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1 week Post Surgery

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It has been a week since Jane had her hip surgery. The day of the surgery, things didn't start out like we planned. As we sat in the pre op room, we met with the doctor and anesthesia team to go over the plan one last time. Jane was supposed to get an epidural in her spine for the surgery. Due to the tumor removal surgery that Jane had when she was a baby, caused complications to the plan. Jane was now possibly; in a high risk of having spinal nerve damage. But they weren't exactly sure. Her tumor surgery was in her lower spine so technically, she should have been fine for the epidural. However she already has some nerve damage to her legs and we just don't know the extend of the damage in those nerves. So we didn't want to take that risk. But we also didn't want Jane to wake up and be in extreme pain. The surgeon really wanted to do the epidural because he was worried how Jane would handle the pain when she'd wake up from the surgery. He has never done this kin

Surgery # 4

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 This past summer, Jane went in to see her clubfoot doctor just for a follow up. It has been about a year since she last saw them. Since then Jane stopped wearing AFO's (her shoes with braces) She's been walking well on her own and jumping. So we had no concerns. Her doctor said her feet looked great. Then he looked at her hips. He didn't like what he saw. We got back in touch with our Hip doctor; did x-ray and MRI and both confirmed that Jane has double Hip Dysplasia. Her hip is in the socket, but the top bone of the socket isn't growing and curving down like they hoped. We've known she's had this, but we've  praying and hoping the curve would improve over the years, but it hasn't.  We've been praying that no matter what the results would be; that God would help us accept it. To accept the news as from God Himself. I've learned over these years that God is working on my behalf when life feels unpredictable. He's building a relationship of tr

Jane's bladder

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Its been a while since I've updated on Janes health. Honestly, things have been going pretty well. I felt like we finally "got a break" from all the doctors and tests. Of course we still had our followups every few months, but for the most part things slowed down and we got to feel "normal" We were enjoying having Jane home with us and doing things with her.  One of the new specialist we started seeing was a urologist.  When I was still pregnant with Jane and I met up with the team of surgeons. They told me of a possible complication; that when Jane gets older, she'd have a hard time controlling her bladder. So of course we knew their was a  possibility, but I never expected it to be like this.  We met up with the best urologist in Tacoma, Washington. He recommended we ran some test to check how her bladder was working. The first test was the Urodynamic Test. It was one of my worst experiences ever. I won't go into all the details but Jane was so tra

BIG SISTER

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Jane is now a Big Sister.  It has been interesting seeing Jane grow up. She can't depend on me as much anymore. Im recovering and can't attend to her as often.  She's kindof been forced to kind grow up. But she adjusted so well. Jane gets herself fully dressed. She can now walk to the car and get in the carseat herself. She can get herself a snack in the fridge. Jane is such a sweet big sister. She loves Gracie so much. She loves to give her kisses and wants to hold her. Janes Favorite Shirt. She loves showing it to everyone My pregnancy with Gracie was tough. I was nausea all the time. Car rides were the worst for me. I survived on mineral water and crackers the first trimester. My 3rd trimester I suffered with sciatica pain. It was my hardest pregnancy physically. All my other pregnancies, I hardly ever got nausea or any symptoms but tiredness. I know; its a blessing. My pregnancy with Gracie was normal. Gracie was healthy and growing well. No complications with

Love like Christ

Have you ever heard the song, "We all bleed the same" by Mandisa? The lyrics go like this, "we all bleed the same, we're more beautiful when we come together, we all bleed the same, so tell me why, tell me why, we're divided." The song goes about how we need to come together. We may look different on the outside, but we all bleed the same on the inside. We need to love and support each other more. Jesus loved people. He loved thieves, tax collectors, diseased people, poor people, children and His followers. He loved people who were devoted to Him and those who were different from Him. His love is the same today. Because we are loved by Him, we are called to love like Him. We need to stop criticizing and judging each other. We should be compassionate and supportive towards one another. God commanded that his people encourage one another because he knows we need it. In John 16:33, Jesus warned that "in this world you will have trouble," Which he then

The Power of Prayer

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When I found out about Janes condition, I didn't know how to process all the feelings. All I could do was cry. My kids stood there watching me, not understanding what was going on. I sat there in the ultrasound room and started to pray. I knew only God could truly understand what I was feeling and he'd be able to comfort me. I started going to a prayer group in my church once I was pregnant with Jane. God put me in that group at the perfect timing. I was able to build that friendship and trust with the girls. Then when I found out Jane had the tumor, I was able to confide in them and they became my support group. It's been a blessing in my life; being able to share and bear one another's burdens. If you don't have a prayer group. I'd strongly recommend it. The prayer group wasn't the only ones praying for Jane. We had people pray from all over the world, praying for Jane and I. Some of them I knew, others I didn't. People would write, call or tell me i

Jane Journey towards walking

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I still remember the day I was in the doctors office for a follow up appointment with Jane. Jane was 5 months at that time. I was trying to decide which path to take towards correcting her clubfeet.  At this point, I've tired all other options, and nothing was helping her feet stay straight. So I came to her clubfoot doctor to discuss the clubfoot process. As we were discussing Janes feet, the doctor told me "She will never walk"  but we should still go through the process so "her feet would be straight and look pleasing to the eye." His words exactly. It's was so tough to hear. Jane had a few different doctors examine her feet. She had a nerve conduction test performed on her legs. We've seen different massage therapist, chiropractors, did laser therapy, seen a neurologist. We've tired everything we could think of. The nerve conduction test results showed that Jane had nerve damage in both her legs. There was also muscle imbalance on both of her leg