It's now been three weeks since Jake got his cast removed. He's still got some swelling but his foot has finally stopped hurting as much and he's walking on it more and more. He started PT a few weeks ago, but it's been pretty gentle and more stretching in nature due to his foot pain. This week starts the twice a week sessions which he'll continue for several months. It's pretty cool to see how much flatter and straighter his foot/leg already is when he walks, even before the intensive therapy has started.
Despite being in the early phases of healing from surgery, he got the opportunity to attend a discover scuba class at Denver Divers last weekend through Adaptive Adventures. Since his brace is plastic, it can easily go in the water, so there was really no reason not to go. We were so impressed with the instructor, he had a very calm, soothing manner that Jake responded really well to. He told Jake they would go at his pace and if he didn't want to leave the the underwater ledge on this first outing that was totally fine. It
didn't end up being an issue. Within an hour, Jake was swimming back and forth along the bottom of the pool and we had a hard time getting him out of the water. He really enjoyed it and we're looking into what would be involved in getting him certified. Due to the weakness on his left side, he would not have a typical independent certification but would instead be evaluated for how much support he would need in an open water dive, most likely an instructor and a buddy (which Todd wants to get certified for). We're really excited to have another possible sport that we could all do as a family. I see a whole new area of gift ideas for upcoming birthday and Christmas. :-)
