February was a busy month for Allison and the family. We logged nearly 2,000 miles this month, from Ann Arbor to Grand Rapids to Kalamazoo and back again, as well as many trips to Battle Creek for therapy. The highlights include another round of botox injections, a “dislocated” hip scare, a pre-op appointment with the ENT, and check-ups with neurology and GI. But it wasn’t until March that the craziness really began…
For the first time Allison was holding down the fort as the healthiest O’Dell. It was momma who found herself in the ER with abdominal pain. After watching my diet very closely for months, we had no choice one weekend, when at Mason’s basketball tournament, to eat at McDonald’s for lunch. Later on that evening, after my cheeseburgers, I kiddingly joked to Greg that my appendix was going to burst. I complained casually about it for a couple of days before the burning under my ribs started to affect my appetite. By Monday afternoon I drove myself to the ER, had a CT scan, and found out that I had gallstones. The ER doc said it wasn’t an emergency, but I would need my gallbladder removed at some point in the next “two days, two weeks, or two years.” I thought if I could stretch it two months, then I was surely going to stretch it until summer vacation when I would be off work. Well, it turned out that I fell into the “two day” category because I was back in the ER on Wednesday morning with the chills – and I had not had anything to eat (and now drink) for almost two days. Sometimes you have to draw the line on sucking it up. The doctors all agreed that I made a good choice in going to the hospital that day, since my blood pressure was 80/40 and my resting heart rate was in the forties. I was admitted, after trying some very effective narcotics (I swore I was falling off the bed even though I could not move my limbs at all), and I was put to the top of the surgery list for Thursday morning. It has now been about six weeks, and I’m feeling much better. I wish I felt well enough to exercise, but one of my five incisions is giving me some trouble. I think I’ll live. This experience was minor compared to the many surgeries that Allison has gone through. It puts things in perspective when it is you lying there on the hospital bed. Greg did a good job managing the family those first couple of weeks. Boy was it a challenge to not pick up Allison. Of course, I did break my weight limit hundreds of times by lifting her, but a mom’s got to do what a mom’s got to do…
After much controversy, Allison does not have a dislocated hip. This is huge news for Allison and our entire family. Had her hip been “out” she would have had major surgery to repair it – and up to three months in a body cast. Of course this would have been a terrible ordeal for her to have to endure, but it would have eliminated many fun activities for the other children this summer too (like going to the beach, for example). We found out that her hip is “in” during an arthrogram conducted concurrently with her adenoid removal at the end of March. The orthopedic surgeon injected a dye into her hip area and contorted her while under general anesthesia. The doctor later showed us pictures of the procedure – clear evidence that the hip is “in”. After a follow up with that doctor today, she said Allison is at risk for this major surgery at some point in her childhood if the increased muscle tone continues to be a problem. Her muscles are so tight that they are working against her hip, trying to pull it out slowly. The best we can do for this is to continue the botox injections (next round on May 4) to keep the muscles loose and rehab. We will see this doctor every three months to have x-rays and an exam. If the doctor notices any changes, we can make adjustments as necessary – or have surgery. It was explained to me today that kids like Allison often have tendon lengthening surgeries to help with the increased muscle tone. Lengthening her tendons would help her left leg to straighten out and be as long as her right (currently the right is about an inch longer than the left).
Besides the hip issues and the ridiculously easy adenoid removal, there hasn’t been much going on. I hate to mention this – fearing the karma that comes when one “jinx” herself – but Allison has not vomited in months. Ok…so she has once or twice a week, but it used to be a guaranteed half a dozen times a day (on a good day). She hasn’t “cycled” since February 4th, knock on wood, which means we are looking at ten, eleven weeks of no cycle. I can’t explain how happy this make me feel. I believe her little esophagus and tummy is healing – and I have my good HERBALIFE buddies to thank! I was introduced to aloe water concentrate through a good family friend, and I held off on giving it to Allison because it freaked me out. Never had I gone against a doctor, and I knew this would be. But after her last cycle I was desperate to do something, anything to help her heal. I believe in this product so much. I, myself, have been drinking HERBALIFE shakes and other products, which has helped me lose 30 pounds. I am so confident in this herbal healing (from the inside out) that I have become a distributor of the product. Let me know if you are interested…
The other kids are doing well. Avery will be starting kindergarten in the fall. Mason and Morgan continue to become better readers and writers with help from their motivating teachers. Allison remains the patriarch of the tadpole room, since she is nearly twice as old as the other babies. Greg continues to work hard, putting in long days and Saturdays. He is promising me a new house soon. I’ll believe it when I see it. But soon this place isn’t going to work for us. We will probably need a handicap assessable house soon, with many accommodations – and a handicap assessable car. We look forward to these new challenges, because honestly, a year ago, a year from this very week, Allison and I were at Bronson for nine straight days. I didn’t leave that hospital room for nine days. Allison vomited and had surgery, and vomited, and had upper gi’s, and vomited, and was put on new meds, and vomited – for nine days. I was sure that she would not celebrate her second birthday…so I will welcome the challenges of a handicapped life…
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