Cast #2

For those of you who don't know... Carl has religiously done every single exercise that his physio has assigned him every night without fail for the past 8 months. For those of you who have ever seen a physio... you know this is basically a full time job.  Last week Carl went for another MRI in Nairobi because he felt his progress was too slow.  And the news wasn't great.  

My eternally optimistic husband reflected on his way to Nairobi trying to isolate the worse possible news he could receive.  He decided that hearing that this was as good as his leg was going to get was the worst news.  Kudos to him for putting life into perspective.  So the rest of the story is good news in comparison.

The MRI showed that only the side tendon attachments have held.  The middle tendons have detached.  The reasons are unclear, all the doctors Carl have talked to seem to agree that sometimes it 'just happens'.  The doctor estimates he is operating at about 30% right now.  In my opinion that is devastatingly heartbreaking for 8 months of physio, a surgery, and 6 weeks in a cast.  But we are going to view all this through Carl's eyes.  So the bad news is that it won't get any better on its own.  The good news is that they can operate again in hopes of a better outcome.

For Carl the glass is half full and he left for Nairobi this morning to fill it all the way up.  He will be in surgery Tuesday afternoon.  He will come home Thursday evening and be in a full length cast for another 6 weeks.  I don't know where he finds the strength, but he spirits are good and he is excited to 'get this show on the road'.

So in the meantime... we continue to pass the time.  At night Saidi says the hedgehogs come to eat out of Laika's bowl.  Kaia has been excited for a while to get up in the middle of the night and see them.  We haven't done that.  But a few nights ago a hedgehog baby was trying to drink water from the chicken coop trough.  It is a pretty deep bucket and the poor little guy fell in!!!  Salim found him in the morning treading water to stay alive!!!  So he rescued him but the baby was SO exhausted he just sat trying to catch his breath for over an hour.

 The kids watched him the entire time!!

 Once he was breathing better we moved him out of the coop and out of the way of the chickens.  He still wasn't moving much.

 The we decided it would be best for him to be in the sun to keep warm.  Boy did Kaia's maternal instincts kick in!!  See... now she had the very  important job of keeping him safe from SASSY!!

 And this is what happens less than 2 seconds after we all agree... NO TOUCHING!!  Hedgehogs aren't puppies and aren't meant to be pet.  

He hung around the yard for most of the afternoon and finally disappeared mid-afternoon, presumably to find his mom and live happily ever after.