Yay! Yay! Yay her cast came off today!!

Everyone is home, safe and sound in bed after a long day. I was up at 5:00 and we left at 6:00. We sat in traffic for a while and ended up rushing to our appt a few minutes late. I still made time to get the kids their donut and myself a coffee (not negotiable). :)

They took the cast off and this is the first time Noah was there for it. She was screaming as usual and Noah looked a little freaked out. The cast guy let him feel the saw so he'd know it doesn't hurt (it only vibrates). After it was off Noah climbed up on the bed with us and just sat there hugging Jordan for a long time. Noah's not much of a hugger so this was such a reminder to me that he is affected when she goes through things.

The doctor x-rayed it and said it looks fine so we were able to leave without a cast. He said that he wants her in a brace 18 hours a day and always when she's walking. He said to see him again after she's been wearing it for 4 weeks straight that much time each day. He also gave us some great advice as to which leg to use for the next surgery (bone grafting) and gave me a few more details on the process of bone grafts and the healing etc.

God SOOO provides in even the smallest detail - we needed an appt at the brace office asap to get the brace so I called them. It so happens that my friend's mom is the scheduler there (Brett Thomas' mom - Jane at SCOPE in Mission Viejo). She answered so I told her our situation but the orthotist was booked unti lThursday. He moved things around for us and told us to come at 1:00 for a fitting. This is the same guy who saw us for free a while back when we were out of insurance money and stuck without a brace. He was wonderful and kind and so generous with his time. We've heard so many good things about him. Today he was SUPER with Jordan (she was scared again, as usual) and she even gave him a big hug afterward. He is rushing the brace so hopefully it'll be done by Friday. We were all home in time for short naps then the kids spent an hour and a half in the bath together. It was great to see her leg back to normal and to scrub off all that nasty skin. I put lotion on it and even painted her toe nails. Yay! I am so happy to have that cast off. We have five weeks until the next surgery and I'm so thankful to have a little extra time without casts. She stood on it for a few seconds tonight but won't stand or walk on it yet. Shan is taking her to physical therapy tomorrow morning so I'm praying she starts walking on it there.

Off to bed now after a long day -

Could it be...???

We might actually get Jordan's cast off tomorrow morning - one week early! She is SO active and doesn't sit still (Kids Ministry workers at church can attest to that one) so she's worn a big hole in the bottom of the cast so her heel sticks out and the front is breaking open. I have been wanting to ask if we can get the cast off early but I didn't want to push it until last night when we found a pretzel in the cast. Yes, in the cast. I was poking around in there and found it. Jordan grabbed it and put it in her mouth!!!!! This is the same girl who threw up her breakfast (stomach flu) without crying or making a sound then looked down at the banana chunk she puked up and put it in her mouth and ate it - again. :) Jordan is honestly like Pig-Pen in the Peanuts cartoon. She cannot keep her hair clean for more than a few hours, it's a HUGE challenge to keep her clothes stain free enough to pass down and now we're expected to keep a cast clean and free of debris. Ya right! Today when I was jogging with them it was really hot and they saw that the sprinklers were on in a big grassy area near our house. They wanted to play - how could I say no? Jordan got wet - very wet of course, while Noah barely got his feet wet then he insisted he take his shirt off to clean and dry his feet. I didn't think about it but after that we finished running home where I let them play at the park for a few minutes...in the sand. Jordan ended up with mud in her cast. It was in the front filling the toe area and also in the hole in the bottom. Ooops. :) I gave them a bath after lunch and spent some time trying to scrap the mud out so the doctor wouldn't scold me to severely tomorrow. I was trying so hard not to gag as I did it. Honestly the skin is so thick and peely and it smells so bad. I'm wondering what it'll look like tomorrow. When I peek down in the leg of the cast I can see that it looks brown and the cloth is stuck to her skin. Yuck.
So there it is - I am ECSTATIC that we are leaving here at 6 a.m. tomorrow to get another x-ray done and Lord willing get her cast off. Three months is a very long time and now that we know that in five more weeks she'll be in more casts after the next surgery we are even more excited for her to have freedom from casts asap. I usually dread seeing the fresh scars after a surgery but it's been longer this time so they're probably healed but at the same time I can't wait to see those blessed scars as opposed to that cast.
One more thing - Noah hasn't been able to take a bath with his sissy since October 29th. They could spend hours in the tub together (making a total mess) so it's no wonder Noah's response was what it was today. I told them that Jordan may be getting her cast off tomorrow and he was so excited and said, "Oh yeah - she can take a bath in the big boy bath tub with me tomorrow!!" So cute. Another funny thing for the books is that later tonight we were talking about how exciting it is that she'll get her cast off tomorrow and she picked up her baby doll backpack, looked at us and said, "Going to see Dr. Jones, see you in the morning" and turned around and walked away. Hilarious. As a correction to Miss Smarty Pants it's Dr. Oppenheim not Jones. :)
Okay I'm off to get things together for our last early morning breakfast in the UCLA Hospital cafeteria (for a few months anyway). If you keep up with my posts you'll know how much I love that hospital and how much I appreciate the fact that they have Starbucks there.
I'll post pictures tomorrow hopefully.
Pray that we'll be able to get the cast off and if not than pray that I won't be discouraged or impatient. I want a thankful and content heart regardless of how things go.

