Episode II: The Force Helps Out

With the Jolly man, a couple days before surgery.

Happy Holidays readers.  We had a very Merry Christmas here at the LIAYF household, as you can see from the picture above.  That's despite the fact that Lukas was once again recovering from major surgery.

Even though I'm calling it major surgery, I'm not sure it can officially be called that (who decides that?), but we reached the six month time frame after his original Femur break, it was time for our little guy to get the plate and screws removed his right leg so that it can continue to grow and strenghten properly.  It took over an hour, so to all of us it was major.

The operation happened a couple of days before Christmas back at Seattle's Harborview trauma center with his original surgeon, and although he was able to go home that same day, he has been once again non weight bearing on his leg until today.

He will remain partial weight bearing for now, until he can finally heal enough to once again ditch the walker and wheelchair that he has spent so much time using over the past six months.

As we all know from experience, a big part of the healing process comes from happiness and distraction, which is why all the celebration of Christmas with the gifts and treats and extra love from Mrs. LIAYF, Annabelle, and I being home with him helped out quite a bit.

Another event that helped out came this afternoon, as we arranged to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens at Seattle's very best place to watch a movie, the iconic Cinerama movie theatre.  Mrs. LIAYF and I have watched many a movie at the Cinerama, including pretty much every opening of any hyped new Sci Fi film before Lukas was born and Annabelle joined our family.  But this was the very first trip there with Lukas.  And it was amazing.

We thought Star Wars certainly warranted loading up his wheelchair and arranging a time to view it.

That last part, came about because of some diligent legwork from Mrs. LIAYF, and also the generosity of the Cinerama and it's staff - who are 2nd to none.  The movie was actually sold out well into January, but after an email looking for ADA seats the Cinerama let us know we could attend today's show, and out of amazing generosity didn't charge us for any of the tickets!

We were blown away.  Not only by the Cinerama, but also by The Force Awakens. This was truly an amazing movie that held incredibly true to the original films, kept the action, adventure and effects coming non stop for the duration and left no one in the whole venue disappointed.  Don't worry, I'm not going to include any spoilers here.

And we have also counseled Lukas about spoilers once he retruns to school, as we are sure some of his classmates will not have seen the film.

Luke has been found...to have liked Ep 7.

In the end Lukas LOVED the movie, as did Mrs. LIAYF and I. We were all very grateful to the manager of the Cinerama, who had helped make our afternoon so fun.

As I mentioned, Lukas' leg is healing.  It will be at least another 6 weeks before he can even participate in PE or Recess at school.  But, importantly, he IS healing and strengthening both his leg as well as his resolve.

At this rate, he will be stronger than ever in no time.

And ready for another epic light saber battle with his dear old dad.