Without a Paddle
Ponderings of an Uncommon Life
The Stolen Summer
The 2025–2026 school year will be one of the most memorable of my life and career. Helena is the only one of my children who spent her entire elementary school journey on the same campus where I worked. This year, she completed fifth grade and will begin middle school in the fall, marking the end of a truly special chapter for both of us. I will miss her being there.
It has also been a year of significant challenges, as Helena underwent major surgeries that are testing her both physically and emotionally. These medical experiences have made this an especially difficult year for our family, and while we’ve celebrated many milestones, they have been overshadowed by recovery, healing, and trying to keep going. Even now, we are still navigating this road to healing.
Helena had her first surgery on November 18 of last year. We thought we were prepared for this, and in some ways, we were.
What I personally was not prepared for:
- The increasing demands of caregiving while working. During this season, caregiving has been more than a one person job and when I went back to work after her surgery, it was difficult for all of us.
- The challenges associated with an upgrade in disability. Going out is not fun for any of us and takes a much greater effort than before her surgery. Since it is now summer, we try to stay home as much as possible.
- The emotional toll of just having more tasks to do and sometimes an uncooperative child (She is a tween, after all!)
- For every surgery Helena has gone through, she has had complications with incision healing. As a result, she had an extended time non-weight bearing, and her therapy has been delayed until the incision healed.
Helena’s first problem with healing was caught right after her first follow-up visit about 4 weeks after surgery. We thought she had an infection (and still think maybe she did), so we took her to the ER because we didn’t feel good about the long-distance feedback we received from the hospital. She had a low-grade fever, and we were very concerned. The ER contacted her doctor. We got some immediate treatment and scheduled an appointment with her doctor. We ended up on a couple of wound treatment plans over several weeks. Despite this change, Helena’s incision just wasn’t healing well. She ended up having a surgical debridement procedure. Her surgeon cleaned up the incision site and a plastic surgeon came in and re-closed the incision with special tools to help her to heal better. She had a new bandage protocol with a wound vac. All together, that seemed to help and she was able to get up and moving in February.
If Helena’s healing had been on schedule, it would have been early January when she started walking again.
As soon as the first leg healed, we began discussing her next surgery date and it was scheduled for April 13. We decided on the timing of this date for two reasons. First, we wanted Helena to be able to go to her special needs camp at the end of July. Second, we wanted Helena to be completely healed and walking well before going to Middle School.
For this surgery, the doctor took extra care with how he closed the incision to prevent the incision problems that happened the first time. Instead of dissolvable stitches, he used stitches that had to be removed. He was as concerned as we were that this not happen again.
Helena’s leg seemed to be healing well, and we were getting ready to get the stitches out. Yet about 4 weeks post-surgery, we started noticing a healing problem around her new incision. Because we already had a doctor appointment scheduled, we were able to get a healing plan started as soon as the problem started.
She hasn’t ended up needing surgery again as of yet, which is something to be thankful for. However, we are now in the middle of July, and her incision still hasn’t finished healing. She has been unable to walk because of the tension it may place on the healing incision. Her bone is currently healed enough that she would have been walking for 6 weeks by now.
Helena has spent nearly 6 months unable to walk since November.
We met with her orthopedic surgeon the last week in June for a follow-up and expressed our concern again with the length of time for healing. Since we live far away, we have been sending photos of Helena’s incisions at every dressing change since December. With the current situation, we could see changes, but we felt the progress should be better.
Helena’s surgeon agreed with us after seeing her incision in the office. He referred her to the plastic surgeon who closed her last incision. The plastic surgeon has put her on a new treatment plan with weekly appointments in Dallas. Her incision still appears to have a way to go before it will be healed, but we are hopeful about the progress we are seeing.
Still, it is July and the time for play. Helena is unable to go outside and play freely. She can’t swim. Going with friends is difficult logistically (again, due to an increase in disability) and she really misses hanging out with her friends.
