Is it February yet?!?!

SERIOUSLY! This has been the longest month EVER. Sorry it's been so long since I last posted, but Debbie Downer AND Negative Nancy have been around and I tried to spare you all! This month has sucked. Besides the school issue, plumbing issues (I will spare you details, but let's just say I am bff with the c0-owner of Plumb Crazy Plumbers, he lived at my house for 2 days straight), plus Caroline's 2 week cast lasted 3 weeks. Apparently as you get older your bones take longer to heal. Who knew once she turned 1, we would need 3 weeks immobilization? It's kind of like when you turn 35 and all of a sudden your egg count decreases, or when you turn 50 and you HAVE TO have a colonoscopy. I would love to be in a room with all the medial professionals who decide which age to put with certain diagnosis'. But I digress.

So, poor Web had to take Caroline to the ortho by himself on her 2 week removal appt because I was hanging out with my new bff's. They did another x-ray and Dr. Herndon could see healing but thought as soon as they took the cast off she would start being mobile and would probably break in the same spot again. And she would be mobile. She crawls in her cast! She drags the bad leg, and crawls with her good leg and both arms. Quite impressive. She even tries to sit in it. While Web was at the appt, Dr. Herndon took an x-ray of her right hip and could see the displacement clearly. You know how you have a ball and socket in your hip? The ball fits nice and snug in your socket? Well Sweet Caroline's ball is ABOVE her socket. Nice, huh? Dr. Herndon tells Web, "well it's time to fix her hip this spring, and while we are in there, let's rod her left femur. Expect her to be in a cast for approx. 3 months". As you can imagine, Web was at a loss. He tried to ask the right questions, but let's face it; he just went to the appt. to take off a cast! Not to discuss surgery that could put her in a cast all spring and summer!

Web calls me on his way home and tells me the cast is still on, we need to do surgery in the spring. At the same time, my bff's are explaining to me that they need to cut off our water again! CALGOOONNNN!!! I lost it. I hung up with Web and just started bawling. Yes, we knew Caroline would need this surgery, but this was the last thing we expected on this day. And why 3 months? Rodding surgery should only be casted for 3-4 weeks.

I inquired with some OI parents and got an earful. "No WAY should Caroline be casted for the long". "Leave your ortho, he has no idea what he is talking about!", etc etc. Well needless to say, this made me feel like the worst parent on earth. Why would Web and I put her through this? Well, finally a mom spoke up and told us that her child who was 2 at the time, had hip and rodding surgery and was casted for 10 weeks. (doesn't 10 weeks sound better than 3 months, even though it's practically the same amount of time?!?!) And she had surgery with THE OI surgeon. THE doctor who invented the rods that are placed in some OI children. SO HA! If he had him in cast for 10 weeks then yeah, we aren't that bad of parents. I emailed that mom individually and thanked her for being so nice and understanding and giving advice. I know the other parents were just going by there experience, but why so mean?

We went back to Dr. Herndon with questions in hand! And we are happy to say Caroline's cast came off this time! 3 weeks=long time.

The reason the cast is on for so long is because of the hip. He wants to do this one time and he has to keep her immobile to make sure all the screws and wires don't slip. It's a very tough surgery especially with her bones not being as strong as non-OI children. The femur surgery is a no-brainer. She would be out of the cast in 3 weeks, but we have the fun hip to deal with!

The bad thing is our ortho, who we absolutely adore. Love him. He does not use the latest and greatest telescope rods. He uses the old school rush rods. He doesn't like the telescope rods. He says he has more issues with them and has to go back in and repair the rods more often than the rush rods. And many of the other ortho dr's in his practice are doing the same thing. Using rush rods over telescope. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Needless to say we are going to get 2nd opinion. We are playing phone tag with the OI orthopedic surgeon in Omaha. Yes, we would go to do this surgery in Omaha. We would go in a heartbeat, if it's the best decision for Caroline. But does he have experience with hips? From what I understand his focus is on rodding. So, we are kind of at a stand still. Caroline's surgery in OKC is scheduled for April 4th, but we can cancel that at anytime if we choose to go to Omaha.

This parenting thing is NOT easy.

I pray every night, that Web and I will make the best decision for our daughter. Do we want her in a cast for 3 months? Hellll to the noooo. But would we rather do it now, where she won't remember down the road? YES. It will be a long spring and summer. And if anyone is in the OKC area, we would LOVE visitors. Because I might just lose my mind staying in the house for 3 months!

update

I wish I wasn't such a Debbie Downer. It seems that this year has not started off the way we planned. Quick update on the school: I talked to the senior pastor and I would never want Caroline at that school. He told me that he was informed that Caroline would NEVER walk and she had a short life expectancy! And I needed to check my christianity to put my child in harms way and to put other children at the day care at harm. Needless to say, words were said, emails exchanged. Once he was better educated, he said he would talk to Web and I, but he also need to talk to their "doctors". After talking to a very well informed member of the church, they don't have doctors, they have lawyers. She was also not surprised by his behavior. So, not sure what we will do for school for Caroline. We have another private school we are going to try, but if that doesn't work out then I guess we'll look into public schools. Makes me wish we had UNION in OKC.

On another sad note, poor Caroline hurt herself on Thursday, December 30th at 4:45 PM. Needless to say, the ortho office was closed for the long holiday weekend. We took her to the ER 1st thing Friday morning, and sure enough same song and dance. No, they didn't see a fracture. No shizzle. They never see a fracture. So the ER dr was advised by oncall ortho to call our ortho's office 1st thing Monday and do another x-ray. Well that's all fine and dandy, but what are we supposed to do about the pain our daughter is obvious in? So the ER dr. attempted to splint her. And he did try, but later that night Caroline screamed out in agony again. The splint must not have worked, because Caroline was in worst pain than before. I tried to re-splint her but that didn't work out well. Poor thing. I think I traumatized her for life. I tried to straighten her leg and literally she turned cherry red and her eyes popped out of her head. I will never for as long as I live, forget that face and forget the pain I put her in.

Needless to say, we let her immobilize her leg how she wanted and we just let her be. By Saturday morning, Web and I were spent. We couldn't hold our daughter, or change her diaper without causing her pain. Longest, worst weekend ever.

Monday morning, we went to the ortho office, they took x-rays and sure enough, there was a visible fracture, they put her in the one legged full body cast and we were sent home. We have 2 weeks in a cast. I am hopeful that we can still do PAM on Thursday. Once we do the PAM she will for sure start feeling better. Last time we did it, she was in a cast but it was in Omaha where they do PAM treatments all the time. They have access to put an IV in her hand, so I am sure everything will be ok. I mean we do deserve one good, positive break?

So, that was our holiday weekend. Not the best start to 2011. Hoping we can have a do over this weekend.