Yellowstone

We spent the last week in Jackson Hole and Yellowstone for some unplanned, but much needed time away. My grandfather passed away and his funeral was in Montana, so we decided to  add a few days to our trip and take the scenic route. The park was pretty crowded (as you'd expect in July), but we still enjoyed ourselves and got to see a lot of sites.

A few weeks before we left,  Jake had another round of botox, a higher dose than he's had in the past. His PT and Rehab Dr. are trying to see if it will be more effective and last longer than the dose he's been getting. The tone in his foot is still causing problems with his walking since he can't get his foot flat. They've started having conversations about possible surgery to cut the tendons and release the tightness, but want to get a little more aggressive with the botox first since it's less invasive.

It seems to be working. He was doing so well before we left  for Yellowstone, his PT told him to walk as much as he can without his brace. He was a little nervous at first because he is so used to having the brace for support, but he's doing really well. It's such a good way for him to strengthen his left leg and increase the range of motion in his ankle. We stopped by the grocery store on the way out of town and I shot a couple of  short video's of him walking. http://youtu.be/d7wlVm3YdFE Seeing him walk this well in a public setting without a brace literally brought a huge smile to my face and tears to my eyes. Due to the sheer volume of walking we did on vacation, he wore his brace most of the time during the day. But even then, I was amazed at his stamina. We took a couple of different hikes that had pretty good inclines along a rugged trail, he did amazing. There is no way we would have attempted something like that a year ago. Óur plan for now it to have him wear his brace to school, but try and go without it at home and on the weekends if we don't have too much planned. Excited to see how is walking continues to improve without the brace.