Not again

Yes, again. It happened again. This time it was Brynna.

I was so proud of myself when summer started and the girls pulled out the bikes again. I'm not going to act like an over-protective parent. I'm not going to panic every time a child falls on a bike. After all, breaking a leg is not the usual outcome from that. And we've already used up our allotment of broken legs, right?

Evidently not. Brynna fell riding her bike Monday morning, and turned her ankle in the fall. At first we thought it was just sprained, but after x-rays and and an MRI, she broke her tibia. Sigh.

Fortunately they were able to cast her in office instead under general anesthesia like Hailey needed. But because the doctor was concerned about the bones staying in the proper alignment for the joint to work properly she needs x-rays once a week for the next 6 weeks.

Hey at least we already had the crutches! But I am now convinced that bicycles are inventions of the devil.
Her sisters had toys and coloring books ready for her when she got home from getting the cast.

The Gall Bladder Saga

I mentioned in an earlier post that Kelly's been having health issues. This has been going on since May. In June we thought he had food poisoning. Since the attacks kept happening we thought he'd developed a food allergy. Then we thought it was a bacterial infection of the stomach. A blood test ruled that out. Then we thought it was gall stones. An ultrasound ruled that out.

Then a couple of weeks ago he went in for an EGD because the GI doctor thought it was an ulcer, but the scope showed nothing that could cause the symptoms. So he ordered a HIDA scan to check the gall bladder to see if it was functioning. A normal gall bladder will show at least a 35% rate on this scan; Kelly's was 14%. His condition is called Biliary Dyskinesia. So Monday he saw a surgeon and Thursday he had the gall bladder removed.

This was somewhat amazing that it happened so quickly because our health insurance is still a mess. Kelly changed jobs in November but wasn't eligible for the company health insurance until January 1, 2011. (The company insures new hirees starting on the first day of the month after they have been working there for 30 days.) But the company's health insurance year starts over on February 1 of every year. So we had insurance for January and then the company switched health insurance providers in February. So we still don't have insurance cards. We weren't even in the new company's system yet. But obviously God worked it out so that they worked with us. Kelly's HR manager has been a great help too, working with the doctor and surgical center to show we do have coverage.

It was so providential that he had it done Thursday, because he was so sick from the gall bladder that morning that I would have had to take him to the ER if we weren't already scheduled to go in for surgery. I joked to the girls about him having "gall bladder poisoning" and they thought I was serious. I'm not sure I wasn't as it was definitely "poisoning" his health. He's still sore from the four incisions in his stomach, but already feels better than he did before surgery in spite of the pain.

Hopefully, he'll be back to feeling better very soon. We are all hoping that. My 14 yo made the comment yesterday that it was hard to imagine life without Daddy being sick all the time. We are praying that is in the past.

Hailey's Birthday

Hailey's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but I never got around to getting anything up on the blog about it. She received a pretty cross necklace from my parents. However, this was her 8th birthday, so she had been saving up to pay for part of her Life of Faith doll. Kora, Aubrey, and Brynna all have at least one, but we've always made the deal with them that we'll pay for part of it for a birthday and they have to pay for the rest. Since they are expensive dolls, we felt like they would take better care of them if they had to save up for part of it and realized how long that took.
She was very excited. Brynna has had hers for about a year and a half, and it was hard on Hailey not to have one to play with when they would play dolls (poor girl, she had to make due with just an ordinary doll). But now she has her own Violet doll.
And tomorrow she gets her boot off! Probably. It depends on the x-ray of course, but if it looks like the doctor expects, then she'll be back to normal tomorrow - a mere 13 weeks after she broke her leg!

Hailey News

I took Hailey back to the doctor yesterday. Her x-rays looked good - to the doctor - and the big cast came off. I saw the x-rays and it is still looking pretty broken to me, but they said it was right where it should be.

She got another cast on (purple this time) that ends below her knee, which she will wear for four weeks. The new twist is, this is a walking cast! They want her off those crutches as soon as possible, preferably within a week of getting the new cast. They said at this point in the recovery that she needs to put weight on it to speed healing. He warned me that if she used the crutches for the next four weeks, she'll still need a cast at the end. If she walks on it, she can probably go to a boot, or perhaps nothing at all.

