A bit of a scare...

Tuesday night, I was sure I was the worst mother that ever walked through a bone graft surgery with their child!!!

Rose told me she had pain in her front gum, and when I looked, I about had a stroke!!! I saw LOTS of white, and after last week's Dr's visit, when he said most of the sutures were dissolving and would be gone soon, I never expected to see any at almost 3 weeks post-op!

I was sure the tissues were separating over the bone, and she was running her tongue over it alot, because it hurt, but, still not something you want to do.

After a very sleepless night for me, I called the clinic right away the next morning. The surgeon got us in that afternoon at 1:30, and....

He was thrilled to report that the tissue was looking FINE, it was simply some badly deteriorating sutures that should be gone, or almost gone by now, that were mushy, and getting infected. There was even a little pocket of pus above the sutures that he opened up. He then proceeded to remove all the remaining mushy stiches, and Rose feels like a new girl now:)

And I am one happy MAMA---She is on antibiotics, and we will go back to softer foods for another week, which she is NOT happy about, she is dying for a tortilla chip!!!

We are all smiles, as we see God's protective hand in this, as I really was sure she was going to need new stiches, or something, to pull the tissues together again over that bone-ya know, sometimes, our minds are our WORST enemies!!!

Rose has been doing SO well, and with limited activity, still able to be a part of our farming operation, even if it only involves watching the little boys, but she is outside, walking around, picking rocks in our new garden, and today, she wants to help plant the potatoes.

Her hip has healed so nicely, she is walking completely normally now, and even picking up the pace from her original protective shuffle:)

She is all smiles, and I am feeling blessed.

Have a great day friends!

Blessings

Chris for all 9 of us

Coming up for some air...and some pics

We are one week post-op, and things couldn't be going better!

Praise the Lord, Rose has had,so far, a model recovery.

She is happy, loving all the attention, not complaining ONE BIT about the pain, or the food, or the 'no chores', and other than speaking very softly, has better articulation already:)

We had some yucky hours between Friday at 4pm and Saturday night, just the usual upset tummy from all the meds, anesthesia, and no food, but by Sunday morning, she was MUCH better, the swelling in her cheeks was going down, and she was definitely over the "hump" of bad days.

We travel today to the Dr, our 1 week post-op, and I can't wait to hear what he has to say.

I finally am taking a minute to post a few pictures of our surgery day, and day 1 recovery, and will be back soon with our Mother's Day.

There is so much to process after something like this, and life has been hectic without our big girl's help in the house and outside, but we are surviving, and if we make it through this long weekend, we are definitely on the downhill side of rough days:)

ok, on with the pics

thanks for all your prayers, kind emails, and even gifts, we are truly blessed, and I know Rose feels blessed!!!

she was ALL smiles, until the needles came, and then she maintained her smiles, just not quite so sunny and bright

EVERY nurse commented on her smile, even in the midst of post-OR recovery time

Starting to feel a little droopy, but still smiling!!!

Once I got the call she was out of surgery, I expected a call any minute saying she needed me to come to recovery, which they say happens sometimes, but not often...

BUT, I got the call saying she was headed up to her room, and I was thrilled it was going so well for Rosalyn.

Ice packs on her cheeks, ice on her hip, and lots of pain meds helped us navigate through those first 24 hours!

And a stuffed puppy, courtesy of her Aunt and Grandma that visited with us after surgery:)

I was super thankful we were on the pediatric ward of the new hospital-talk about roll out the red carpet for her...we had the BEST nursing care, and such love and attention they showered on Rose-I was sooo blessed.

And I was also super thankful for a DVD player, as it helped pass the time and kept her focused on something else besides uncomfortable pain and feeling cruddy!!!

There is a time and place for children's movies, in my opinion:)

On the morning following surgery, we had a visitor-a 4 legged one--there are 14 different dogs that visit the hospital throughout the week, and we were blessed to see 3 of them-Kado was a super friendly Alaskan husky cross, and her owner was a wonderful visitor, smiley, happy, sharing lots about her dogs, and helping us to pass the long wait to being discharged---another story:)

 After we got home Thursday afternoon, Rose rested, alot, but didn't spend much time outside her room the first 24 hours. The next day, she was blessed to see a huge box of gifts from our church

we call it a Sunshine Box, and was she ever happy to have a little something to open each day

and now, we are blessed with lots of artsy/crafty materials including colored pencils, markers, crayons, construction paper, drawing paper, playdoh, workbooks, puzzles, lots of hands on, thinking projects, etc...

She is in heaven, and it takes her longer to decide what to do than she has time to do her projects:)

 On Sunday, she really felt good, and was out of her room all day, interacting with all of us, and loving having 2 grandmas around for the day and 1 grandpa too!!!

Isaac has never shown much interest in stuffed animals, but ever since Rose got home with puppy, he has become enamored with HIS puppy, and it has added a word to his vocabulary---Puppy, and he says it SOOOO clearly...

Tyler has been so sweet to want to include Rose in most anything he is doing, and always makes time during the day to play with her-they all had colored pictures and a welcome home sign on her door-bad mama that I am, I neglected pics of that-

But...

More to come late!

We are blessed

Chris for all  9 of us:)

morning 1 so far, so good

We are off to a good start in the healing process with minimal bruising, swelling and pain this morning!!

After a relatively good night's sleep (in the pediatric ward, they only interrupt your night twice, midnight and 4) we both had our breakfast, called home, had a Dr visit, and are waiting for the head Dr to tell us we can go home.

She is showing a bit more interest in doing something besides a movie, so that is also a good sign.her meals come through a syringe, so they are pretty limited now, but with a blender at home, we can be more creative!!!!

When we get home, I will post some pics, as my iPad won't let me use any of its pictures...sigh...so much for modern technology:)

Blessings

Chris

Bone graft surgery is OVER.

And so far, all is well.

After getting to the hospital at 7am, we were all ready for the 9:00 surgery to begin, and had to wait, and wait, and wait.

Finally,around 10:30, Rose was taken in, and I was very impressed with how quiet and compliant she was throughout.

it is very nice to get updated phone calls every hour from the OR, it made the wait seem MUCH more bearable..that, and having 3 sweet friends come and sit with me until 3 when she went to her room.

Šo far, pain os not over the top, and she is happy to be snuggling the teddy her aunt and Grandma brought her.

The reality of no food has not set in yet, but I am confident God will go before us and keep her calm and content with her juice and broth.

If I can get a picture uploaded, I will, bit me and iPads, not so good:)

Blessings,

And thanks for praying

 Chris