Amazed!

So first of all let me apologize for the long absence of my postings.  All I can say is that things have been busy, busy in our household.  I think when I left off we were still in Florida, anxious to go home.  Madi stayed in her cast for 6 weeks and I have to say it really went by faster than I thought.  Although she did become a little bit of a diva while she had it on.  It was sort of like Madi said "jump" and mommy and daddy said "how high".  She became attached to her  Tinkerbell foam couch and sat in it all the time watching movies, sponge bob and yo gabba gabba.  She eventually like some time on her tummy, playing with toys and towards the end of the six weeks was rolling around and scooting on the floor. Nothing was going to stop this girl.  I remember there was one night I was at work and I called home to check in and Mikey said that Madi was watching tv down in the family room and he was out in the living room.  Sometime in our not very long conversation he said "Madi, how did you..."  Turns out my little daredevil scooted her self across the family room, up the 3 stairs leading to the kitchen, through the kitchen and dining room and to my husband.  That definitely showed us the fighter she has in her.  She continued those kind of maneuvers throughout that last week.  Then we left for Florida in mid November to see Dr. Paley.  Since it was getting cold in Iowa, the warm Florida air was perfect.  We arrived the day before our appt and the morning of our appt at the hotel breakfast we met several other families that also had kids going to see Dr. Paley.  It is so amazing the things he does and the people he helps.  We are so blessed.  We say Dr. Paley that afternoon and he said she was healing well and  the cast could come off.  He also had to pull the pins out of her knee.  Well, let me just say, I was not at all prepared for that.  I thought surely they would give her some good drugs or something but he just told us to hold her dress up so she couldn't see what he was going to do and before I could even blink he took the pliers and just pulled them out 1,2!!   WOW!  I'm sure it wasn't too comfortable for Madi but she stopped crying pretty quickly.  Dr. Paley told us she could start physical therapy as soon as we got back 3-5 days a week, and we didn't need to come back to see him for 6 months.  Awesome, so feeling horrible about the whole pin-pulling experience we decided to take Madi out for some sweets and toys!

     It was so nice to see her out of that cast and she seemed so happy about it!!!  Within a week in a half, Madi was standing up and trying to put some weight on her leg.  Of course she was very nervous.  We started physical therapy with two of the best therapist and she amazed us every session.  By six weeks of physical therapy she was running around, climbing stairs, climbing ladders, going down slides, astounding all of us by her quick recovering and doing so well that when the therapist checked in with Dr. Paley he said she had surpassed all of the milestones she needed to meet.  So no more therapy for us.  Whew, it was getting to be a hectic schedule with preschool for Julia  and Physical therapy. 
    We are now just trying to get back to a regular routine and continue to be amazed by how well she is doing.  She is walking so much better than she was pre-surgery!  I can't say enough thank you's for all the support we received and continue to receive from all of our family, friends and fellow pffd parents-who feel like family to me!  All of your prayers brought Madi through this surgery and her recovery.  God was truly with her.   I could not have survived without all of your support.  Madi is such an amazing girl and I am so blessed to be her mom!
     I now am praying for our pffd friends who have had and are going to have the super hip surgery like Madi.  I only hope that I can give them as much support as they have given me. 

    I will do my best to post more often and I have lots of pictures to post from surgery time until now.  As soon as I can figure out how to get then from my phone to the computer I will post them.  Best wishes!