Her knee was really sore yesterday after being immobilized in the hip to foot cast she had before, but she is better today. Tomorrow, I am going to try to get her to use one crutch. She is still scared of the pain she experienced 5 weeks ago and is a little ginger on it. But hopefully we can get her walking around soon!

Making the Best of It

Hailey is really starting to get around very well on her crutches, which is impressive considering how big and heavy her cast is. We are still using the wheel chair for some things - I took her to her follow-up appointment today in it because I thought it would be too much walking without it.

However, she has been having a little fun with it and her younger sisters. The other day I caught Ashlynn in her lap and Lauryn standing on the back. I didn't get a picture of that, but I did get a picture of this:

Corner

Hailey turned a corner on Wednesday or Thursday. Suddenly (it seemed) she could move around without excruciating pain. She got her crutches on Thursday and she can get around with them a little. Her cast is so big and so heavy that it is hard for her to go very far still. I'm sure she'll build up some strong arm muscles by the time this is over. She's getting from the couch to the wheel chair by herself and wheeling herself around the house. She started eating at the table with us again - we just took the arms off the wheelchair and it slides right under the table. She hasn't had any pain meds in several days.

She had a follow-up appointment and x-rays on Thursday. He said it couldn't look better a week out. He ordered the crutches and said to come back in another week. If those x-rays look ok, she'll come back in three more weeks, at which point he'll put her in a short cast (one that stops below her knee). If the x-rays taken at that appointment look good, he'll order it to be a walking cast. I figure she'd be in that one 2-3 weeks, for a total of eight weeks in a cast - virtually all summer.

Right now I am just thankful that her pain level is so much less. I'm sure it will be harder to keep her entertained now that she's feeling better, but that's still easier to deal with than the pain and the tears.

Update on Hailey

Hailey is doing very well today. She never did have too much pain yesterday (perhaps from the pain meds I was giving her) though she did get the nausea again. Thankfully they had given me a prescription for that, which made her sleepy. So she had a good night. Today she is either watching videos or making paper dolls. She is still in a bit of pain when we have to move her to the bathroom, but the cast seems to be helping that. It's not hurting her as much to move. She's still got the leg elevated, and will have to keep it that way for a few more days. But over all she's in good spirits and enjoying all the care packages she's received. I'm sure the boredom will set in at some point, though.

Success

Hailey's procedure went well this morning. The doctor was very pleased with how straight he was able to get the leg (though that phrase just makes me weak in the knees), however the swelling had not gone down as much as he had hoped. So he ordered a device like this to connect to a cuff that goes around her cast to provide continuous cooling to help reduce the swelling.

She did get sick from the anesthesia, but seems to be over it now. In fact, she wasn't happy that she couldn't have the pizza a friend had gotten for her sisters for lunch. The cast goes from her hip to foot. The test will be in a couple of hours when the numbing shot he injected into her leg wears off. We'll see how much pain she's in then from all he did to her leg.

We have to keep her leg elevated for a few more days and keep this cooler filled with ice. Then I take her in on Thursday for a follow up which will involve x-rays. Hopefully the swelling won't cause them to have to re-do the cast.

As I write, she's sitting happy on the sofa, drinking sprite and watching the Muppet Show on DVD. Her parents are quite tired, as WE did NOT get the good drugs the last few nights! ;-)

Nightmare Day

Yesterday morning (Tuesday) the girls were out riding their bikes. We normally go out there after breakfast and ride unless we are going to the pool that day. My good friend Vivian called, so I was sitting on my front steps watching some kids ride and others sit on the driveway and draw with a new bucket of sidewalk chalk I had just bought.

Hailey, my 7 year old, rode over in front of our house and started making a 360 turn to her right to go back up the street the way she had just come. At that point events start blurring a little. I saw her fall onto her left side, landing on her left hip and leg with the bike landing on top of her. She immediately started screaming. I told Vivian, "Igottagobye," as I started running towards the street, throwing the phone into the grass.

Hailey was screaming in agony, holding her leg. She was screaming things like "It hurts, I think I broke my leg!" I was looking for road rash where she had landed, so I kept trying to look at her left leg, just sure that the skin was all off in a bloody mess. But she was holding her other leg, shaking and screaming. Then I got a look at the leg she was holding. It was obvious something was wrong because of the odd swelling that was already occurring (though thankfully no bones were protruding).

Trying to calm her down so I could get her into the Suburban, I had the other girls get the bike put up while I tried to carry her, scooping her up from the asphalt and somehow getting her into the car. Then I had to get a trash can since she felt like she was going to be sick (I felt a bit like it myself), threw on decent clothes, grabbed my purse and got out the door, being so thankful my oldest child is old enough to keep the kids for a while.

Once we got to the pediatric urgent care clinic and got checked in, they fortunately had a wheelchair. But any movement sent her into spasms of agony. She looked awful too. She was sweaty from the bike riding and the shock, her skin was an odd grey color and clammy, and she had the shakes really bad. She was also in old mismatched clothes she had thrown on to bike ride in, her hair was in a messy ponytail from the bike helmet, and she was in tennis shoes that needed to be thrown away, they were so worn out.

Though we were all fairly sure it was broken, they needed to do x-rays, but just moving her was so painful. They had no IV pain meds at the clinic, but she was so nauseated, they couldn't give her oral pain meds yet. So before we x-rayed her they gave her some anti-nausea medicine. We then managed somehow to get her onto the x-ray table but could not get her leg straightened out. So we had to take the pictures with her knee bent. After the first film, the doctor pulled me aside and showed me the x-ray. It was broken in two places and part of the bone was displaced. She wasn't sure if it would need surgery to put a pin in or not, but it was bad enough they couldn't cast it there. She told me she was probably going to send me to an ER, calling an ambulance to transport her. What she really needed was better films, but she needed to be drugged to do that, and they could do that in the ER and not the clinic.

Then we went back in for another x-ray. After getting her back into the wheelchair, I thought she was going to pass out. When she would look at me crying while this was happening, well, I can't describe the agony and heartbreak I felt. At that point they did give her some pain medicine as the anti-nausea meds had kicked in by that point. Also, the doctor got her an appointment with a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at 1:30 so we wouldn't have to go to the ER. But they did need to splint her first. After that I started making phone calls, including one to Kelly, whom I hadn't really had time to call yet. He immediately left work and came to meet me at the house.

On our way home, I stopped to get Hailey something to eat (mistake #1). Kelly carried her into the house while we made plans for the rest of the day. We then climbed back into the truck to head up to the specialist office. Thinking the worse was behind us, I didn't think about grabbing a trash can. Well, that was a BIG mistake (#2). She got sick on the way, and we had nothing with us. So we had to turn around and head back home and clean her up - without giving her a shower, and clean the truck up somewhat, though not thoroughly since we needed to go. Then we climbed into the Suburban and headed to the specialist.

They got her back and elevated the leg, iced it, and showed us the x-ray. The break was even worse than I had originally been told. Besides the two breaks, there is a long vertical crack from the bottom break all the way down the bone. And there was nothing they could do for a couple of days. They wanted her under general anesthesia to set the bone and cast it, and they couldn't do either until the swelling went down some.

So we are set to take her into an outpatient surgical suite in the morning (Thursday). At this point they don't think they will need a pin, but she will have a hip to foot plaster cast. The nurse ordered us a wheel chair with elevated legs, as she won't be able to get around on crutches in the first cast. They are doing a plaster cast instead of a fiberglass one because of the type of break and the way it needs to be molded - I don't quite understand all the details but the plaster gives him some options the fiberglass doesn't, though she might get a shorter, fiberglass cast in a month to 6 weeks.

The rest of the day was spent trying to get her settled in at home, going to three different pharmacies trying to find one the had her prescription in stock, and trying to clean up the truck. Needless to say, Hailey slept fairly well on drugs, Kelly and I did not.

So for now, even after the cast is on, our downstairs living room will be her bedroom. Our house is not wheelchair friendly, so it is going to be a challenge just getting her around in the next month. So between seeing one of my kids in severe pain, ruining the back seat of our new truck, and dealing with all the logistics for the next month or so, I am feeling quite overwhelmed. I am dreading tomorrow - not the procedure itself, but the amount of pain she will surely be in the rest of the day.

We still aren't exactly sure how she broke the leg. I saw her fall and know she landed on her left side - she has a few scrapes from that. But the top leg is what broke, so we speculate she must have gotten it tangled in the bike frame or slammed it into the frame somehow. And while she has been in more pain than any child should, she has been a trooper. Though I don't know if she'll ever get onto a bike again.

May you live in interesting times

OK, since the big recitals on Sunday afternoon/evening, we've had:

a whole bunch of company leave.

my "cold" turn into bronchitis.

two other family members get a bit of a stomach bug.

a doctor diagnose me with bronchitis and give me medicine that is not working as fast as I would like (it never does).

the IRS send us a letter letting us know that we are being audited for the 2008 year (which we turned in last year in 2009). Evidently they believe that we either (a) don't really have 6 kids (maybe we are borrowing someone else's?) or (b) that we aren't reporting all the income we are getting to provide for these 6 kids. I get a good laugh out of that one.

My plans for the week have largely gone out the window. The biggest event for the week has yet to happen. Kelly's changing jobs! After looking and praying for over a year, his last day is Friday and he starts the new job on Monday. He is quite excited about the new project he'll be working on. And, as usual, he won't be able to tell me anything about it. Oh, well.

This is also the last week of school, which means it's time for me to order books for next year and start planning for it. I also have a lot of projects I'd like to get done this summer - most of them I had planned on doing last summer, but my foot injury pretty much scratched any of those plans. Maybe it's a good thing I've been on the couch this week. I think I need to rest up!

Smith Infirmary for Girls

That's what Kelly said we should call this place lately. Though I guess that wouldn't be appropriate now.

We've had a nasty stomach bug go through our family, starting with Ashlynn last Sunday. Then we thought we were free when no one else had succumbed by bedtime Tuesday night, which was a good thing since we were supposed to host our church's Wednesday evening Bible study.

Then around 1:15 a.m. Lauryn wakes me up with news that she has it, and I realize as I'm getting her situated that I'm not feeling all that steady either. Hoping it was just the power of suggestion, I stayed on the sofa just in case it wasn't so I wouldn't disturb Kelly. Sure enough, I had it too. By the time Kelly woke up, I was running fever. I ran fever all day long, staying pretty high. I don't remember being that sick in years, mainly because of the fever and, I'm sure, dehydration. I'm so grateful Kelly stayed home from work that day 'cause he had to nearly carry me to the bathroom, I was so weak, and nearly passed out on him a couple of times. I remember telling him at one point that I thought I was going to die. A few moments later I changed it to "I want to die."

Since I came down with it, Aubrey got it, and then last night Brynna, Hailey, and Kelly all got it. Ironically, Aubrey's the only other one that ran fever; most everyone has gone through it without any, let alone as high as mine was. Kora has escaped so far, but I'll be surprised if she doesn't get it soon. I feel like I need to hang a "Quarantined" sign on our front door. For such a short-lived virus, it is nasty while it is here.

Unfortunately, we aren't sure if this will affect our Easter plans, but at this point we are assuming it will.

Ankle update

I went to see the foot/ankle orthopedist who has been treating my partially torn tendon in my left ankle yesterday afternoon and he was very pleased. I have progressed so far that I can actually hold my arch up barefoot. That doesn't sound like much, but just a few months ago, my arch was on the floor if I didn't have a shoe on. It's my muscles that are holding the foot up, not the tendon, but it is definitely a good sign.

In fact, he called me "an interesting case." He said he's almost never seen this - progress like this, I mean. He wants me to do some foot muscle strengthening exercises to see if we can continue to build up the muscle to help compensate for the tendon who's literally falling down on the job. So for the foreseeable future, he will check me every 3 months and we'll just wait and see if I ever need surgery on it. I am praying not, because it is a major, major reconstruction with a long, arduous recovery. Not something I'm looking forward to.

So now I'm just praising God for the progress and the lack of much pain!

The Hits Just Keep on Coming

Sick kids. Again.

I don't know what the reason is, but this fall seems to be the sickest we have ever had. Every week, one or more of the kids gets sick. More than that, it seems as if it is the same bug with the same symptoms. I've had it at least once, and Kelly seems to be constantly fighting it off as well. Sore throat, low grade fever, runny nose, typical cold stuff. But over and over again? Come on, give a poor mom a break.

And it's not like I haven't been cleaning. I know theoretically you aren't supposed to catch the exact same virus again. If that's so, then our house seems to be a virus mutating ground.

Somebody make it stop!

Of foot and leg

Last week, Kora and I both went in for follow-up appointments with our prospective orthopedists. Kora's leg is coming along nicely. He gave her a new brace with hinges, so she can now sit much more comfortably. This also means she doesn't need a stool to prop her foot up on when she sits, which is really nice. We even had to bring a stool along to piano lessons, as she couldn't sit comfortably for any length of time without one. She's also putting more and more weight on it, and only using one crutch. All of this is according to doctor's orders. He even told her to start getting on our elliptical this week to strengthen her thigh muscle back up. We go back the middle of November, when I expect that she'll be told to stop using a brace and crutch altogether.

She will need to be followed up with x-rays of the leg for 6-12 months after her injury because evidently it is not unheard of for kids' legs to start growing in funny ways after a break. Even though he's fairly certain her growth plate was unaffected by the break, in unusual cases, one side of the bone can start growing at a different rate than the other after a break like this. He doesn't really think this will happen to her, but as a precaution, they will follow up with her even after she's out of the brace.

Two days after Kora's appointment, I had my 6 week follow up. Evidently the pain in my foot is normal pain recovering for 2 months of atrophy. It is getting better, but it can still really hurt by the end of the day. But the doctor said I'm stable - for now. He will follow up with me every three months for a while. He seems to think that eventually the tendon will give way and surgery will be needed, but he thinks I can probably go on as I am now for at least a couple of years.

He really wants to put it off as long as possible, especially since it is a long, hard recovery and my youngest is still so little. For the family's sake he'd like to wait until she's a little more self-sufficient. My hope and prayer is that with the orthotic support, I won't need the surgery at all. Ever. I can't imagine going through a recovery like that with the kids at home and needing a mother. But I also can't imagine living in the kind of pain I was in over the summer. Hopefully, it won't get that bad again!

Now I just need to get a few more shoes I can wear with these inserts. ;-)

Crazy. Nuts. Bonkers.

The title describes my life right now. Or maybe just me. Anyway, we have had a crazy, busy couple of months, with everything seeming to happen at once. Then just as things seem to calm down to normal, the craziness breaks out again. And DON'T tell me that this is the new normal. I refuse to believe that!

Over the weekend, our oldest five girls were performing in a musical play, along with most of the kids from our church. They've been working on this since March, so this was a big deal. We rented the gymnasium of a private school, props and scenery had been built, costumes made (fortunately not by me), lines and choreography learned. My parents and Kelly's dad all came in for the performance. I plan on doing a whole blog post about the play later in the week. Right now I want to talk about the rain.

You see, we are living proof of the adage, "when it rains, it pours." Not only have we been dealing with my ankle injury, but also the death of my mother-in-law, and helping my father-in-law with details, like getting their house ready for sale. Last week we also attended my sister-in-law's naturalization ceremony (another blog post coming) and getting ready for the play, but Kora came down with a cold. Then on Friday, the day of the dress rehearsal, two more of the girls came down with it. None had run fever, so I gave them cold medicine and sent them anyway along with a bottle of Purell. Then the day of the play, another girl came down with it.

