Together Again

After four months of being away from Misawa, and three months being apart from Jason (two of those months consecutive), Jacob and I are finally back home with Jason. This past week has been full of last minute curve balls, lots of organized disorganization, and anticipation.




Where do I begin? Well, the most important part to mention is Jacob’s health, as this was the reason we were gone in the first place. Jacob’s torticollis has significantly improved. While he still has a slight tilt, we have completed enough intense physical therapy to finish his care at home. Thanks to the support, guidance, and hours of hard work with Jacob’s Physical Therapists, Michelle (and Abby!), Jacob has also reached all of his milestones for gross motor skills . He is quite the mover and shaker, crawling all over the place, pulling himself onto anything that will hold his weight, and cruising on all the furniture.























During Jacob’s care at Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, he underwent an MRI and a CT scan. These tests showed that Jacob’s second and third vertebrae are partially fused together and that the base of his scull is not properly set into first vertebrae. Although this came as shocking news to us, it appears that this defect has been present since birth and most likely caused the torticollis. Currently, Jacob’s condition is not causing any instability or unwanted pressure to his spinal cord. He will need another CT scan in six months to ensure this is still the case. If there are no changes to his spine, Jacob will most likely have no noticeable issues throughout his life. In fact, just the couple days we’ve been back in Misawa, we learned that one of our adult friends here has the exact same spinal defects and she has had a perfectly normal, healthy, and active life.
















What made this diagnosis more stressful than maybe it would be usually is that it came less than 48 hours before we were to fly back to Japan. Our Physical Medicine doctor frantically worked to have a neurologist look at Jacob’s CT scan results to make sure we were approved to return to Japan on July 30. There was about a 30 hour period where we weren’t quite sure whether we were going to be cleared in time to make our scheduled flight. Thankfully we were able to come home as long as we were able to get another CT scan in six months.





Our trip home was equally as eventful. Jacob and I boarded our plane in Columbus Wednesday morning at 7:50am and were to fly to Dallas, where we would board a 10:10am flight to Tokyo. How hard could that be? Well, there were severe storms over the Dallas area which put us into a “holding pattern” where we were to fly around the greater Dallas area for 30 minutes. This in itself would have been enough of a time crunch to make our Tokyo flight….BUT, our plane did not have enough fuel to fly around Dallas for 30 minutes! So we had to fly to Shreveport, Louisiana to re-fuel. Well, that did us in. By the time we re-fueled and made it back to a storm free Dallas, we had long missed our 10:10am Tokyo flight. Luckily there was another flight to Tokyo leaving at 12:05pm and we were (barley) able to squeeze on that plane. Again, this is all well and good except for one crucial point……it is IMPERATIVE that we get in to Narita Airport in Tokyo with enough time to clear customs and immigration, hop on a bus to Handea Airport (approx 1 hour WITHOUT traffic) and make it to our 5:25pm flight to Misawa…the last one of the day. By missing our original flight in Dallas, this would leave Jacob and I only 2.5 hours to accomplish all of these tasks in order to make the Misawa flight. Did I mention we faced driving through Tokyo in rush hour traffic??


Well, let me tell you…..Jacob and I ROCKED this portion of the trip. We succeeded in getting off the plane, through immigration, getting our luggage, passing through customs, taking the luggage down the hall to a baggage transport service (to take it home for us), bought a bus ticket and boarded the bus all within 30 minutes of getting off the airplane. We then breezed through Tokyo without any traffic delays and arrived at the Haneda Airport check-in desk just 15 minutes before our Misawa plane was due to leave. God love the Japanese! I had 3 JAL (Japan Air Lines) attendants sprinting through the airport with me, maneuvering us through crowds and expediting us through security. Jacob and I were literally the last passengers boarded on the flight. WE MADE IT!!!! I had spoken to Jason briefly while we were in Dallas, so he knew we were coming into Tokyo late and would most likely not make the Misawa flight. We had planned to call him when we arrived in Haneda to let him know if we made it. But if I had taken a few precious minutes to call Jason (I would have had to use a pay phone) I would NOT have made the flight. Nevertheless, Jason, and several friends, had faith in us and were waiting at the Misawa airport, not knowing if we had made the flight or not. It was a wonderful reunion!

















So we are home now and slowly adjusting to the time change. We have enjoyed a relaxing weekend, sleeping off jet lag, catching up with friends, eating sushi, going to the beach (Jacob's first time swimming in the Pacific Ocean), and cuddling with Jason. Jacob has grown so much, mentally, physically, and emotionally since we left Misawa four months ago. And it is so wonderful to see Jason with Jacob again. They both missed each other so much and are making up for lost time. In very odd form for us, we have not taken many pics the last few days so I do not have many to share from our Homecoming Weekend, but I hope you enjoy the ones here.




During our four months in the Sates we were able to not only get Jacob the medical care he needed, but we had the opportunity to spend time with family and friends. I have so many pics and stories to share from the past several months and will post a blog with all of those this week.

(Oh, and Happy 8th Anniversary to Us!)