Addie, Addie, Addie

Our sweet little girl is such a trooper! We are on our last day of her 2 week program of casting her good arm. The Thursday before we started this program we tested out the cast and she freaked out! Sunday November 15 the day before we started the casting we had Addie anointed. God answered! Addie has not cried at all because of her cast. She has been such a good sport through it all. This week we have therapy 3x again in order to spend the week working on using both arms together more. I think we will also try and do a few measurements to see how much use of her arm she has gotten from this casting process. The hope was that by her having to use her left arm she would strengthen it allowing her more mobility.
We also had some crazy stuff happen this week. On Tuesday Addie woke up with blue hands, lips, and feet. It was scary and I had to rush her to the ER. We spent most of the day there so they could watch her hear rate and oxygen levels. They also did an X-ray to make sure she did not have pneumonia. They could not find a cause for her blueness but since it had gotten better by the time we got to the hospital and her heart rate and oxygen levels stayed good while she played and while she slept they determine she was probably just cold. It was scary to go home and that night I checked her many times during the night to make sure she was still breathing. They said the littler the children are the easier it is for their blood vessels to close up and turn the the extremities blue but that had never happened before!
This week we are headed back to St. Louis to do a follow up on her hip. I think after this appointment we will cut down on the time she wears her hip brace. I also think we will meet with the physical therapists there in order have a better understanding of what she can and can't do at this point. The hope is then to start her physical therapy here at home the following week based on the restrictions we are given from the St. Louis therapists and doctors.
So needless to say this Thanksgiving we are thankful once again for the way God has touched Addie. Her attitude in the casting and then the fact there was nothing wrong at the hospital is His grace! Psalms 136:1 "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good."

What a Month!

Addie is officially out of her cast. She has moved onto a hip brace for the majority of each day for the next 5-6 weeks. After that point she should start wearing it just at night. She has been in quite a bit of pain because the leg was so stiff after the cast, but the pain is finally seeming to improve and her leg seems a little looser as we do the stretches. We go back December 18th for a follow-up. We are hoping to get a lot more answers that appointment because we left the last appointment unsure of how much she is capable of doing regarding crawling, weight bearing, & walking during her different stages of recovery. Shortly after getting the cast off we went to Cincinnati to follow-up on her arm. The doctor decided we did not need to do another nerve transfer because of how well she is doing when she is in gravity eliminated positions, like laying on her back or side. She is able to move the arm to 150-180 degrees in those positions, but as soon as she sits up she can hardly get it up which shows it is a strength issue. At this point we are going to continue with her therapy and e-stem to work on the nerve and muscles. We are also going to be trying something new next week. It is called CITM. CITM has us cast her good arm, right arm, for 2 solid weeks so she will only be able to use her left arm to do things. We will have intensive therapy (3x a week) those two weeks working on strengthening and using her left arm. It will be followed by a third week of intensive therapy (3x a week) with out the casting on her arm. This is a method that her therapists here will do but the doctor in Cincinnati also uses this method for improvement. We will do this now and hopefully see some improvement and it is a method that we will probably use again in the future. The doctor there while pleased with her progress and abilities does not think she will ever have full function of her deltoids on that arm. It tempts me to be discouraged hearing that but I know that we have access to the great healer! I am not giving up on praying for complete healing while doing everything here that I am able to encourage improvement! We would appreciate prayers during the next few weeks as I am sure that Addie is not going to enjoy the casting of her good arm! The other therapy we are dealing with is speech/feeding. We have been seeing our feeding therapist once a month, but Addie has just really started trying to communicate so we have decided to add speech and up her therapy to once a week. Addie is up to saying 15-20 words now! One of her favorites is "ready, set, go!" and then watching the boys race. As Michael says once she starts counting them down they don't get to stop because she just keeps going and giggling as they run! The boys are doing really well with her and handle all these therapy sessions like champs! We have started Michael homeschooling and so of course Stephen likes to participate as well. It has gone surprisingly well given everything else we have had going one and I just appreciate having them all home with me still. So life is hard some days and life is long some days but when I sit here and think about it all I am just so grateful! God has been good to me. When it is hard he gives me strength. When I am stressed He gives me peace. As I sit and think of all we have gone through these past 2 years with Addie I am so amazed at how He has carried us. Mike and I know God has lead us to the doctors for her and has given us the strength and resources to travel them. Mike's boss has been an amazing blessing working with Mike so that he has been able to attend a good portion of the doctor appointments with me. It is a lot to deal with but God is good. I just keep remembering Romans 8:28 " And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." This verse gives me hope and strength to carry on. My biggest desire in life is to bring glory to Him and being remind that in the struggles when I can't see how He could get glory from the mess I am making that if I continue to strive for and love Him that he will use the good days, the bad days, the hard days, and the long days to paint a beautiful picture of my life that is good and that brings Him glory. When I keep my focus on Jesus life gets a lot easier to handle!