Sick of Surprises

So we brought Madi home on Saturday  in the afternoon.  She was glad to be leaving the hospital.  She is so leery of medical professionals now that anytime anyone came in the room she would scream bloody murder.  Upon leaving the hospital we decided to go get her prescriptions filled, one pain med, one for Valium and and antibiotic.  So we go to the closest Walgreen's to our condo.  Well they don't carry the pain med or the Valium.  Nice!  So we go on to a CVS pharmacy and they don't carry them either. While in the parking lot we call Target, Walmart, other Walgreen's etc... No one carries them!  Call the hospital and they say they don't have an outpatient pharmacy.  So long story short, finally found a Walgreen's that carried the pain med and said that they would call around and see if any other Walgreen's had the Valium.  Meanwhile Madi is asleep in the car thank goodness!  Finally get the prescriptions just in time to get home and get her the pain meds. 
  So later that evening around 8pm, Julia starts throwing up.  She throws up all night long and all day long the next day.  She can't keep anything down and is starting to look seriously dehydrated.   So Sunday night my dad and I take Julia to the Emergency room while my mom stays with Madi.  The doctor at the er decides to give her a shot of zofran and has her drink a little Gatorade and sends us home.  As soon as we get home, she throws up again!!  UUGGHH!!  So we load her back up and take her  back to the er.  This time they decide to give her some iv fluids, which is what they probably should have done the first time!  It took them 3 times to get the iv since she was so dehydrated.  She was such a trooper.  Mean while Madi is at the condo with my mom.  She has been throwing huge fits of frustration and throws big fits when we try to give her the pain meds.  Needless to say, my mom had a rough time.  About 5am Monday morning we are taking Julia home, re hydrated and tired.  Just in time to get a couple of hours of sleep and get up for Madi's appt with Dr. Paleys PA, Servando. 
  We get to Madi's appt and she starts throwing a fit as soon as we get to the room.  Can't even tell you how bad the fit got when they had to saw the cast to remove it.  I can only imagine how scary that must be for a two year old.  Scares me a little.  We get her out of her cast and Servando looks at her incision which he said is healing so well!!  That is awesome.  Showed us the pins in her knee, a little scary, but I just better get used to that.  She fussed the whole time we were there.  While he was examining her we noticed a small bulge on her lower abdomen.  Since we had never seen it before he wanted us to see a pediatrician to make sure it wasn't a hernia.  Seriously!!!  This is just what a needed!!!  I have one kid in a spica cast recovering from surgery, the other is having to go to the er from dehydration from vomiting so much and now there is the possibility of another surgery for a hernia!!!  I am done!!  Burst into tears at the mention of seeing a general surgeon.  Servando assures me that he really doesn't think that's the case but just wants to be cautious and see what the other doctor says.  Ok.  Pediatrician examines her and say that it does not feel like a hernia and is most likely due to all the swelling in the area from surgery.  Could just be a little fluid or swelling but nothing to worry about.  WHEW!!  Finally back to the condo and I am exhausted!!  I am so ready to go home!!!

Recovering

So we were finally able to see Madi at 12:30 am.  Almost 12 hours later.  It was such a long wait but she looked pretty good when we saw her.  She even cracked a little smile.  Dr. Paley said that he fixed her femur and her hip.  He also created 3 new ligaments in her knee that she did not have and removed some tissue behind her knee so she could have full extension of the knee.  They put her in a spica cast and put some pins in her knee to keep her knee straight so it would heal right.  He told us we would have to come back in 6 weeks to have the pins removed. 
   Madi rested pretty comfortably last night and really has not had any pain at all, thanks to the epidural which she will have until Friday.  Because the surgery was so long they decided to keep her in the pediatric intensive care unit.  She was able to get into a wheel chair for about an hour but was really not happy about it.  I think she was scared that they were going to do something else to her.  Mikey spent the day today with Julia who is handling it pretty well.  She has seen pictures of Madi but cannot see her until she gets into a regular room.  Hopefully tomorrow.  She is anxious to get to see her.  Mikey is set to go back home first thing tomorrow morning.  I don't think he really wants to go.  I know it will be hard on him not being here.  All of the PA's, nurses and anesthesiologist are so nice and a helpful.  I was able to get a chance to come back to the condo while Mikey is with Madi so I can take a shower and eat some dinner and see Julia.  I will go back to spend the night with Madi.  Hopefully she will have a good night.  Not so easy to see her like this, but I know it is all the best for her in the long run and she is handling it so well.  She is an angel!  There is no wi-fi in her room now so I am only able to make updates when I get to the condo.  I will do my best.  Thanks to all of our family and friends who have been sending their prayers.  They are working!  Keep them coming as she has a long road ahead of her!

The Surgery Begins

So we arrived at the hospital at 8:00 am for Madi's superhip surgery that was scheduled to begin at 10:00am.  They didn't actually take her back to surgery until 1:30pm.  It was a long wait but the PA's told us that Madi's surgery was the longest one that day and they wanted to get all of the smaller ones done first so they could all focus on her for the rest of the day.  Luckily she did pretty well waiting for so long with no food or drink.  They gave her "goofy juice"(aka versed) around 9:15(when they thought surgery would be around 10).  The goofy juice made her so funny, like a drunk little baby.  Well the "juice" wore off long before surgery time, but she was pretty good.  They let me dress up and take her back to the surgery room to stay with her until they put her to sleep.  She fussed some and kept pulling the bonnet(surgical hat) she was wearing over the eyes like she was trying to hide.  Only took 30 seconds or so for her to be off in dreamland.  This time was not quite as hard as the MRI since I kind of knew what to expect.  Mikey and I went to the cafeteria as soon as I came back out, since we also had not eaten that morning.  That is pretty much all I have so far.  Hopefully they will come out with an update soon.  The hospital staff has been great, very nice and accommodating.  All of the doctors and nurses are great with Madi and seem to just love her (of course)!  Will post more updates as I get them.  Was told that the surgery could be a least 5 hours if not longer so we have a long day ahead of us.  Keep the prayers coming!!

