Growing!

In a 3  week period Annie's arms grew 10 mm (also known as 1 cm)!!!  Truly amazing!  We made a quick trip to FL on 3/18  to see Dr. P.  He was very pleased with her progress and told us to come back in 2 weeks.  I am really hopeful that when we see him this coming Monday he tells us that she is done lengthening, can start OT to regain her thumb movement, and schedules a surgery date to remove the fixators.  Think that is asking too much?  Nah!  Oh wait, I forgot one, hopefully she will also be infection free by then!

We are starting to see more and more glimpses of our happy little girl again, but we still have a lot of rough moments each day.  The worst of which comes when we have to clean her pin sites and change the bandages.  She literally screams blood curdling screams throughout the whole process.  Even though I know a lot of it comes from sheer anxiety over the process (can you blame her?) a lot of it also comes from pain.  A big thank you to my wonderful friends that came over and relieved me of the duty one night!  It is a necessary evil, but I hate, hate, HATE doing it.  Not for me, but for her.  Makes me question our decision on a daily basis. 

She is fighting infection #2, which I am sure adds to her discomfort.  The main source of the infection this time is due to her skin tearing against one of the pin sites (OUCH), as well as a stitch not dissolving as it should have.  Yes folks, I learned how to remove sutures this past week.  Good thing I swiped that suture removal kit from the exam room....somehow I knew we would be needing it!

Alex struggles with jealousy, which equates to really poor behavior at times, but he is still a really happy little guy!  He keeps us laughing!

Picture Time:

Here is the x-ray of her right arm where you can see the fixator screwed into the radius and can see the rod that was put through the ulna.  No wonder she has been in pain:

X-ray of both arms:

Look how straight her right arm is looking:

Underside of her right arm....looks amazing!

You can see where her poor skin is tearing:

Caught her smiling in the bath:

Home Bound!

We survived our trip to Dallas and are on the way home.  Unfortunately Annie has had a rough couple of days and has not been a very happy camper.  I am pretty sure she is working on an infection, as she ran a fever yesterday, her pin sites are looking redder, and one is oozing a bit (gross, right?).  Anyway, with the help of our favorite Dr. we decided to start her on antibiotics last night, so hopefully we caught it early.  

I am not sure why she is so very fussy again, but I suspect she is tired and just doesn't feel good.  Hopefully getting home and back in a routine will help her.

Alexander has had big fun in big D!  He is going to have a hard time getting back into his routine when we get home.  Both kids are a little on the spoiled side at the moment, but hey, you do what you have to do to get by sometimes!

Silly girl: