We finally have a date for Chris to have his spinal surgery – Friday 5th December.  It’s still a month away, but it is the brilliant surgical team that we wanted of Mr Conlan and Mr Crawford.

I feel relieved and terrified at the same time now.  Very happy that we can get the correction done this year but really anxious about the surgery itself – it is such a big operation to put Chris through and yet these teenagers seems to bounce back from it really quickly.

Now that we know the date we can start planning for it and I have a long list of jobs to work through:

• Ask my mother-in-law to look after the dog
• Work out who will look after Anthony while we are in Cambridge (although I already know what he’ll say – “I’m 17 mum and I’m fine to look after myself”)
• Find a hotel near the hospital that we can stay in
• Book some physio appointments for Chris the week prior to surgery – this will help to get his back muscles ‘smooth and relaxed’ rather being ‘tight and knotted’
• Sort out how I will manage my clients’ work in December
• Get Steve to plan the days off that he needs
• Confirm the date with school and work out how long Chris will be absent and how to help keep him up to date with all his GCSE courses
• Speak to the company who is leading the school expedition to Kyrgyzstan and see if they will still take Chris with them in July 2015

And most importantly make sure Chris is fit and well on the day of surgery.  The fact that he is still playing football and taking part in matches makes me anxious as I worry that he may be the victim of a bad tackle and have an injury that delays the surgery!