Welcome to West Palm Beach

Well we arrived in West Palm yesterday with not a lot of trouble.  Actually both of the girls were really good travelers and didn't give me any problems.  Luckily the tropical storm didn't do so much in West Palm so we had no delays on the way down.  Madi had her MRI this morning.  We were told to arrive at 6:00am.  Well a trauma arrived while we were there so we got pushed back and the MRI that was supposed to be done at 7:00 wasn't done until 10:30am.  Poor little girl.  Not so easy for a 2 year old to do especially when they haven't been allowed to eat or drink anything since the night before.  Luckily they had cartoons so she pulled through.  I can't believe how strong this little girl is.  When the nurse put in her IV, she just watched and didn't flinch or cry.  So calm through the whole thing.  I took her back the the MRI room to be with her while they put her under anesthesia.  She fussed a little while they hooked her up the the heart monitors.  I can only imagine how scary that is to a 2 year old.  I was able to stay until she was totally out.  So hard to see your little girl like that.  Almost 2 hours later I was able to go back to see her.  She was so dopey but she smile right away when she saw me.  So hard to hold back tears when I saw that face.  The nurses said she was so awesome.  That they had never seen a 2 year old so calm.  That's my girl!!  After she took down some liquids we were able to take her back to the condo and in about 1 hour she was back to her old self.  Running around, getting into everything.  It was a long day but we get a few days to relax before pre-op appts on Monday.  Hopefully we will get some sun and fun.  I will keep you all posted and thank you all so much for your prayers.  Keep them coming, we will need them!

Anxiety is Increasing

Things have been pretty crazy getting ready for the trip.  I feel like I am carrying a elephant on my back with the amount of stress I have.  I am so anxious to just get the surgery over with.  I see that the anxiety is also affecting my hubby, Mikey.  I know he wants to be there for the whole thing, but with school and work it is just  impossible.  We have never really spent any time apart since we married so this will be hard. 
  Anyway, we loaded up my parents car Saturday night and they arrived in Tennessee tonight.  Please send prayers for their safe trip.  I fly down with the girls Wednesday morning.  I hope the flight goes well.  I have no idea what to expect flying alone with two kiddos.  I have lots of stuff for them to do, dvd player, video games, dolls  etc...   Snacks will be a must.  We have a fairly short layover in Dallas so will be asking for one of those golf cart things to take us to the next gate. 
   My brain is on over load, so forgive me if this is not so great of an update post.  I promise to update regularly once we get going on this trip.  I want to thank all of our friends and family who have helped us in getting this trip set and who have given us so much support.  We love you all so much. 

Times a tickin'

Well surgery date keeps getting closer. It seems the closer it gets the more anxious I become. 6 weeks (eeeek!) I got plane tickets bought and the condo lease ready to be sent. Things are moving right a long. Somewhere in the back of my head I just want to say nevermind, can't put my little angel through this! I just keep reminding myself that this is going to help her so much and it really is the best thing for her. I have been trying to get everything ready for our trip. Cleaning stores out of 2t summer dresses! If my little Madi has to be stuck in a cast for 6 weeks, she might as well be styling while she does it, right? I have also been trying to come up with everything I can to entertain to kids on the plane ride down. We got Julia the fisher price ixl, which is like a little ipad for kids. So cool. Of course the blessed portable dvd player will be coming with us too( thanks Susie!!) Since I am flying down alone with the kids my only worry is keeping Julia with me in the airport. Now as much as I have criticized those folks that put those leash like apparatuses on their children, I am now thinking that might not be such a bad idea for the airport. I can't believe I am saying that! Oh well, you do what you have to do.
On a more exciting note, Julia and Madi had their double birthday party last week. Julia turned 4 years old. My how the time does fly and Madi turns 2 in Sept. I decided that since Madi's birthday was so close to surgery time that I didn't really want her around a lot of people and risk her getting sick so Julia so sweetly shared her party with Madi. We have so been so blessed to have such amazing support and help from our family and friends. I really need to send a huge thank you out to all of you!!! We love you so much and we don't know how we would do this without you! I will continue to keep you all posted on our journey!