The camp Helena normally attends in the summer is Camp Joint Adventure, a camp for kids with joint conditions. She looks forward to going to this camp in a way that people may not understand- it is when she actually gets to be with her friends that understand her struggles best. While waiting in the hospital for our appointment a couple of weeks ago, the camp director found us and expressed the concern that Helena might not be able to go to camp. Because of the importance of camp, we encouraged her to wait a little longer before making a decision, and she agreed. After her very recent progress, the doctor seems to remain open to releasing her for camp- so fingers crossed!
At this point, we are also growing more concerned about this situation continuing past July and into the new school year. She definitely won’t be walking for very long when she gets there after not being able to walk since April. We really wanted to avoid Helena having to deal with the after-effects of surgery going into the start of Middle School. It’s already a challenging environment.
Obviously, we are having lots of strong emotions about all of this. We are sad about Helena’s surgery complications and the effects on her summer and school year. The physical and emotional demands of caregiving have caught up with us, and we’re growing weary. At times, we question our decision to move forward with surgery—even though we know it was the only real treatment option available to maximize her mobility as she grows. Time was running out on this opportunity, so we had to act. Right now, we’re simply tired. Tired of the appointments, the setbacks, and the constant emotional weight that comes with watching your child struggle. We know this season won’t last forever, but that doesn’t make living through it any less exhausting.
As we went through her first surgery, we were surrounded by an incredible outpouring of love, encouragement, and prayers. We are very grateful for every message and every prayer.
As time has gone on, it’s understandable that many people assume we are back to “normal.” The reality is that “normal” has become wound care and regular trips to Helena’s doctor at the hospital in Dallas. Getting back to normal will be getting Helena into a new adjusted set of braces so she can walk freely again. That is still likely months away.
We have a wonderful friend who has been praying for Helena since November. This friend has a prayer board in her home, and Helena’s name is on it. She will remain on the prayer board and get daily prayers until she is fully healed (maybe longer – it’s apparently hard to get off her prayer board once you are on it!) That is a unique commitment, and we know God is listening to these prayers and working on Helena’s behalf. We know that these types of prayers are helping us, too – and have gotten us through many rough things in life. Prayer is so important. I am inspired by this friend, and want to be this type of intercessor for others. I will humbly say that she inspires me to be better.
We appreciate consistent prayers for Helena. We need prayers for wound healing and for her to be able to resume walking and do the therapy needed to maximize her mobility for both legs. She needs to be up and moving for her own well-being and physical endurance. Sitting around this long has not been good for her mental state.
Helena’s surgeries are intended to extend her range of motion on both legs and enable maximized function. She will likely always need bracing and assistive devices, but the surgeries will help her continue to walk as she grows. These incision healing issues were unexpected and need to be resolved. We are concerned tat we are losing some of the progress the surgery was intended to create since she can’t do much therapy or move around as she would have. Prayer about these things would be appreciated.
Before her first surgery, Helena was falling frequently. Helena says she fell three times per week. I say it was daily based on what I saw. After she began walking again in February following the first surgery, she seemed to have improved, even with the disparity between her legs and braces. This is one of the reasons I hold on to hope that these surgeries are going to help her a lot in the end.
This is a challenging time for our family. We know we will make it through, whatever the timeline may be – but we are ready for this chapter to close. When we started these surgeries, we expected the entire process to be done at the end of December 2025. Obviously things did not turn out as we expected. It’s been a journey of ups and downs, and to quote Roger Miller – “sometimes the ups outnumber the downs,” but not on this journey. Please continue to think about Helena and pray for us. We appreciate it more than you know.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” – James 1:2-4
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” – Romans 12:12
“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” – Psalm 37:7
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Without a Paddle 
Helena is always on our minds and our prayers up here in Waco. Such a sweet kid and I so look forward to the day Stuart tells us all that she is finally free from this long season of life she’s battling through. Much love and continued prayers for Helena from the Griesemers!
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