2011 is shaping up to be a particularly challenging year for Adam.  As well as his ongoing talipes treatment in Manchester, it is now clear he will need surgery on both his hip and his knee in the next few weeks.  Following a minor accident at school when he caught his foot on a door, a medical assessment has determined that his hip is once again dislocated.  We are due to meet with surgeons in Bristol shortly to discuss the matter further, but are working on the presumption that he will once again be in a hip spica cast for several months.  This is a daunting prospect, not least because he is much heavier and far more mobile now than he was when he first had hip surgery in 2007.

Bed time for Adam is also proving to be an ongoing problem.  Both Cornwall Council and the local NHS Trust agree that Adam requires a special bed for support and safety reasons.  Unfortunately, each believes that the other should fund the purchase, this despite the fact that the NHS Primary Care Trust has already purchased a sleep system for the non-existent bed.  This sleep system is presumed  to be currently gathering dust in an NHS storage facility, while Adam's father Paul spends between 30 minutes and 2 hours a night ensuring that Adam gets to sleep safely.  While we remain hopeful that the situation will be resolved eventually, it is becoming increasingly likely that we will have to fund the purchase of the bed ourselves.

On a brighter note, Emlyn Stone and his team have done a splendid job making our garden wheelchair accessible.  These photographs clearly show how much work has gone into the modifications and just how different the garden now looks.

Adam is delighted that he is now able to play in the garden and is especially pleased that he can now reach the outside tap...

Along with many families with disabled children, we were at the Eden Project on 12th February 2011 for a celebration of the success of the Muddy Shorts scheme.  The scheme, a collaboration between Barnardos and the Eden Project, is financed through Cornwall Council's 'Aiming High for Disabled Children' programme and has provided a series of play-days across the County to allow children with disabilities to access the natural environment with the emphasis on adventurous and inclusive play.  Adam particularly enjoyed the chance to spend time on the ice rink at Eden.

Unfortunately, funding for the Muddy Shorts scheme is due to finish at the end of March 2011 and at the time of writing there is no news regarding whether any further financing will be made available.  We all hope that the scheme will continue in some form or another as it has definitely been of benefit to Adam and indeed the rest of our family.

Adam's Photo Gallery has been updated and two further pictures of the day at Eden have been added.  He can also been seen in a picture on the 'Enabling Inclusive Play' page of the Eden Project's website (click here to view).  The picture shows him enjoying a trip down a river and was taken at a previous Muddy Shorts play-day in August 2010 at Golitha Falls near Liskeard in Cornwall.