Happy New Year!

Shan's mom and Noah with their sparkling apple cranberry juice.

Cheers!

...and the big kiss at midnight!

I'm just posting a few pictures tonight but need to get to bed so I'll post on the new year and my resolutions (incase you care) another time.

I loved these pictures and had to post them tonight.

Shan's grandma is in town from Iowa so we had his parents and her over for the night New Year's Eve then Shan's cousins and brother and sister came over. We had a triple date Wednesday night - Shan's parents, us and then GG and Noah. This was Noah's first New Year's Eve staying up until midnight (east coast time) and it was his first New Year's Eve kiss at midnight...with his great grandma. That is SO cute! GG is SO special to us and we love her more than we can say so this will always be a wonderful memory for us and something we'll share with Noah when he's older. :)

Potty Training

Here's the set up...big girl undies, donuts, fruit bars, graham crackers, goldfish, chocolate covered raisins, jelly beans, stickers and of course Saran Wrap. :)

I had to put this picture on here. It captures the morning...shirt tucked up out of the way, drinking Sprite, diaper cast aside and Saran Wrap on her cast.

Big Brother very excited about Potty Training Day

Most of you know that we are potty training Jordan this week. It seems a bit premature (she's 2 yrs 3 months) but as usual we are tied to a surgery schedule and therapy schedule that dictates our lives. Shan suggested this weekend that we train her this week. I totally resisted at first but then thought about the fact that we had a week off from appts (except the surgeon's appt) and that with her next surgery coming up we wouldn't have another chance until summer. A few people laughed, said we were crazy and should reconsider but we didn't see that we really had many other options. We went for it. I took just Jordan to Wal-Mart to get her big girl undies and all the sugary and salty snacks and drinks she loves to use as motivation and ammunition. We pumped it up and tried to get everyone excited. Noah was very excited and really looking forward to potty training Jordan. He even reminded me that I needed the timer and told me where it was when I couldn't find it. He saw all the candy and soda and kept saying that he wanted to be potty trained again. :) We assured him that he could certainly partake in the festivities.

We use the method from the book Toilet Training in Less Than a Day. I've never read the book but I have a wonderful friend (Alyssa Buck) who typed up the basics for me with Noah and then walked me through it hourly as I trained him. With Noah (see past blog post about a year ago) it was insane! He peed all over the place and couldn't hold an ounce of pee in. The place was a mess, we were all slipping and sliding and we ran out of underwear. By naptime I was DONE and near tears. He woke up from his nap dry and then didn't have an accident again until bedtime when family came by and we were distracted. He was completely potty trained with no accidents in a week then with "number 2" he was totally set within two weeks. Jordan has been a very different case.

She was afraid to pee on the potty so she'd cry and cry every time we put her on. She'd also hold it for hours and hours. She was downing Sprite but not peeing. We'd finally force her to sit on the potty and she'd scream like crazy then drip a couple drops. It was like that all morning. That afternoon she woke up with a full Pull-Up then began the pattern of leaking a bit and freaking out so we'd get her to the potty to finish. By day two it was better but still leaking some, then saying "Uh oh" and we'd help her to the potty. By day four she didn't have an accident all day but we were making her get to the potty even though she said she didn't have to go. Today I was determined to let her have accidents so that she can learn to get herself to the potty but it was disastrous. Now we're back to just taking her every so often and then she goes. We went on our first outing tonight to the mall and she didn't have an accident but we took her to the potty three times whle there. All in all she's doing well and I'm really glad we did it. I just hope she gets over this fear she has of going in the potty.