Shawn Aberl - Follow Up
Sixteen Surgeries and Counting……
NEW! Check out Shawn on YouTube! Click here to watch Shawn the rockstar.
When our story was first posted in July 2003, Shawn was seven months old and had yet to have any of his surgeries. Now, over two years later, Shawn has seen the operating room seven times, totaling sixteen procedures. He had his palate repair, lip pit excision, and buccal band removal on July 29, 2003. Less than a month later he went in for his first of many operations to attempt to straighten his leg. In October 2003, he had his lip repair, club foot surgery, and circumcision and orchiopexy. They also placed his first set of tubes at this time. Other trips to the OR have included another operation on his leg, two more sets of tubes, and then a tube removal.
At birth, Shawn’s doctors told me that he may never walk. Later I was told that he may walk between 3-6 years of age. How surprised we were when little Shawn started taking steps at 15 months old, and continued to walk despite a cast after his most recent leg surgery in March 2005. That was probably the most difficult of his surgeries, healing took quite a long time and he was back in the hospital several times following surgery for infections in the surgery site.
Our family has changed immensely since our original story. My husband’s three daughters have since moved to Mississippi to live with their mother for a few years. Unfortunately, we had to find our 90 pound Labrador a new home due to his clumsiness. He was constantly knocking little Shawn around, and it was getting to be a little too dangerous. We also lost our cat, Sugar, who had been with me for nearly 15 years. We also recently moved into a one story home to make it easier for Shawn to navigate. We also moved Shawn from his Family Child Care home into Center Based Care, and discovered quickly how much of an impact it had on him to be around kids his own age.
Shawn was excelling in sign language from about 8 months until recently, when he has started talking out of the blue and hasn’t stopped!! He will turn three in December and is a very active and intelligent toddler. He loves Elmo, Spongebob, and Pooh Bear (what a strange combination) and insists on eating cereal in front of the television just like his Daddy. He also loves to play “Where’s Shawn?” and is still incredibly daring and brave. He spent a lot of time this summer at water parks and amusement parks, which he really loved. Shawn sings to us, and enjoys being read to before turning in for the night.
Shawn is due to start preschool with Early Intervention next month. Next summer he will have a device placed on his leg to (hopefully) get it 100% straight. Further surgeries may include lip pit revision and separation of his webbed fingers.
Shawn continues to amaze us each and every day. I look forward to leaving work at the end of the day so that I can pick him up from daycare. The smile on his face when he sees me, and watching his little legs run to jump into my arms always bring a smile to my face and a tear to my eye. Our little man has taught us a lot in the last three years, and we love him dearly.
