[pmdc5286]

We are back from our cruise! We had a wonderful time for the most part! It was hard getting off the ship Sunday morning for the 9 hour ride home!

The good: The waters of the Caribbean really are as blue as they show on TV! The kids had a good time and Jonah and I got to enjoy some quality adult time together when the kids were in there groups. Sean became more out-going than normal and by Tuesday, we saw him for breakfast, maybe lunch, for our shore activity and at curfew. We made some nice new friends, and had a wonderful time. We are ready to cruise again, but I think our next vacation will be to Michigan to see Jonah's parents. Next cruise will probably be with Disney again for Sean's senior year. Royal Caribbean was nice, but Disney beats them.

The bad: We had to make a detour to the Children's Hospital at the Medical College of GA on Thursday before we left to see a Pediatric Orthopedic Spinal Specialist about Sean's back. We had to be there bright and early Thursday morning (7:30 for an 8:00 appt) and the hospital is 100 miles away so we decided to leave on Wed night and keep Robert and Dani out of school on Thursday as well. We now have a diagnosis on Sean. He has spondylolthesis. He has a Grade 4 dislocation in his spine at L5/S1. It is congenital. He is being fitted for a back brace now that he has to wear 23 hours a day. He also has a 75% curvature Scoliosis. Normal is 45%. We are taking all this in. If the brace does not work, he will have to have surgery.

He had a teacher on Monday tell him that 9 weeks was long enough for a back injury to heal and he needed to start carrying around his textbooks at school instead of leaving them in the classroom. I was livid when I found out. He is still on no lifting. I fired off an email to the principal. Needless to say, his books are back in the classrooms. He also said the other teachers who did not tell him to remove his books were asking if they were the ones who made me mad.

Robert decided he needed to bring home an unwelcome souvenir from the cruise. He brought home norovirus. He finally went back to school today. Life is normal now. Kids all at school, Jonah at work, I am "supposed" to be working on my schoolwork.

There is some ugly I will add later, but Dani is getting ready to get off the bus!

[Keakie]

I'm sorry to hear about Sean's back! How scary! I hope the brace helps and he doesn't have to undergo a surgery. I would be hugely annoyed with that teacher too! Good for you for contacting the principal.

I'm glad that you otherwise had a nice trip! Sounds like a lot of fun and some much needed relaxation!

[Ember Rose]

That's sad about his back. The teacher is a ****.

[Admin-Rachel]

I'm glad the trip went well! Welcome back!

[plan4fate]

I'm glad the trip was great! I hope that the brace works for his back.. that has to be so scary for him.