After the play, Kora (12 yo) was running around the gym, jumped over something, and landed HARD, hyperextending her knee. She crumpled to the floor in quite a bit of pain. We figured she had sprained her knee or something. Sunday morning, I wake up with a burning throat - yep, now I had the cold, as did Ashlynn. These colds always make my asthma flare up, so I am on all sorts of drugs for that too. By Monday Kelly had it, and Kora was still in quite a bit of pain, unable to put any weight on it. So I took her to the doctor. He ordered x-rays, fearing that she might have broken the top of her tibia.

We took her in for x-rays this morning, and sure enough her leg has two cracks in it, easily visible to Kelly and me, though we have no medical training. Another trip to the doctor - this time a pediatric orthopedist - confirmed this. She was able to get a brace instead of a cast which is GREAT. She is allowed to take it off to bathe, though for now she has to sleep in it.

So we spent Sunday and most of Monday all lying around either sick or with a broken bone. Our 10 year-old, Aubrey, had KP most of the time because she got over the cold first. Oh, and did I mention that I hadn't gone grocery shopping yet? Usually I go right at the first of the month, but with company and the play, I had planned on going Sunday or Monday. Well, Sunday and Monday, I could barely get off the couch, so we were definitely scrounging. One night she made scrambled eggs and toast, 'cause that's what we had! Kelly finally made it to the store on Monday and got some cereal, milk, sandwich stuff, and frozen lasagna.

Did I mention the fact that our dishwasher and one of our outdoor faucets is leaking, our toilet won't stop running, the elliptical needs the belt looked at, and the suburban needs an oil change?

Oh, and when Stouffers says their lasagna is "Large Family Size"... THEY LIE.

It's Off!

My cast is gone! I can't tell you how glad I am to be rid of it! I have been dreaming for weeks now of a real shower and sleeping without having to contort my back into a weird angle because of the cast.

I am in a break boot, with a custom made arch support in it. In about a week, I'll start putting the insert into a regular tennis shoe for a bit, slowly working up to wearing regular shoes all the time.

Unfortunately, I now have "high maintenance feet" and will probably never be able to go for long periods of time barefoot. However, there are several types of sandals I will eventually be able to wear. (Can you say show shopping?) I may also always have to have the arch supports in order to keep my foot from getting any worse.

Of course, we still don't know if I will need surgery. The tendon pain is gone for now, but we don't yet know how it will respond to regular use. Once I get back to using it and going about my normal working-out, on-my-feet-to-run-the-house schedule, we'll be able to judge whether I need the surgery. I am sure praying not - the surgery is a major deal!

Now, I'm off to go soak in the tub for a while and scrub this foot and then drown it in lotion. You don't even want to know what a foot looks like after being in a cast for over 7 weeks!

Blue is cool

So now I have a blue cast. Yes, today was my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon regarding my bum ankle. And it went pretty much like I expected. I am improving some but definitely not "all better." And I didn't improve as much as he had hoped. So he put a new cast on me, and told me to come back in two weeks. At that time, I'll get fitted for an orthotic insert to help support my foot once I get the cast off. Of course, these things take a few days to make, so they told me to expect yet a third cast to be put on at that time until my insert is ready.

At that time, I'll get the cast off for good and wear a boot (such as you wear if you break your foot) with the insert in it. Then I'll slowly transition into wearing the insert in regular shoes. After a few weeks in the insert, we'll evaluate whether this treatment has done enough to allow the tendon to heal and whether I can live with whatever level of pain I have at the time. If I can't, we'll have to look at surgery. Oh joy.

An unexpected side effect of all this is that we are discussing whether it would be wise to sell our little yellow car and buy one with an automatic transmission. I can't drive the car right now at all because of the clutch, and if I have surgery, I won't be able to drive it for months. I hate to do this because it is paid off and the suburban is just 4-5 months from being paid off. I meant to ask the surgeon about it today, about whether the motion of pressing the clutch is something I will ever be able to do. Guess I'll have to ask him in two weeks.

The nice thing was that I did get a chance to shave my leg, wash my foot clean, and scratch! I wish I had had something to soak my foot to get it feeling really clean. I also wish that I had thought to bring something to scrub my foot with - like a loofah pad - to get more dead skin off. I'll have to remember that in two weeks. Too bad I can't get someone to come with me to the appointment to give me a pedicure while I wait for the doctor...

