Okay, here we go, we’re on our way!
First we have an appointment with Child Life at the hospital, then we’ll be headed to see Dr. Hoffinger to see what the surgical plan is.
At the hospital, Amy loved playing with all the toys and coloring in the same-day surgery waiting area. Then Child Life came to meet us, and give Amy a doctor’s kit to play with.
Since Amy wasn’t able to walk, she got to ride all around the hospital in a special wagon. She loves the hospital, and seems to be ready for her big adventure. Back in the car, she immediately casted her new bear’s leg and started giving him some sleeping medicine. Dr. Amy is going to heal his leg!
Reading over my list of questions one last time – it’s 4 pages long! But I feel like it’s all info I need to know, and I left space to write. We are ready to make a plan!
BTW, this pink binder is our medical lifeline. With all the complexities of our daughters’ medical histories, it’s needed, and a great place to keep notes, x-rays, etc.
It’s saved my butt more than once!
In the waiting room, we had a pretty long wait. Dr. Hoffinger had lots of pre-ops today. We don’t care though. We know other people have lots of questions too, and know that Dr. Hoffinger gives all his patients all the time they need, and he’ll do the same with us. Amy was having a lot of fun though, even though she couldn’t walk. We played with her favorite bead toys:
She made little monster dolls for Solome, her best friend who also has CPT. Also, she wanted her leg to be purple like her bear’s, so I wrapped it in Coban for her. She’s hoping that she can have a purple cast later today.
Then she started hiding from me, and crawling around being silly in the big sunken ship. It makes me happy that she can still find joy, but it also makes me sad that my 3 year old has to crawl like an infant. ?
Okay, answers to the most important questions:
1st: When is surgery? We are sticking with Feb. 21st at Stanford.
2nd: How bad is the the break? Surprising news: SHE MAY NOT BE BROKEN. We don’t know. He doesn’t know. What does he think? “She better not be!!!” We have decided to proceed with the McFarland surgery as planned. However, once he is able to actually SEE her bone with his own eyes, then he will make the judgement call. If it’s intact, he’ll proceed as planned. If not, then he will switch gears and straighten her bone with a tibial rodding procedure. This places a stainless steel rod up the tibia, and through the ankle to stabilize the leg.
Regardless of which procedure he does, he is very optimistic about her chances of a good outcome. That’s the most important thing.
Until then, as he was completely out of bubble wrap, and with Amy’s propensity to pop all the things: he has put her in a long leg cast. (Cast #8!) She is permitted to walk- but Amy doesn’t want to yet. Hopefully, we will have her wheelchair in the next couple days.
So now, we wait. During surgery, a nurse will call and we’ll find out what was done, until then, we’ll be holding our breath. Regardless of how this all shakes out: one thing is certain. Amy will continue to keep us on our toes, and continually astonish us. ❤️
It’s been a very long day! I’m envious she gets to sleep.
