PINZ

Arriving home is always wonderful ... "Who left the bucket of clothes sitting in the middle of the kitchen!?"

We will, of course, need to head back to Mayo in the middle of July (which is a brief two weeks at home), but leaving things packed for the return trip might be a little preemptive. Hannah has a rather impressive knitting needle stuck through her hand, allowing the wrist to remain immobile.

When we return in July, she will have it removed and Dr. Shin will have the opportunity to see how the arm and hand are progressing. In the meantime, we (which is singular for Kim) are to keep her fingers moving. I thought that the movement would be getting much easier by now, but after watching Kim take each digit this morning and flex them at each knuckle, it doesn't seem to be the case. "That hurts," Hannah explained to me that she feels most of the discomfort in her fingers and not in her arm.

Hannah's cast, being below the elbow, will allow her to begin stretching out her arm and getting it back to somewhat normal extension. Kind of similar to the motion I have to go through every morning right before getting out of bed - I have to make sure my knees are ready for the flexing motion that accompanies a little something known as walking.

After we get through this next step in July, we will move into planning for her third procedure to remove a muscle from her left thigh to place in her right arm. As it is now, Hannah's hand is straight, but she has no way of clenching or gripping anything. She will literally be a one handed girl until that point.