Latest with Dr. Jones

Today Jordan and I met with Dr. Jones. We love every one of our surgeons but I think I have to say Dr. Jones may be my favorite. He's British so he's a bit stoic but every once in a while you see a crack of a smile and a really sweet man behind that surgeon's mask. For any of you who have dealt extensively with surgeons you know they are their own breed. They are like machines, so highly skilled in such a specific area or expertise that there is hardly anything else - at least from the patient's perspective. I often find myself wondering what they are like at home with their wives and children and grandchildren. We are one of many patients to them but to us they are part of our story, part of our lives and the ones who are helping Jordan so much. They mean a lot to us. I often find myself vowing to crack the surgeons, to make them smile and show warmth and even laugh. With our sitution we've had the same surgeons for a while now for multiple surgeries so we get to see them fairly regularly. A while back I asked Dr. Jones to separate Jordan's toes (they were webbed together). He said there was no need, they were fully functional the way they were. I explained that while he is merely concerned with function I, the mother of my daughter, am concerned with form. He told me that they'd just grow back together anyway. I begged him to "humor me" and do it since it would only be a few extra minutes and a little snipping here and there. He actually chuckled a bit and agreed to do it but insisted they'd grow back. We are more than one year out from the surgery and every single time we see him he peeks at her toes to see if they've grown back together and every time I say "Ha! You might as well stop looking, it's been long enough and they have yet to grow back." I even jokingly told him once that he needed to say out loud, "Jennifer you were right. Her toes look wonderful and they indeed have not grown back." Today, as usual, I went to our appt with the plan of attack to make Dr. Jones smile. I didn't have to work very hard though because Jordan put on quite the show. As we were heading back to the room Jordan was marching herself down the hall (she gets quite full of herself when she has her pig tails in and now that she's even peeing in the potty she's larger than life). Dr. Jones didn't notice her and ran into her. She looked up at him with recognition and a look or horror on her face. She stared up at him as she stumbled around him and realized I was heading for a patient room and she started screaming "No Dr. Jones!!! No Dr. Jones!!!! Noooooooo!!!!" It was the funniest thing ever and guess what - it made Dr. Jones laugh a bit. She is so fearful of doctors now that we can hardly get her in the room much less near anyone in a white coat. She eventually warmed up to him today and did fine and we had a very nice visit with him.

Our appt was to discuss her next surgery. Here's a recap:
--- He will take bone from her fibia (outer, lower leg bone) and will pin it to the existing bone in her short/floppy thumb to make it a little longer and more stable. It won't bend but it will give her a pincer grasp on that hand, which she does not have currently.
--- The surgery, amazingly, will be outpatient unless there is a pain management issue. The surgery will probably be at CHOC and will be around six weeks from now.
--- She will have a cast on her leg and a cast on her arm. Ideally she'd have a splint of some sort to immobilize the thumb and protect the pins but the last time she had a hand/arm cast she got it off twice so he thinks she'll need a cast up above her elbow. Yes, another leg cast and an arm cast all at the same time - three weeks after getting her current leg cast off. YIKES.
--- If I'm understanding correctly, the leg cast would be on for six weeks and the hand/arm cast will be on for 6 weeks up to 3 months (same as the current leg cast - I guess three months is typical for a pin). This will be good timing so she will not spend the summer in casts. She'd be done by mid Spring.
--- A tough decision we need to make is which leg to take bone from. Shan and I really want it taken from the right leg since she already has so many scars on that one but I'm not sure what they'll say since she is supposed to be in a brace on her right foot for six months and also taking into consideration the fact that her right leg just came out of a three month cast. They may want to give that leg a break and use the left.

Okay a ton of details but I like putting it all on here so if anyone is curious you can go back and read it. It also helps me put things down clearly so it's together in my mind.

I am dying to post on our current potty training with Jordan but I just haven't had a chance. I plan to do it tomorrow or the next day so check back when you can. She's doing surprisingly well and I'm so thankful. She only had a few accidents all day today but she is really getting so much better.

Thanks for checking in - Happy New Year!