Show and Tell

Eric teaches Radiological Anatomy at Georgia Tech in the fall and he thought it would be neat to make a 3D image for his class of Anna's spine (pre-surgery). So he made the little movie above where you can watch her spine rotate around. He also made some images such as the one below

Before and After....

I want to publish a before and after picture to show you just how dramatic a change the surgery brought.


Isn't that amazing! Thank you Lord!

Anna is Home

I'm sorry for the lack of updates - it was a very hard juggling act with Anna in the hospital and life continuing at home with everyone else. But Anna came home last night. She is still in quite a bit of pain and doesn't move around well at all. Her muscles have greatly weakened; for example, she cannot hold her head up well at all due to the effects of the traction on her neck muscles. The two things she needs to do - eat and walk - she doesn't want to do, so most everything gets turned into some sort of fight. Some of the nurses, although they provided great care, were very easily manipulated by her into giving her what she wanted, so we are also dealing with quite a bit of attitude. Challenges abound....sigh.

We appreciate continued prayer for her recovery and now that we are all home hopefully I will be able to update more often.

Surgery Moved Up!

Anna was scheduled to spend 4 weeks in traction (originally 6 weeks but reduced) and then undergo surgery. From the x-rays they recently took she has made tremendous progress and her doctor is now planning to do her spinal fusion this Wednesday after only 2 1/2 weeks in traction (2 1/2 rather long weeks I might add). We are praising God for this unexpected turn of events and ask your prayers for a successful surgery Wednesday.

Traction Day 5

After the first couple of days they were able to put Anna in a chair during the day as opposed to laying in bed all day. This greatly helped her attitude as she is able to wheel herself out and about the area outside her room and we are able to wheel her all over the hospital and out into the garden. The amazing thing is that you can already tell a difference in her spine. Her doctor is more than pleased and says she is definitely ahead of schedule.

Traction Day 2

Katie spent the afternoon with Anna today. When she first arrived Anna wanted nothing to do with her (which is how she was with Eric and me yesterday), but by the end of the time Katie had Anna smiling and laughing - at least a little.

Things on the home front were a little rough today. Amy was scheduled to have her wisdom teeth removed. We had a nice early appointment. In my mind I thought we could go, be home by the time the kids were finishing breakfast, and I could make it to the hospital in the afternoon. But we were rear-ended on the highway in route to her appointment (I was driving Amy's car). We sat by the side of the highway for close to an hour waiting (the police officer was directed to an accident that occurred later than ours by mistake) and then we had all the paperwork to deal with. We are both fine physically for which we are thankful and her car is not damaged (the other one was). The oral surgeon worked us in later and so we went ahead with the surgery as Amy returns to school next week and this needed to be done before that. So our nice early appointment turned into an almost all day affair. Then later in the afternoon, I took Molly to ballet - in the van this time - and once home the van began spewing radiator fluid all over the driveway. So off that went to the shop. If I wasn't reading The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment I could have quite the pity party today, but the book is way too convicting for that. So on to tomorrow and what the Lord has in store for that day.

PS. Amy is doing well after the surgery - we had somewhat of a rough time this afternoon, but she is doing well now. Praying for a speedy recovery.....

Traction Day 1

One mad, sad, hurt, scared little girl.....

Good News

We had some good news today on the medical front with Anna. We knew when we adopted her that she had a history of untreated ear infections and so had some hearing loss. We of course didn't realize quite how bad her ears were until she got here. There are perforations on both of her ear drums which the doctor could not even get a good look at for all the gunk in her ears. She had years and years of gunk in her ears and who knows what was growing in there. So she has had some pretty aggressive (translate expensive) treatments for her ears. The plan was for her to be fitted with hearing aids while she was in the hospital doing her traction thing. Today we went in for a re-check and the doctor was amazed - all of the gunk was cleared out of her ears!! So they re-tested her hearing and she is actually in the normal range now (okay so its the bottom, the way bottom, of the normal range but...). This means that she will not have to get hearing aids. Praise the Lord!!!! She still has the holes and we are praying (we would love for you to pray along with us) that they will close on their own. If they do not, she will have to have surgery. One of her perforations is so odd the doctor commented she had never seen anything like it. I am getting used to that phrase when it comes to Anna. But we are thanking the Lord for his mercy today in clearing out her ears and the fact that she will not have to have hearing aids.