At Home in the Mountains

Maddy went from casts to aquaplast splints today. the aquaplast splints are made from sheets of moldable plastic. They stretch out the knees as far as they can and then make a splint to hold the knees and feet in the position they go to. The splints do not stretch the knees anymore however. That is the downside to it because now it is up to us to stretch the knees and feet to obtain more mobility as well as the neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hip stretches that we already have to try to do every day. I feel overwhelmed with all the stretching. Honestly I don't do it nearly as much as they say to. The PT for all the stretches we've been doing wanted us to do 10-15 reps 4-6 times a day on each stretch. !!! So we figured it up and she has 37 stretches. If we do each stretch for just 3 minute a piece 3 times a day we would spend 5 1/2 hours a day just for stretching. I am not a full time physical therapist! If I tried to get that much in that is all my relationship with my daugh...

Today we went for a two month check up and shots. I was dreading the shots but Maddy did great. We only had the left leg available for the shots so we did not do the Hep B shot she was supposed to get. We'll get that later. Anyway she cried while the nurse was giving her the shot but as soon as the nurse was done, she was done. She also had an oral vaccine for roto virus which was no biggy at all. I think she kind of liked it whatever it was. She is funny. She is sleeping now. I gave her tylenol before we went so I'm hoping that will prevent any fever or aches that might come from the vaccines. I found out that the test they did for spinal muscular atrophy came back negative so that is good news. We're still waiting on the results for full chromosome screen and the mytotic (sp?) dystrophy test. She has had really dry, scaly eyebrows for the past couple of weeks so he gave a perscription for some cream to put on that. I am also going to have to get some dandruff shampoo for ...

After Maddy's audiology appointment we ran home and packed up and then headed for Farwell, TX to start memorial day weekend! Maddy was worn out from the appointment so she slept well on the trip. We got to Farwell about 1 a.m. My parents had already been there a day. They were up when we got there so my dad could see Maddy. She was asleep when we got in so we all went to bed pretty quickly. The next morning she got to meet Great Grandpa and Grandma Embry. They were so cute. My papa could not have any peace til he had a picture with Maddy. He was afraid we were going to leave without him getting a picture with her. My mema just wanted to hold her all the time. She kept peeking in on her while she was sleeping. It was really cute. For lunch (dinner as they say in Farwell) the family came over and we had ham, mema's rolls, salads, and potatoes. For dessert they made homemade ice cream and Amanda brought a delicious butter pecan cake. After that we sat around talking for most of th...

We are getting ready to head out to Farwell. The hearing test process lasted about 2 hours. We had to feed her and get her to go to sleep and then start the test. We couldn't let her sleep in the car and were supposed to keep her awake before the test so it was pretty easy to get her to fall asleep since she hadn't slept since 11. The test showed that she had some mild hearing loss in both ears. So they did another test to see if her ear drums were moving correctly. They weren't. This is actually a good thing because it means that most likely she has fluid or some type of infection behind her eardrums that is causing the hearing loss. So we are scheduled to go in to an Ear Nose and Throat doctor. The annoying part is that they couldn't get us in until June 23rd so we will have to wait a month to see what is going on with that. The good part is that it could clear up on its own before then. We will do a repeat hearing test after the doctor looks at her and gets fluid cle...

Just a quick note to let everyone know that Maddy has ANOTHER set of casts. On Tuesday morning I called Scottish Rite because I could tell her foot was starting to pull back. I really wanted to take her to her physical therapy appt because she hadn't been in two weeks. After the day was over I wished I had just canceled it because she was so fussy about her cast slipping of that the PT couldn't do a thing with her. We went to Scottish Rite right after the PT so she didn't eat from 11 until 5 and she was totally exhausted because the only sleep she got was the car rides. They decided to try something different. The taped her foot that had the surgery and then put a "soft cast" over that. They also went ahead and put a cast back on her left leg to continue stretching the knee. The soft cast is a fiber glass cast. It rolls on like an ace bandage and they harden it with this lotion stuff they rub on to the cast. The nice thing about these casts is that if they start ...

This morning Maddy's foot was way up inside her cast again. Not good since she just had surgery to correct it yesterday. So we called Scottish Rite and they told us to come on in. The doctor had to stretch her foot back into the corrected position again, which she did not enjoy, but she did pretty good. And yest, that cast looks huge because it is huge! He put three layers on. He also had to bend her knee to keep it from sliding down. That was a little disappointing because we'd been working on getting them straight but that is better than wasting a surgery. I don't think this one is coming off. If it does, I will be shocked. So, if all goes well we should have a two week break from SR, which will be refreshing since we went there four times this week. We tried out the jogging stroller tonight--just on a walk--but it is awesome! Pics of that later.

looking super cute! new cast set up crying in this one, but you can see her legs better So, the little surgery went well. We had to wait longer than usual today. They cut off her old casts and then they sent us out of the room. I could still here her but she never cried really hard. They said they have a new way of giving anesthesia. Instead of a needle it is some kind of pressurized thing. I can't really picture it, but apparently it is a lot more comfortable than being poked. They cut her achillies tendon. I did not know this, but it will grown back just fine in babies. They were not able to push her foot up as much as expected. We go back in two weeks to have them check that leg. The other leg he left without a cast. I think they will start casting it again next time we go in but he was giving it a break. It is doing really well and I think they also partly wanted to leave it off for a bit because she was developing a little sore on her heel on that foot. It is so cool to actual...

at the drive-in new casts Grandpa Steve being cute ******************* Actually, I'm not even really out for summer. I will be doing an online class this summer. That is okay. I will need something to keep my mind from turning into mental mush over the summer. The class I'm taking will be the last core class required for my degree. After that I will have 3 hours of electives left and 12 hours of English classes. I have an A+ and an A so far. I know C.S. Lewis will shoot down the 4.0 that I've enjoyed in grad school so far. It makes me mad because I feel like any other teacher, any good teacher, would have at the very least given me an A- for the work I did in this class. I honestly feel like I put the work into this class to get an A and that makes getting B I'm expecting so disappointing. If I'd only done enough to deserve a B, I wouldn't be disappointed. Anyway, enough of that. So this week is the week of Scottish Rite. We went on Monday to get Maddy recasted...

Maddy waiting to get her casts off at Scottish Rite Maddy with me after my presentation. The bracelet I am wearing I got at the Scottish Rite gift shop. They had a sale on. All jewelry $5. Maddy in a dress that she got at the church shower. It looks like she is giving me a wink **************** Alright! Here we are again at the beginning of the week. I feel like I haven't had a moment to breath since last Monday. I found out I had a rather involved presentation to do on top of my 12-15 pg. paper for the C.S. Lewis class, so the paper got put on hold all week while I did the research for the presentation. This week I have to finish my paper, study for and take a final, and read about 6 other students papers so that I can chair this dumb panel session we are having as our final in C.S. Lewis. My mind may blow up before the week is over. Most of the week was just me working on my paper and taking care of Maddy but on Thursday evening I went to eat BBQ at Rudy's in Denton with our ...