The plan.......

Well, its scheduled......

Olivia will have her long awaited surgery on February 18th. 

 I have been greatly anticipating this, with the hope that this will be truly life changing for her.  

But with all honesty, I am suddenly scared to death.  So many "what ifs" running through my mind. Being a nurse. I always go to worse case scenario, it's just been wired in me in all my years of school and nursing.  

So, 

I am asking for prayers.....

Prayers for the obvious, health and safety, 

but also that this will give Olivia more mobility and comfort.  

Yes, she is walking in braces unassisted, however, the braces are pretty uncomfortable and quite annoying......

She lasts maybe 2 hours in them before she's complaining about how bad they are hurting and wants to take them off,

 and I won't even begin to explain what taking her to the bathroom is like. 

Olivia is a fighter, anyone who has met her knows this.  

I know that she wants them off for comfort, not laziness.  

So please pray that after her surgery she is able to walk with better braces.  

The other night we were at a Christmas Light show and we went ice skating, Olivia wanted to ice skate SO badly, my heart was in pieces as I told her she couldn't go with us......

How do you tell a child, no, you can't go because you can't do it.......

so, I slowly skated around the rink, 

holding her.......

and I can't ice skate......

it was a little scary to say the least!  

But we made it around without falling!  

The rest of the plan is more castings, her feet have regressed A LOT......

We will start castings on Jan 9 and hope to get 6 in before surgery.  

She will then be in long leg cast for 5-6 weeks after surgery until her new braces are made.  

More prayers needed please!  

Going to Philadelphia every once in a while is not bad, but every other week, gets a little hard.  

I will do whatever is needed, but I can't lie and say that being gone that much doesn't weigh heavy on my heart.  It's hard on everyone, especially the kids, Olivia included.  

Yet another reason to be SO very thankful that I am part time now and don't have to run home to work every day I'm not in Philly.

 

Many people have asked, what they will do to straighten her legs.....

Well, it's really quite interesting.....

The dr will put 8 metal plates over the front part of the growth plate at the end of the femur, causing it to not grow while the back of the bone continues to grow.  

 Olivia has never really had to use her legs and muscles, she can not stand on them alone.  

Another prayer would be that she is able to strengthen these muscles and eventually put weight on them.

So many prayer requests for us......

health, safety, comfort, peace, healing, strength and whatever else you feel led to pray!!! ;-)

I must add how thankful I am for this doctor and his staff.  We travel to Philly because of him and his expertise and I am thankful God led us to him and all the people we have met there.

In all things be thankful!