Peg Leg

So I've had this cast on for nearly two weeks. This is the first cast I've ever had on in my life. I've only broken two bones in my life. A couple of years ago, I broke one of my pinkie toes, which of course only required taping. When I was in the 6th grade I was trying to do a long jump, but landed on my rear end, breaking my tail bone. Thank goodness no cast exists for that. As it was the kids at school laughed at me for bringing a pillow to sit on for a few days.

Though I have nothing broken now, in case you missed it, I am wearing a cast on my left foot to immobilize it to allow a tendon injury to heal. In some ways it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. After all, I've always heard they are hot and it is about 147 degrees here every afternoon. But as long as I stay inside it isn't too bad. If I am on my feet too much, my foot or ankle starts to hurt, so I am trying to stay off of it as much as possible. That's easier some days than others. Somehow, kids still need things and the house still needs to run.

Fortunately I haven't been completely housebound. I am so thankful for the many stores that have the motorized carts. That has been great, though I do get funny looks in them, until they glance down at the cast on my leg. I am about 50 years younger than most other people on those carts. (Not all, Cathi!)

It has been crazily itchy at times, but fortunately most of it has been towards the top where I can get fingers to and scratch. Getting used to sleeping with it definitely took a couple of nights, but it wasn't as bad as I thought.

It still feels funny to walk with it because I have been unable to find a shoe for my right foot that is the same height. Definitely gives my a funny, ungraceful gate. If I have my cast shoe off I thump around like a peg leg sailor.

The most interesting hurtle has been bathing. I obviously can't take a shower, and the garden tub in our bathroom is too tall for me to sit in it and be able to hang one leg off the side. So, though I am limiting my trips upstairs as much as possible, I have to go upstairs to one of the girls' tubs to bathe. They not only have shorter tubs, but have hand-held shower heads, which makes bathing easier in that regard. However, since I can't sit all the way up, and I can't lean against anything because of the angle of my leg, I make it as quick a process as I can. Then I come downstairs and sit on the side of my tall tub to shave my legs. Then I go to the kitchen sink to wash my hair. It's quite a process.

I go back on September 1st to get this cast off. The thing is, there is a good chance I could come home from that appointment with another cast on, if the injury needs more time to heal. So I plan to go to the doctors office with a razor and shaving cream in my purse. If they want to re-cast my leg, they're going to have to give me a 5 minute break in the bathroom first!

Pink is Pretty

Here I am, modeling the latest in fashionable footwear.
Lovely, isn't it? This is what I have to wear for at least the next 4 weeks. In summer. In South Texas.

Back in March, I was working out one morning. I stepped forward to do a lunge with my left foot, when I felt something funny in my ankle. I quit doing that and by the time I was done working out my ankle was hurting, so I took it easy for a week or so, keeping the ankle wrapped. Then I eased back into my workout routine, but eventually the ankle started hurting again.

Again, I scaled back on all exercise except for running on the elliptical. I kept the ankle wrapped. I tried staying off my feet for week. But the ankle kept getting worse.

So the first part of June I went to see my doctor, who said the interior tendon of my ankle was inflamed, not unlike someone who has carpel tunnel of the wrists. He gave me a round of steroids and Alieve. This worked wonders for a week or so, but soon I was back as bad as I had been, some days barely able to walk. I went back to my doctor, who said, "hmmmm."

Don't you love it when docs say that?

He gave me another round of steroids and told me to go see a specialist. He thought I needed steroid shots right into the tendon. The oral steroids helped again, though not as much as the first time. Thankfully, I was finally able to see the specialist today.

He said I had indeed injured the tendon my doctor had told me, but it was more serious than either my family doctor or I had believed. The damage has obviously gotten much worse. In fact, he called my foot "deformed." The tendon is no longer holding the shape of my foot, the arch is nearly non-existent, and it stays swollen all the time now.

