Not Much Happening Lately

I realized I have not posted anything to my blog in a few weeks. There has not been much happening with our family. Ben continues to have increasing pain in his legs and hips, so he's on more Tylenol for now. The surgery to correct the problem with his hips is still scheduled for March 3 only now it will be at 11:30 am not 7:30 am. He will have the MRI of his back and his hips on February 26th, this will take several hours as they also want to do a complete bone scan. They are looking for any other problems in the hips and for a stress fracture to the back that the hip problem may have caused. If they find a stress fracture in the back then we will be seeing Neurosurgeon to determine what they will have to do to fix this.

My job hunt is temporarily on hold so that I can care for Ben. David is still looking but still nothing good to report. James is also looking for a job until this summer when he will be taking a few classes at Aurora Community College and then back to full-time in the fall. We visited with Elizabeth last week and she is doing very well. She is talking to us again but on her own terms. She has a cell phone but will not give us the number for now. We either leave a message at school for her to call us or one with Derek's Dad. We only call when there is something really important like her brother's surgery. She seems happy and our conversations are much more calm, I really like this, although I really miss talking to her everyday or seeing her.

Mom is doing well, she will be having another MRI this week to check the status of the Chiari malformation, then she will see the Neurosurgeon again for an update on what they must do. We continue to pray that surgery will not be necessary. Dad is still waiting on the doctors to determine when he must have surgery on his knee, he has had problems for years, but nothing serious. The rest of the family, Michelle and her kids, Jenni and family, and Tanya & Emma seem to be doing well also. We don't see them much but more than we ever did while living in Trinidad.

God Bless Everyone and drop us a line sometime at zehrfamily@msn.com.

Ben is having surgery

Ben will be having surgery to correct a problem with his hips. He has Femoral Acetbular Impingement (FAI) also know as Athlete's Hip. This is a condition of too much friction in the hip joint, basically the ball and socket rub abnormally creating damage to the hip joint. There are three types of conditions with FAI, he has the cam form which is articular cartilage which forms on the surface of the femur creating a buldge. This buldge is interfering with the normal movement of his hips and causing pain.

The doctors will have to go in much like doing hip replacement surgery, that is they will have to go in, remove the bone from the socket, check the socket for damage, shave off the extra cartilage and then put everything back together. It will take 2-3 hours for the entire process, he will be on crutches for 6-8 weeks, but should be back to top form in time to play soccer in the fall.

They will be doing the right hip first then about 8 weeks later they will do the left one. They can't do both at once due to not being able to walk with any weight on the one leg for 6-8 weeks. Ben is looking forward to getting rid of the pain from the hips but not the pain or recovery from the surgery. He will be home for about 2-3 weeks then we will send him back to school in a wheelchair as it is too dangerous to attend high school on crutches with not much weight bearing on the one leg.

Surgery is scheduled for March 3 at 7:30 am at The Children's Hospital in Aurora. He will be in the hospital about a week. Since we have been through most of the surgery procedures and recovery with David, we should have an easy time helping Ben with his.

Please keep all of us but especially Ben in your thoughts and prayers. God Bless Everyone!

Aunt Fran

My Aunt Fran is in the end stages of Emphysema. We just returned from her home in Jefferson, Texas. Mom, Dad, Michelle, Chelsea, Chance, Ben, James and I went to say our goodbyes. When we started out for Texas last week, none of thought she would even last until we got there. She sure surprised everyone, she woke up one day and said "I want to go home." From that point on things went into full swing to get hospice arranged, a hospital bed at home and to get her out of the hospital after almost two weeks. She came home on Friday, stayed in the bed all weekend, but today Mom says she was sitting up in a chair. Isn't God amazing, he truly listens and answers prayer. Mom says she and Dad will be leaving for home on Friday this week, they feel that they are no longer needed at this time. They had stayed since Aunt Fran is Dad's sister and he wanted to have the extra time alone with her, but there are so many others around to help. This feisty lady may surprise us all again and live for many more weeks, months or years, only God knows for sure. Until the time comes, we will be praying for God's will in whatever may come.

Goodnight all and God Bless.