Future Hitchhiker….

All is well in the land of the new thumbs!  The nasty scab finally fell off, and what is hiding underneath looks great!  At this point I do not think she is having any pain associated with it, so I am very relieved about that.  She is not moving it yet but I know that will come in time.  She brings her other fingers to it and uses it as leverage, so that alone is a huge improvement from where she was before the surgery.  I am so excited about the progress that she has made and feel such a sense of relief.

 

Annie is back to being her happy, spunky little self.  When she feels bad she is a bear, but when she feels good, she is the happiest little person around!  She has become quite the chatterbox lately and will repeat most anything you ask her to say.  Her favorite new game is to swipe whatever Alexander is playing with and run away with it laughing.  She is a quick little stinker!  As you can imagine Alex is none too pleased with her antics.  Luckily Alex protests by screaming that Annie has stolen something from him instead of snatching back whatever she has taken from him.  I know it sounds odd to encourage that, but the alternative might result in injury to her new thumbs or her arms.  So we are happy to encourage him to “use his words” instead.  He’s such a good sport!

 

We are all excited to welcome my niece and nephew (Emily and Ryan) to Nashville this weekend.  They will be staying with us for the week.  I am so touched that at their age, 11 and 13, they would want to give up a week of their summer to come play with us.  It is so sweet how much Ry and Em love their cousins, even though they are so much younger.  We are so blessed!

Look how great her hands look:

Going on a serious picnic:

Brotherly love (Alex helping Annie into the sandbox):

5 for 10!

5 for 10....what am I referring to?  5 days until vacation?  No, we don't go on vacations around here these days.  5 beers for 10 dollars?  No, but that would be an awesome deal!  I am actually talking about having to wait 5 very long hours for our 10 minute visit with the surgeon Monday (yes, the one in West Palm Beach, FL).  Granted, we didn't really need any more than 10 mins of his time, but wow, it was a really long time to wait with a tired 16 months old that does not feel well.  I should have counted the number of other patients (mainly kids) that were waiting to see him that day.  At a minimum there were 30.  Annie was by far the youngest, but she was also by far what is considered the "least involved" (thanks Missy for helping me out with a much nicer term than deformed).  We met some really great kids and parents during our wait, which is always so helpful
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The good news is that Annie is such a trooper and is doing well.  We don't have to go back until she is 2, at which time she will have surgery again to start the radius lengthening process (which I actually refuse to even think about at the moment as I want to relish in the fact that just maybe Annie can stay out of the OR for 8 months..knock on wood of course).

Her new thumb is very swollen and angry looking.  Not angry as-in infected, just angry as-in painful and with significant scabbing.  Totally to be expected, but I guess I just forgot what it looks like when it first comes out of the bandage.  It kind of broke my heart seeing what looks to be no doubt extremely painful.  The outer layer of the dressing (coban...that sticky, stretchy stuff they usually put around your arm after they draw blood) was too tight and caused the outer layer of skin on her upper arm to come off too. 
Poor Annie sure did shed a lot of tears, as did I (Gee too).  I just keep reminding myself that it is temporary and she will not remember any of it.  She is a tough little girl, so I know she will prevail, I just kind of wish we didn't have to watch her go through all of this in the meantime.  She is doing absolutely awesome with the thumb on her left hand (the one done in January) so I know with several months of therapy, which kind of equates to her as play time (thanks to our wonderful OT Missy) she will get there with this thumb too.  Time heals all wounds, right?  Of course, I have also heard that saying as time wounds all heals, but we will just forget about it like that :-)

We all look forward to Annie getting past this and back to her very happy self.  She is extremely cranky these days, but it is no wonder!  She is also working on another ear infection, so that just adds insult to injury.  Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon and she will kick the infection to the curb!  Buh-bye infection!

Gee leaves tomorrow.  Alexander was very sad when I told him she was going back to Dallas tomorrow.  He stuck his bottom lip out like he was going to cry.  He loves him some Gee.....as do we all.  I am not sure who will miss her the most.  I really don't know what we would have done without her through all of this.  It's amazing that she just dropped her whole life to come and live with us and help us all through the last 16 months.  She has made a tremendous sacrifice for us that I can't even begin to thank her for.  I know this day is what we have been waiting for....not for Gee to leave but for Annie to be well enough for her to leave.  I will miss her dearly.....it is a bittersweet farewell.