Our Family Blog – Mike, Louanne, Nadia, Amelie, & Dani
On the morning of May 9th our friend Danielle and her daughter Sophie came over for a play date and to chat about adoption. It was a nice visit and fun play time for the girls. After lunch and they left, we headed to Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Dani’s yearly hip check. We started with height/weight and an xray.
Dani cooperated with Dr. Podezwa and he said that she is doing great. Everything looked good and we are clear for another year. WOO HOO!!
The super cool waiting area in Radiology.
It’s been 6 months since Dani had all the hardware removed from her pelvis and femur so it was time for a check up at Texas Scottish Rite. We got there and went straight to radiology and then waited for our turn to see Dr. Podezswa.
The doctor told us that her hip is doing the best that we could possibly hope for. He said that the ball they created looks good and is a great size. He said the socket they made for it is also growing well and that her femur is a little big, but that is normal since she has gone through two surgeries and healing. He said to just let her keep being a kid and that nothing we do or don’t do would impact her continued hip growth/strength. We go back in 9 months for her next check up which will be the 2 year anniversary of her surgery. Yippie!
Dani with Dr. Podeszwa and Dr. Birch and their thank you gifts.
On February 16th Dani had her post surgery check up. Dr. Podeszwa said that she looked great and that the would was in good shape. He asked us to try and keep her from being too rambunctious for another 2 weeks if we could. He said they wanted to see her in 6 months and then every year after that for x-rays. We are so blessed by the staff of Texas Scottish Rite and all that they have done for our family.
Mike reading to the girls while we waited for the doctors.
The big girls are always happy they get toys too.
On February 5th we had to take Dani up to Texas Scottish Rite to have all the metal removed from her pelvis and femur. We were scheduled for a day surgery and I was ready to get it over with and her to be past all of these medical needs. We were the first surgery of the day and once we were checked in they came to get her at 8:30 and we went down to the cafeteria to have breakfast. After breakfast we spent some time in the gift shop waiting for the beeper to go off to have us come back.
Once back in the day surgery area we could pretty quickly hear her crying. They rolled her bed over to us and said she was fine until they asked, “Do you want to see your mama?” Then they said she started screaming hysterically. I tried to hold her, but it wasn’t working so Mike took her and they gave her a shot of pain killers because she couldn’t calm down. It was really sad. Once she was calm and they watched her have a couple cups of juice they told me I could go her her medicine from the pharmacy so we could leave. We got to leave fairly soon after that which was great. I knew she would do better at home with her sisters. (Thanks to my Aunt Paula for staying with the big girls for the morning)
Dr. Podeszwa said that the surgery went as well as it could go. He also let us know that he took out all of the bad scar tissue in her leg in an attempt to make the scar look better. I thought that was a really sweet thing to do since it had a bad keloid look to it after healing the first time in a body cast. He asked us to keep her from jumping off the furniture, running, jumping or playing on playground equipment for 2-3 weeks. Oh boy.
I snapped this photo after Dani woke up from a very long afternoon nap. As long as I didn’t move her or bump her leg, she was a happy girl.
She started out needed to be snuggled up with me, but later in the day she was happy to lay on the floor and play. We let her watch TV and the big girls played with her and she slept all night!