He said we may well be looking at surgery, though we are going to try some other things first. Because the surgery is a very big deal, he wants to avoid it if we can. The surgery makes me a little weak just thinking about it - I don't remember all the details because he lost me when he started talking about cutting my heel bone. Basically it would require a reconstruction of my entire left foot except the toes. And then there's a long rehab after that. Did you remember that I have SIX KIDS? I'm not allowed to be down like that.

In order to avoid the surgery, I have to have my ankle immobilized for 4-6 weeks to allow my body time to heal. So I came home in a lovely pink walking cast. In 4 weeks, I get that off and he'll evaluate things from there. At that point, I could be re-casted for longer, put into regular footwear with a good arch support, or scheduled for surgery.

While I am not looking forward to 4 weeks of casts in 100 degree heat, I am thankful for answers. I know that this is God's will in my life right now, for whatever reason. I also know we are commanded to be thankful in ALL situations. It is also a great opportunity to show my kids how to handle adversity, how to keep a godly attitude towards the negatives in life, and all that good stuff.

Can you tell I'm giving myself a pep talk? We all need it at times, right? I am just thankful to be living in a century when we have AIR CONDITIONING! And that I have older kids. And there is chocolate and Dr. Pepper in the world.

Needless to say I am praying that the surgery will not be necessary, but that no matter what God has planned for the next several weeks, that He will give me the grace to live through it as I should.

Right now, I have to break the news to the girls that we are starting school a week early...

How Quickly Things Get Worse

In my last post, I wrote that my mother-in-law's cancer had returned to her liver. Thursday morning we received some even worse news, which explains my lack of posting since then.

Not only is her cancer back, but it has infused her liver. In other words, there is no place in her liver where there is NOT any cancer. Which means it is inoperable. Radiation does not work on liver cancer. As a matter of fact, chemo rarely works on liver cancer. What this leaves us with is, basically, not much.

When Vickie was first diagnosed with breast cancer nearly 3 years ago, she asked about clinical trials. They told her that only two kinds of people were sent to clinical trials for cancer drugs - those who can't afford treatment and those they can do nothing else for. As they left the oncologist's office that day, Vickie joked to my FIL, "If an oncologist tells you he's looking for a clinical trial to put you in, you'd better be sizing up the coffin." Thursday, the doctor told her that they were looking into a clinical trial for her.

Right after lunch on Thursday, we told the girls the latest news. Of course, they already knew that her cancer was back, but they didn't understand the gravity of the recurrence. I think they just assumed she'd get treatment like the last time, and be OK. Well, we laid it all out for them. That has been the hardest thing we've ever done as parents to date. They adore Kelly's mom, and sobbed like I have never seen them cry before.

Thursday afternoon we met Kelly's brother's family for dinner to discuss things and just be together as a family. The hostess asked us as she was seating us, "Are you celebrating anything this evening?" We all just looked at each other. Kelly's brother answered, "Not really."

Friday morning we got up and drove to Dallas to spend the weekend with my in-laws. Surprisingly enough, it was an enjoyable weekend. Though there were plenty of tears, especially Friday evening, we laughed together, cooked together, laughed at the kids and the dog. Kelly's brother, Tony, has started a new photography business. He brought all his fancy-shmancy equipment with him, and we spent a good deal of Saturday taking pictures: Granny with all the grandkids, with her sons, with my FIL, with the dog, family pictures, etc.

I think one of the things that helped is that all the grandkids knew what was going on. We didn't hide anything, so that let us be able to talk about everything in front of anyone in the room. There was no "elephant in the living room" and thus no tension because of it. The kids asked questions when they came up, we discussed the treatment possibilities, we spoke about her not making it.

Hopefully we'll find out soon whether Vickie fully qualifies for the clinical trial. We hope that she does because this medicine combination is given in pill form and there are no really awful side-effects, like hair loss and nausea. This would mean that she wouldn't have to decide between quality of life and length of life.

My in-laws are being such amazing examples to everyone throughout this of how God works these things in the lives of believers. They are relying on Him and resting in His sovereignty. This doesn't mean there are no tears or heartache. But they are true examples of a verse they have taken as there own in the last several months.

Though He slay me,
I will hope in Him

Job 13:15a