Collin's Doctor Appointment

Today I am recooperating after a long day at Scottish Rites Hospital for Children. Yesterday we drove to Dallas for Collin's early appointment. We hadn't been to Scottish Rites since he was 3 weeks old. Our morning began in radiology where we waited to have the first set of hand x-rays done. Daddy, Collin, and I went into the room where we were drapped in radiation protection aprons. Collin sat in Daddy's lap as the radioloist did his best to straighten out his hands. Collin hates for anyone to mess with his hands so decided to not cooperate with the radiologist. All of that to say we got the pictures taken and moved over to the hand clinic waiting room. We had a confusing morning as we didn't see our doctor, but a fill in. In the beggining she gave us some wrong information. One minute she said we would be waiting for him to turn two before beginning surgery and then ten minutes later she sent a nurse in to explain the do's and dont's of surgery day and to schedule it. She told me our doctor was in an emergency surgery and I could just meet him the morning of surgery. I informed her I didn't feel comfortable with that and I had too many questions I needed to ask him. I didn't drive six hours to not even meet the surgeon who will be opperating on my baby's hands. They said we could come back in the afternoon but Chris had a flight to catch so Collin and I took him back to the airport and then went back to the hospital. At this point in our day I was feeling very confused and discouraged. When we got back we met our hand surgeon Dr Oieshi. He was fantastic, so helpful, friendly, and informative. After introducing himself to Collin and I, the hour long appointment began.

He began by showing me Collin's x-rays which I was glad to see. He showed me where Collin is missing bone. On his left hand he is missing the top two finger bones on his pointer finger and he just has a sliver of bone on the top of his middle finger. On his right hand he is missing the top two finger bones. He talked to me about the bands on Collin's wrist. He said they were causing some edema (swelling) and he felt like we needed to go ahead and do surgery on the left hand and wrist this year. He is going to perform a Z-plasty surgery around his wrist and affected fingers. Then six months later we will do the right hand. He also said that around age four or five he would have to have one or two more surgeries. (I was kinda of surprised to hear that) The surgery itself can last any where from one to four hours. He said he expects it to only take two. We will check in early in the morning and stay one night in the hospital. His hand will be casted up to his elbow to keep him from wiggling out of the cast. The cast will completely cover his fingertips, so he won't be able to use that hand at all while it is casted. He will be in a cast for 4 weeks.

The scheduling office will call me next week but they expect it to be in about four months. I know children have surgery all the time but putting my baby under anethesia makes me really nervous. In a strange way it was comforting to hear that the surgery was necessary and not elective. Meaning there was more reasons than solely cosmetic to do the surgeries. Chris and I had really stressed over making this decision (to operate or not) and Dr. O just kinda made that decisions for us. He explained that if he didn't have the surgeries there could be later complications caused from the edema. I feel better than I did yesterday morning and as much as I am dreading surgery day, I am looking forward to starting this process and getting it over with.

Thanks so much for everyone's prayers yesterday!

House Update.....

Well we are set to close on the house on May 13th...... We have finished lots of projects and several more to go. Here is the latest progress on our house:

Not much progress to the exterior at this point, but painting and new porch railing is in the works.

We buried all the rubble of brick from the inside of the house and tore down 2 dead trees. This pictures shows where the future driveway will go.

This is the living room, all that is left is to sand the floors and paint the front door and trim.

Don't you love the wide window frames? Grandpa did a great job!

The dining room, new picture window, painted chandelier, stenciled wall.

The floors need to be stained as well as the trim for this room.

Dining room looking into Living room.

Here is a before of the chandelier, (my grandfather made this chandelier when he owned this house in 1963, I know crazy, I will tell that story another day)

The picture is kinda blurry but I painted it copper.

The kitchen is coming along, cabinets almost completed, pot rack hung, refrigerator in, I love it.

This is the playroom, the first room to be completely done (besides some touch ups). 

In the end this is what all the floors will look like!

This is Puddin's room, for right now it is the supply room.

This is Cupcake's rooms, obviously all the trim work has to be painted.

This is our bedroom, the floors are taking lots of work because they are in really bad shape. And you can see that the doors and trim need a good paint job.

This is "Mommy's room", aka the laundry/sewing room. I painted it pink of course. I love it!

This is the ceiling my very artistic cousin painted for me in the laundry/sewing room!

Here is the big bathroom. Finished the bathtub and the vanity is still a work in progress.

The vanity...

My $35 garage sale find, Nana and Grandpa sanded and painted it. Isn't it gorgeous. The vintage faucet is on its way. Now all the bathroom needs is a sink and toilet.

So we have five weeks left and everyone is working crazy to get this done. I think we are all kinda of burnt out and sick or it but in the end it will be worth it. Lots of work left, praying some how we can get this done. 

Easter 2010

All of us before church, I am so blessed to have each one of them, ;) !

My sweet boys, I love the green and purple!

Cheesy grin and squinting eyes, oh but so handsome~

Sweet boy with drool all over his sweater!

Easter morning breakfast!

Daddy and Collin watching brother hunt eggs!

Yummy Eggs

Grandpa and Collin

Carter hunting eggs...

We spent the evening at our friends house the Ryden's and had a blast with lots of friends and all their kiddos. 

Collin and the girls, he has great choices for a future wife, ;)

Carter busy at his second easter egg hunt of the day!

It was a great Easter and we enjoyed celebrating our Risen Lord with lots of family and friends.