Wednesday Thursday Update

wednesday and thursday were GOOD days....no pain!!!

Update 8/23/09

Tommy had a bit of a challenging week. On Monday he saw the neurosurgeon and all seemed quiet. The halo has "plowed" some but the surgeon does not want to reapply it. On Wednesday Tommy started to feel sharp pain on the left side of his head. The halo rep arrived Friday to find all his halo pins were loose particularly the left front pin and right back pin. In anticipation of having the pins tightened Tommy had to take pain medication which makes him very sick. Three of the four pins were tightened but when Ara
( the halo rep.) tried to tighten the left front pin it was just too painful. On Tuesday Tommy will have the pin tightened with sedation. Unfortunately due to the pain meds. he spent most of Saturday vomiting. He is one tough kid. Vomiting while in a halo is not a good combination. The plan continues, as of now, to remain in the halo for 3-4 more weeks. We continue to hope for complete healing during this time spent in the halo. Thank you for all your continued support.

Tommy and his best friend Matt

Last night Matt's mom brought Matt's going away dinner to our house so Tommy could say goodbye to friends. Matt and Ronald leave this morning to drive to Eastern University. Both will be playing lacrosse for Eastern. We wish them a safe drive and a great first year.
Matt has been by Tommy's side EVERY day....he has been a huge support to the entire Mallon family. We will miss him and we love him.

Tommy sees the neurosurgeon today. Please continue to pray for complete and perfect healing in the halo. We continue to hope this time in the halo is enough to heal . We are hoping when the halo is removed the bones will be healed and ligaments have repaired.

Update

We went to the doctor yesterday and it was a very sobering visit for all 3 of us( Pat, me and Tom). Tommy has a very tough situation....a very bad break which is complicated to fix. The doctor would like to see him remain in the halo for 4-6 weeks, take the halo off ct scan and evaluate. BEST CASE the bones are completely healed and he is done in 6 weeks!!!! If not, then hopefully c1 has healed and a fusion of c1-c2 will be the recommended surgery. Post surgery he would be evaluated in 3 months to make sure he is stable and the fusion is working( back into the neck brace after surgery) . If c1 has not healed Tommy will need his skull fused to c123. This is a big surgery but if all else fails he will have no choice. After this surgery he will either be back in a halo or neck brace until he is stable.
Currently, he has one infected halo pin and started antibiotics today. We are hoping this heals otherwise they will need to remove the pin and put a new pin in a different site.
We feel confident in our medical care. We have been told this is a tough situation.
I am just praying Tommy stays well and there are NO complications in the halo....no further settling or moving. Please keep him in your thoughts as his peers head off to school in the next few weeks.
We love you all and we are forever grateful for your love and friendship.

Tommy Discharged

Tommy was discharged the end of the week and is doing well. We will keep you all posted. Thank you once again for all the love and support. Tommy had several visits while in the hospital from Johan Otter. Thank you Johan for your time and encouragement. If you have not heard of Johan you should take the time read his story.....a true testimony to beating the odds.

Happy Blog News!!

Patrick Mallon turns 20 today August 4th...Happy Birthday Patrick!!!!! We love you!!!!!

PRAY FOR TOMMY!!!

Tommy had the halo placed on Sat. morning. He is in a lot of pain and still suffering from nausea. He was placed on a new anti nausea medication on Sat. which caused a severe allergic reaction on Sunday. Tommy went into dystonia , losing muscle control in his body, face, tongue and speech........it was terrifying. The dystonia was reversed by benadryl and obviously the new medication discontinued.
Please pray for Tommy's physical and mental strength. Yesterday was very traumatic. He is in pain and needs our continued love and support. Please pray the pain at the halo pin sites disappears. Please pray there are no more complications and we can get him safely home to heal.