Aubrey’s surgery date has changed again!

Caroline from Dr Paley’s office called and asked if we would be interested in changing Aubrey’s surgery to December 7th because Dr Paley wants to fly in surgeons from all over the world to watch and learn about the procedure he is going to do. She said normally they don’t ask this of patients but due to the fact that Aubrey’s condition is so rare (each PFFD case is different within itself but Aubrey’s is on the more severe side) not many surgeons know about the procedure Dr Paley has come up with and he is wanting to teach other doctors about it.

We really didn’t want to push it back 2 more months because we are ready to get it behind us and it’s not the best time of year to have a surgery….. it will put us flying home on Ethan’s birthday, 3 days before Christmas, but it seemed like such a good cause. More doctors learning how to do this surgery means that more children like Aubrey will have the option of lengthening….Dr Paley is one of the only doctors in the world right now that would even attempt lengthening on Aubrey and so many others. My hope is that it will soon change and more doctors will see how Paley is changing these children’s lives and that they will learn the techniques Dr Paley has found. And for Aubrey to be a part of that change would be incredible………..not only will this surgery change Aubrey’s life for the better but it could help change many other children's lives in the future.

So it didn’t take us long to decide that Aubrey’s new surgery date is December 7th 2010!

Update

Well....Aubrey turned 4 in May...I can't believe my baby isn't a baby anymore! She decided for her #4 birthday she wanted a Tinker Bell party and on her #5 birthday she wanted a Princess party.......she is so funny and definitely my daughter......already planning things out ahead of time. She got lots of new toys with teeny tiny pieces.....Woohoo....I love those kind! LOL 

Aubrey's surgery date has changed from September 8th to September 22nd because I realized that school started on September 7th. We originally scheduled Aubrey's surgery in September instead of during the summer because Brad was changing positions at work and we thought he would be in training until around then (as it turns out he wasn't in training as long as we thought) and I thought school would be starting in August so my plan was for them to go for a couple of weeks before she had her surgery. I didn't want the kids to miss their first day of school so I called to reschedule hoping to move it up to August.....no luck Dr Paley was booked....so we settled for September 22nd.

When trying to decide when to reschedule I called to talk to Caroline (super sweet lady at Paley's office) about Aubrey's recovery time and found out that she will be in a fixator for 3-4 months instead of the 6 weeks we had anticipated. I was pretty bummed but I guess it will be good practice for when she has to wear it for 8 months. The good news about having a fixator instead of a spica cast is she will be walking within 3 weeks instead of 6 weeks of no weight bearing.
I have been quite emotional the past couple of months thinking about what lies ahead....I think partly because of Abby & "little" Ethan (some of our PFFD friends) having their hip surgeries just a few weeks ago. When someone you know is going through something you are about to go through it really hits home. (They are also seeing Dr Paley and they live in the Dallas area so they're just a couple hours away from us.)  I'm so thankful to have found such great families to connect with. They have been such a blessing & strength to me.

Abby 2 weeks after hip surgery

"little" Ethan at our last play day

We had our 6 month appointment with Scottish Rite last week. I was a little nervous about it because I knew we were going to have to tell the doctor that we had Aubrey scheduled for hip surgery (He is the one that told us we needed to rethink it and that the surgery wouldn't help) I was surprised at his reaction when I told him, I thought he would try to talk us out of it but he just said " I still don't think surgery will help her hip and that rotation or amputation is the best options, but I respect your choice and we will help along the way however we can." I'm curious to see what he has to say about her hip after she has surgery. 

While we were at Scottish Rite we had Steve look at her prosthesis for adjustments.....she was desperately needing some new straps (hers were looking quite dingy) and she already needed length added to it. We were hoping to get a new foot put on so she could wear flip flops (the feet that have a split toe are a different brand and they don't make them in really small sizes) but her feet still weren't big enough......maybe next year.

Yesterday we went for our 4 year old well check up. She had to get shots...I thought it might give us an idea of how she would be in September....she did really good. On the last one she cried but the nurse said that that particular shot did hurt going in. So maybe she will do good in September with her IV and all the other pricks and pokes she will get. We had a talk about it last night. I told her she was going to have more shots when she had her surgery in Florida and she seemed to be ok with it. She told me that when she got to be a big girl she wouldn't cry. I told her that it was ok to cry but she just needed to be really still so that it didn't hurt even more. So we will see.

We are excited & nervous about the upcoming surgery but ready to get it behind us.

Well I think that's all the news for now....