Thursday, March 23, 2017

One strong wind does not make a storm.

     Hello, all.  Surgery is over and we are home from the hospital to get better.  Surgery went great.  Anesthesia and the Doctor both said she did flawless and even though it took longer her body took it well.  For my science people I have decided to show pictures of what they did.  Her doctor LOVED taking pictures of her hip.  

     So they went in to shave the bone (femur) into a head.  Her femur needed a head and neck and she did not have one because her hip was out of place for so long.  So his plan was to check her Hip Labral (the Cartilage) and shave her femur.  

   So here is Pic #1, this shows the femur before the started the shave.  You can see the divits in the bone that are not allowing it to move properly.





So he knew immediately he would have a ton to do.  So then he shows us her labral.  It was shredded.  He said he had never seen anything that bad in a 12 year old ever.  He is an adult doctor and he said this is the normal for an older adult retired athlete.  

The tiny little shredded particles are supposed to be smooth and solid, not shredded.  So he went to work and anchored the Labral to the bone behind it.  It took three anchors to hold it down.  
He used nylon rope to anchor it in and this is him putting in anchor #2.  Her body handled it all very well and he was impressed with how well she did.
Here is her bone after it was shaved.  You can see he created the head and neck and now the head is smooth not bumpy.

She is one tough cookie, gonna be honest if a Doctor did all this to me you would have to put me out to pasture lol.  We are super proud of her and she cannot wait to show everyone her pics in person.  She is proud of her super cool new hip!!

 



Saturday, March 18, 2017

Choose your friends with caution; Plan your future with purpose, and frame your life with faith.

     Well, in just a few days Claudia will be having surgery #2 to correct the damage done on her hip.  I am stressed beyond belief because they are unsure if her hip will be strong enough to continue to cheer.  When I have told people I get a look, like Why are you more concerned about Cheer than her health.  I am not more concerned about her health, but if you knew my story you would know why I am stressed.  So here is my story.....

           When I was kid I had plans.  My plan was to grow up, become an attorney and change the world.  I was going to lock up all the bad people in the world and I was going to be the best.  In early years of high school my parents divorced.  I was living between the two of them and both my older sister had moved out and were living their own lives.  Throughout high school I made some dumb decisions and did not have the grades to go to a four year university.  However, I was not going to give up on my dream.  So I attended a small community college and received several credit towards an associates in Paralegal.  My plan was to work in a law firm and go to school at night.  In my 3rd semester I found out I was pregnant.  After that I laid my plan to rest.  In reality it was not my plan.  I had made decisions that brought me to this point.  I had CHOSEN to do things that brought me here.  I am 100% ok with were my life is now and I could go back to school and become a lawyer, but honestly I no longer want that plan.  My new dream is to help my children achieve theirs.  I am ok with all of this and actually truly love my life.  I have it all, a husband who loves me deeply, two children (although in teenage years I dislike greatly) whom I love and a family and friend support system who are always there for us.  We make people jealous ;)

        Fast forward to B, his dream for as long as we can remember wanted to be in the Army or a Marine.  Epilepsy stole that dream.  It is hard for me to grasp because my life path I ruined, Braydon has not even had the chance to ruin it, epilepsy did that for him. 

       No here we are at Claudia.  About 2 years ago she got the true "bite" for cheer.  She cheered for Coach Vicki her 6th grade year and loved everything about it.  So about this time a year ago she wanted to try out for a competitive team.  Dad and I talked and we were all about it.  Only 3 weeks before she was due to tryout we took her to the dr for a bad limp.  I actually told the girls at work I thought she would be hospitalized and I wouldn't be there for the rest of the week.  See I had googled her symptoms and did some stretches on her to locate the pain.  That showed me she had a SCFE.  The doctor convinced me that she did not need a X-Ray and that I needed to stay off google.  He let me know she could not try out for cheer and "maybe next year".  The limp got worse and by July it was horrible. 

      July we see another Dr who also says we don't need an X-Ray and at the urging of a family member I pushed it.  The Dr came in, told me what I already knew and we got in the car and drove to Vanderbilt Children's hospital.  She had surgery the next day, we spent a few days in the hospital and she recovered well at home.  We were told there would be follow up surgeries over the years which would eventually end in a full hip replacement.  SO she heals well, she cheers with school again (not her best year, but considering her surgery she did amazing) and did a half year performance team with a local gym.  We find out tryout for the competitive team are coming up and we decide to go for it.  We go for our surgery consult for surgery 2 and he says "No try outs this year, maybe next year...".  He followed up with letting us know she may never cheer again.  Her hip is in bad shape and it all depends on her.  How hard she is willing to push and how much pain can she endure.  Also, if her femur will be strong enough to endure the jumps and impacts of cheer. She wanted to get a scholarship to college for cheer.........

       Have you ever been told your child cant do what they love?  Have you ever been told that your childrens life plans are possibly destroyed at no fault of their own?  It's a hard pill to swallow.

     So no, her health is not as important as cheer and no I am not a crazy cheer mom.  I am a mom who is tired of hearing that she might have to tell her children no to something they love.  As a mom I am supposed to support their dreams and encourage their life paths, not tell them no. 

    So my plan will be to continue to support both of them and make decisions on what is best in every aspect of their life.  To help them plan their future with purpose and frame their life faith. 

    

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

Hello my faithful followers.  A few things to talk about tonight.  

Claudia- Her hip is all kinds of jacked up and that is putting it mildly.  However we have a plan to fix it and we are not going to stress it.  We are going shave the right hip were it restricts her range of motion.  This will allow her much much more range of motion and will allow her to try out for competitive cheer like she wants.  Her recovery time is 4 weeks, so we are trying to squeeze her in so she has time to try out for cheer.  Then in a year or two we will remove her hardware and possibly lengthen that leg.  She needs it, she is WAY off center.  So jacked it may be, but it will be fixed over the next few years.  She is tough and is getting what she wants by waiting to remove the hardware so she can still cheer this season.  Right now all the almost 13 year old cares about it cheer, so we will let her have it.

Braydon-  Ready for some exciting news?  Braydon is the newest member of Team Impact.  Team Impact takes kids with life threatening illnesses and chronic illnesses and gives them an opportunity to work directly with a college sports team.  So cool right?  Well we thought so, so we went all in and we have been paired.  Wanna know more?  Here is a link to Team Impact

http://www.goteamimpact.org/about-us/

So who did he get paired with you might ask?  Well we are SUPER excited to announce that we are paired with the Austin Peay State University Baseball Team.  Braydon will be spending some time with the Baseball team starting tomorrow.  This is huge and I will get to the whys in a minute.  Braydon smiled for the first time in a long time, like a genuine smile.  My mom is going to be taking him to the APSU baseball field and will be staying with him until I can get off of work.  We will be attending our first game either Friday or Saturday.   
Here is the APSU baseball website

http://letsgopeay.com/index.aspx?path=baseball&

So why?  Easy, my kid needs some self confidence and motivation.  I am hoping these college kids who are volunteering their time to spend it with Braydon will help.  He will get to attend practices and games at his choosing.  
I met the coach today who told me with all honesty he had no desire to be a part of this and really didn't like the idea of it.  But he said the magic words, he prayed about it.  The more he thought and prayed about it he decided to speak with me and give it a try.  He asked a lot of "tough" questions.  The more we talked the more I liked him.  He was straight forward and had some great questions.  One of the hardest was "Tell me what he was like before?"

Wow, it was like the wind was knocked out of me.  How was he "before"?  Well that is easy, he was so super social and had so many friends.  He was funny, oh my goodness he was hilarious.  He was so outgoing and talked to everyone and anyone.  He was happy.  He. Was. Happy.

I want someone to ask me to tell them about Braydon and me be able to say"He IS happy".  I cant right now and as a Parent that is the WORST feeling in the world.  So for now we search for his happiness.  His happiness is something that only he can find.  I can help him and I can push him in certain directions, which is what I have done with Team Impact and the APSU Baseball team.  I'm hoping Coach Travis and the team can help him find himself again and bring him a joy I rarely see anymore.  So just like the Coach said Im going to pray on this.  I am going to pray that God will help us find his happiness and that he will lead this team and this coach to help him.  

Right now I am sad.  And it is ok.  Ive had to remind myself it is ok to be sad.  Being happy all the time does not make everything better, it just lets the outsiders think it is.   I'm sad I let this get this far.  I HATE epilepsy and everything it has taken from the family. 

You never know someones struggle until you have walked a mile in their shoes.  I'm so incredibly lucky my struggle is not worse.  It could be.  I am so blessed for this opportunity for Braydon to met some amazing college students who have worked hard to be APSU baseball players. I believe that everything happens for a reason.  I found Team Impact for a reason, the baseball team was picked for a reason and the Prayer of the Coach changing his mind is all part of a plan.  I can't wait to see how the plan plays out.