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Amelie Surgery 2015

On July 17, 2015 Amelie had surgery on some of her toes. The banding that affects her fingers was also causing problems with her toes so Texas Scottish Rite said that they could give her some relief.

Ever the fashionable girl she chose her dress for the day. And of course her Ami doll had to come with us. We met the newest addition to the hand team Dr. Stutz and I liked him immediately. All the docs are so great at TSRH and he seemed like a perfect fit.

Daddy helping with a breathing treatment so she could look at her new sticker books. After the treatment and the “goofy juice” they rolled her back and gave us our beeper. They told us to expect it to take about an hour so we decided to go and have lunch in the cafeteria.

I saw this while waiting on our food. Even the wet floor signs are cool at Scottish Rite.

We asked them to wrap the Ami doll legs while Amelie was in surgery. They asked us her favorite color and we said pink. When she realized that Ami had casts too she said, “Did Daddy do that?” Makes my heart happy that she knows that it is something he would do.

When Amelie woke up she was in so much pain. It absolutely broke my heart. They had to give her a lot of meds to calm her down and get her to fall back to sleep. This was the hardest wake up amount of pain she has had in 4 surgeries.

Once we were home and Amelie was awake again she wanted a photo of her and Ami with their casts. She did such a wonderful job and was so brave.

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Post Surgery Check Up

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.

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Surgery – Feb 5, 2015

Feb 5, 2015

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.

Feb 5, 2015

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.

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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!

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Dani’s 1 month check up

August 7, 2014
Silly girl in the bath before the appointment

As I was going through photos I realized that I never posted about Dani’s one month check up at Texas Scottish Rite. It happened on August 7th and the short version is that she is doing perfect! Dr. Birch said that she couldn’t have healed better and that everything looks fantastic. He said to keep letting her judge what she felt comfortable doing, but that we were safely past the point that her femur should be fine. In the first 30 days there was a chance that it could snap if she was pushed too hard. Yuck!

August 7, 2014

This cool projector is in the waiting area of the orthopedic section and the girls love it when we come for appointments.

August 7, 2014

This is a photo of her x-ray and you can see the pins in her pelvis and the metal on her femur. Dr. Birch told us he wanted to see us again in 3 months. He also said again that it would be about 6 months for full mobility. He also said they would want to take all the metal out at about 6 months post cast removal. That should only require an overnight stay in the hospital and a bandage. Whew!