Friday, November 2, 2012

Hey, November...what's going on?

I know, I know...I'm shocked as well. First blog post since July? Yep...that's about right. For those of you who have been through a lengthening already, you are well aware that there is little time for anything but physical therapy, pin site cleanings and...uh, I don't know...sleep? I mean, yeah, there's a couple minutes here and there for things like work or spending time with spouses or other children. But that means things like blogging, exercise and personal hygiene get dropped like first period french. For those of you who are prepping for that first lengthening...good luck. You'll get through it. You won't like it, but you'll get through it. Trust me...I know.
Because here we are! We're on the bright side of the tunnel and the forecast at Camp Sweatpants is mostly excited with a chance of awesome. Since finishing her turns on September 5th with a full 8 cm gained, we've done our best to keep up with PT and pin site cleanings (editor's note: we fell off pretty hard. It's a long, LONG process.) We sent our first set of x-rays to The Man on October 5th, hoping for a positive report with the chance of getting her fixator removed sometime in late November/early December. Honestly, I wasn't even expecting a particularly prompt response...Paley was in India at the time (lecturing in some obscure dialect, no doubt.) And yet, not even an hour later, at 9:30 AM eastern, we got more good news than we could have hoped for...
"Nearly healed. You can book removal and rodding for one month from now."
And so, I sat...quietly crying in my office, unsuccessfully trying to get myself together so I could go teach health to a bunch of 7th graders. Mr. Tredwell was late to class that day.
What can I say? I'm not even sorry. Those five months had been some of the most difficult in all our lives and now the end was finally in sight.
Fast forward to present day. At this moment, we're less than 60 hours away from this device finally being removed from our child's leg.  
One step closer to normal. 
 May 14th...the day before the fixator was implanted. 
 That's a good-sized block she was standing on back then!
 It wasn't ALL bad times.
 November 2nd...look at that long leg!!!
 An aerial view.
Go back to that first pic...how is this the same kid?!?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful young lady!!! I am in my office literally jumping up and down with tears of happiness and joy for ALL of you!! Marvelous! Magnificent!!! Miraculous!!! Em looks so poised and mature!!! What an arduous 5 month journey this has been for everyone! Thank you for the best update ever!! Hugs and love to you all!! Lisa

Phil D said...

News?