpal Wedge Osteotomy' and will be performed by Dr. Ezaki. In the past we have combined surgeries which makes recovery tough but lessens the number of times under general anestesia. This time we could not schedule a Urologist so Diego will have at least one more surgery in the next 6 months. The good news is, this should be his last major surgery in the foreseeable future.

Last night we threw a send off party for Diego at our home in Manor. All the usual suspects showed up along with new friends we met at Peacable Kingdom. Brad, Amanda, their daughter Madison and son Eli. Eli is 5 months old and was born with Distal Arthrogryposis. We were very happy they could join us.

Diego was in good spirits. He bounced around the house on his butt chasing and playing with the other kids. There were plenty of food and drink on hand so the adults were just as happy. Sorry we don't have any photos to post. We totally forgot to take pictures!

Check back later for updates on the surgery.

Here is a recent photo take at Dell Children's Museum in Austin.

From Random Photos

Diego in Italia July 2009

Woohoo! Back to Italy for 3 weeks! Now that's a vacation!

We all had a wonderful time. Including Diego's Grandparents who were so excited to see him. The pictures tell the story.

Diego goes to Washington D.C.

Here are a few pics from our recent trip to Washington D.C. taken on the weekend of 6/20/2009

The big day finally arrives! Out of the Spica!

After months of healing the big deal finally arrived. It was time to remove the spica cast and get our little boy back! Mom and Dad were in high spirits. Diego's mood was subdued. He stayed that way until it was time to remove the cast. It took about 15 minutes to make the necesarry cuts to remove the cast. Once he was out, an amazing thing happened. Diego's mood immediately changed from subdued to elated! With a huge smile on his faced he started kicking his little feet. This went on the whole day. He was also more vocal. It was amazing! He was a totally different child! A much happier little boy! We were all very happy.

Next we visited Orthodics to get Diego's leg braces. Over the past two weeks the orthodics team made braces to fit Diego's new hip. Once fitted Diego was able to support his own weight while standing (holding moms hand). It was hard to believe that after 3 months in a body cast Diego was able to stand so soon!

That evening we spent it holding our baby boy. For months all we ever felt was a hard bulky cast. Now that we could actually feel his little body it was all we wanted to do! Yes, we were very happy to have our baby back :)

2 Months Later..almost

April 16th will mark two months that Diego has been in a spica cast. We'll just say it's been a long two months. Before the cast he was very mobile; easily getting around the house by bouncing on his butt. Now he wants Mom and Dad to carry him everywhere, fetch his toys, hold him while he watches tv, ect. It can be exhausting! As the weeks went by we learned his favorite positions for sleeping, playing and eating. On March 23rd that all changed. That day Diego went in for day surgery for a planned replacement of the spica cast. The new cast didn't provide any more freedom than the first; however, several annoying changes were introduced. For example, the rear cutout for the Diaper is much lower making it harder to change diapers. The new cast is much tighter to his body making it harder to clean. The most significant difference is in the height of the cross bar. The new one is much lower; we can no longer prop him up on his toy car as shown below:

You can see in the photo that we used his walker as a table. This worked out great because it gave him a little play area. We had nothing else to replace this setup so our laps became the next best thing. That gets old quick.

On April 20th the cast gets removed. Woohoo! That week we will live in the hospital while Diego goes through intense physical therapy. As much as we love this hospital and all they have done for Diego; it is not a comfortable place to live. We'll make do as always :)

Check back here to see how things are going!

Recovery at Home

Diego was discharged from the hospital on 2/20 and is now recovering at home. He is completely off pain meds and is adjusting to life in a spica cast. Overall he is doing very well. Much better than we expected. As long as we keep him comfortable and entertained, life is good. That means regularly changing his position and watching a lot of animated movies. The biggest problem is with positioning. He hates being on his stomach and doesn't like riding in his wagon. Rocky, our dog, loved the wagon ride. Most of the time Diego is on his back, side or prop'd up on his toy car. The toy car idea came from Dad. Adding his walker and tray it gives him a surface to eat on and play with toys.

On March 6th we go back to Dallas to see how the hip is healing. We hope for the best. Check back here for results!

Surgery Day 4

We want to apologize for not updating the blog following Diego's surgery. Our time has been consumed with taking care of Diego and trying to work remotely from Dallas. We want everyone to know that his surgery went well and he is doing fine. The procedure took just over 4 hrs. He was on an epidural to manage pain for the first couple days. On Wed it was removed and he was placed on oral pain meds. As of today he is completely off electronic monitors and his IV has been removed. His apetite is slowly increasing but far from normal. If he continues to improve, he could be discharged on Friday morning. If that happens we'll most likely stay in Dallas another day before heading back home to Austin.

We want to thank everyone for keeping Diego in your prayers and for supporting us thru his recovery. Our family is truly blessed to have such good friends.

Weekend of Fun

Diego has been fully admitted and assigned room #309. His surgery isn't until monday morning so we were given the option of staying in the room or taking him out for the weekend. Of course we wanted to take him out and have some fun before the big day.

On Friday evening we met our friend Nicoletta for dinner at Chuys.

