Day 100!!! (Pre-Op)

We've made it 100 days with the TSF on.
It's been 14 weeks & 2 days...
Only 5 more "sleeps" until it's off.
Josiah & I start school each day with our calendar, and he gets more excited with every day that brings us closer to October. He keeps talking about all the things he's going to do once it comes off.

Two of his church friends gave him cards this week-- so sweet! They have been wonderful examples of unconditional love, acceptance, and compassion.

This fixator has been a wonderful teaching tool. It's stretched all of us as it stretched his foot!

Praise the Lord for his faithfulness in the midst of trials.

We can't wait for Tuesday!

The pre-op appointment was uneventful, though it's always nice to see Dr. Nelson and his team. His resident informed me that the scheduling dept. scheduled 20 patients for the 1pm-2pm hour. RIDICULOUS! It's out of their hands even though the doctors themselves plead for them to spread out the patients. That's 3 minutes per patient! MADNESS. It's good to know that they feel the same way and are not aloof about how inconvenient it is to spend an entire afternoon there.
We also had to go to PACE (pre- anesthesia appointment. There they have us sign all the paper work, pay our co-pay for surgery, take Jo's vitals, and go over his medical history to make sure he's capable of handling the operation. What's frustrating is that they did all this 3 months ago... nothing has changed. Can't they just ask me on the phone if anything has changed? O well... at least the day of surgery it should go smoother with all the paper work and insurance stuff out of the way.
One sad/funny thing that happened is that the nurse had to prick Jo's finger to see if he was anemic. (Last time he had to go for blood work, so they didn't do the finger prick). Josiah did know what was coming and I was talking to the nurse practitioner and didn't know the nurse was doing it right then. O. My. Gosh. You would have thought the nurse cut his finger off with the way he screamed and SOBBED. I know it hurts, but, man! I thought maybe his tolerance for pain would have increased by now... I shouldn't laugh, but it was a bit funny to me how dramatic he was over a finger prick when he has 8 pins going through his foot, shin and toe!

He was pretty mad about that.... the whole way home.

Poor guy.

We'll all be glad when this ordeal is over.

I pray we all agree it was worth it when it's all said and done.

No smooth sailing.

We're counting down the days... only 8 more!

Unfortunately, it hasn't been smooth sailing.

Josiah has had pain again the last 2 weeks.
It's not all day, but he does have it almost everyday, and has been waking up again at night;
he's been requesting ibuprofen a few times a day.

We're weary.

But thankful.

Pre Op on Thursday!

19 DAYS LEFT!

Our surgery date has been set: October 4th the TSF comes off!

Omygosh I can't wait. I may be more excited than Josiah.

It's been a LONG 3 1/2 months... (86days down + 19 more to go= 105 days with the TSF on).

We're ready for the cast.

Day 79 (11 weeks, 2 days post op)

We're here waiting for our appointment with Dr. Nelson.
I took these pictures of him with my lap top (I'm getting smarter about what to bring with me to pass the time!)



Look how far to the left it's turned out!
Those are some gnarly pins in his shin... yikes!
Kinda gunky & gross... but that's normal.
The top of his skin is SOOO dry. It feels like an elephant foot... but he REFUSES to let me put lotion on it. It's quite the battle when I force it... He's also never had his toe nails trimmed in 79 days!!!!

His knees look dirty & they probably are... but more than that they're super rough from crawling & "walking" on them.
It NEVER fails, though, that when I am prepared with snacks & ways to pass the time, we get seen quickly. Our appt. was at 3:30. It's now 4:20, and we've already had xrays & are currently in the back-room waiting for Dr. Nelson. Those days I leave the house in a rush & forget everything, we are here 3+ hours.

We're hoping that Dr. Nelson says everything looks good and that we can now start the 30 day count down to getting the frame off. (We are soooooo ready for that!)

I'll update once we get home :)



*******UPDATE ON THE UPDATE**************
Dr. Nelson said Josiah's foot looks great and that we can start the count down to removal!
Woooohoooooo!!!!
The TSF will be coming off the 1st week of October. We should be getting a call to schedule the surgery in a few days.
Praise the Lord! No more turns; the correction has been completed.
Next up... a "walking" cast for 6 weeks to 2 months.

TSF at the beach!

Last week, thanks to the help of my mom, we made it to the beach for the 1st time this summer... TSF and all :)

I carried Josiah from the car to the shore. Thankfully, it wasn't a super long walk, and the sand was not very deep. Seeing as how he's almost 60lbs, I know I won't be able to do this much longer! (My back is definitely stronger than day 1, that's for sure!)

Jo had a good ol' time "swimming"

NOT easy to get set up, but once we were out there, it was good.... also not easy to pack up 3 kids, carry them all the car, de-sand them, strap 'em in and then pack up/de-sand all the "stuff" .... but my mom definitely made it possible, if for nothing else than to keep me from getting arrested by leaving the kids unattended! (but of course, she did much more than that).

So glad that we got at least ONE beach trip this summer!