On Saturday we went to Slappy's Playhouse located in the Dallas Galleria. Diego enjoyed the show but got bored before it finished so we left early and walked around the mall. A short time later we met with the White Family, Brian and Cara along with their son Caden and his sister Cori. Caden is a few months older than Diego and is also receiving treatment for AMC. Together we had a nice dinner at Mi Cocina. After dinner we went to the top level of the Galleria to a large play area. There were dozens of kids running, jumping and Diego and Caden were right in the thick of it!

On Sunday we got up early and drove to the Ft. Worth Zoo. It was a little cold but the weather warmed up by mid afternoon. Diego enjoyed looking at all the animals. He especially had a lot to say to the flamingos. We also visited the petting zoo where he saw a pig up close and got a chance to pet a chicken. We stayed for 6 hrs to see as much as possible. Afterwards we drove back to Dallas to have dinner at Medieval Times. Unfortunately the show was sold out. Instead, we went back to the condo to relax and prepare for monday morning. Oh by the way, today was Romina's birthday. Happy birthday Mama!

Hospital Admission Day

Many of you know that Diego was supposed to have surgery last October. It ended up getting postponed after he came down with a cold. It was then rescheduled for February 19th. Three weeks before the new date, we were notified his hand doctor had to reschedule to March 20th. Needless to say we were less than pleased. So we made a decision to put off hand surgery to stay on schedule. Doing so actually moved his surgery date up to February 16th. That brings us to Friday the 13th, his check-in date..

Friday the 13th: We were up early to make the drive to Dallas. It's a three hour drive and Diego had to be there by 10am. We hoped to leave by 7am but were running thirty minutes behind schedule. Not a big deal considering we had a big day ahead of us.

The hospital visit started with a trip to x-ray for photos of his left hip. Diego was uncooperative and cried for Mama the whole time. All his squirming resulted in the first set being bad. By this time we had already left the clinic and were called back to redo the x-rays. The second time around was no less dramatic but resulted in good photos. Diego also received a lot of toys. The toys are donated to the hospital for the children.

Next stop was the lab to draw blood. This was a finger prick followed by a lot of squeezing and crying. Then it was back to admissions, then lunch and finally assigned a room, #309. A couple hours later we were visited by Diego's surgeon, Dr. Birch. He explained the procedure, an 'open hip reduction with femoral shortening'. Generally it involves the lengthening of Diego's leg muscles and ligaments along with removing a section of the femur. This will allow the head of his hip bone to move into the pelvis. When he gets out of surgery he will be in a Spica cast. It starts at the chest and goes down the left leg to the ankle and right leg to the knee. He will not be able to situp and will be on his back for 8 weeks. He will need a special car seat and a wagon for transport.

It's going to be a tough 8 weeks for our family. For now we have a weekend of freedom and we plan to make the best of it. We will visit friends, go to the Ft. Worth Zoo and play as much as possible. We have until 6am monday morning to have Diego back in his room. Check back for photos of our fun planned weekend :)

Informazioni sull'intervento

Come sapete Diego e' nato con l'anca sinistra dislocata. Benche' non procuri dolore al momento, gli causa un dislivello in lunghezza rispetto alla gamba destra di circa 3 centimetri causando ulteriori difficolta' nel stare eretto e nel sviluppare sufficienti funzioni motorie. Finalmente e' arrivato il momento di operare l'anca e migliorare la condizione ortopedica della gamba sinistra. L'intervento averra' a Dallas all'Ospedale Scottish Rite per bambini, il 16 Febbraio 2009; sara' eseguito dal primario dottor John Birch specialista rinomato nel trattare rare condizioni ortopediche per bambini un po' meno fortunati come il nostro Diego. Il dottor Birch segue Diego da quando aveva 6 settimane di vita; l'anno scorso ha eseguito il doppio intervento ad entrambi i piedi e grazie a lui oggi Diego puo' indossare i tutori e finalmente dopo circa 12 mesi di duro lavoro e tanta ma tanta terapia fisica sta iniziando a fare i primi passi..da solo!!! Ecco un video che abbiamo fatto 2 sere fa ..come potete vedere Diego sta facendo grandi progressi. Speriamo che dopo questa operazione all'anca e la riabilitazione fisica Diego sia in grado di migliorare la stabilita' dal bacino in giu'. Terremo il sito aggiornato con gli eventi relativi ai preparativi e post intervento. Tornate a visitarci intorno al 13 Febbraio...la data di ammissione in ospedale. Abbracci a tutti da mamma Romina, papa Joseph e Diego!

Gennaio 2009

Buon Anno a tutti gli amici e parenti che seguono il blog del piccolo Diego. Speriamo di gran cuore che il 2008 vi abbia lasciato meravigliosi ricordi e che il 2009 sia iniziato a gonfie vele per tutti.

Come potete vedere dalle foto Diego ha apprezzato i doni natalizi. Grazie! Ultimamente sta facendo terapia fisica 2 volte alla settimana e terapia occupazionale una volta a settimana e il duro lavoro inizia a dare frutti.

Un paio di giorni fa abbiamo finalizzato i piani con il Dottor Birch and Dottor Isaki per Diego doppio intervento in Febbraio. Il piano e' pronto per operare la mano sinistra e per riparare l'anca sinistra che e' dislocata dalla nascita. Scrivero' ulteriori dettagli riguardo ai piani sulle operazioni e vi faro' sapere date e periodo previsto per il ricovero. Per ora vi saluto e spero di vedervi presto di nuovo sul sito per aggiornamenti, progressi e altre foto. Abbracci a tutti!