Allie Smiles

Allie's back. She started doing better last night. She hasn't had any morphine in close to twenty-four hours. She was getting it every two. Last night I snuggled with her all night in the hospital bed which is no easy feat when you're as big as me and your baby is wearing an A-frame for a cast.

This morning, she was making all of her familiar sounds, trying to chat us up in her little Allie way, and singing. We had her cartoons on this morning and she seemed happy to be back in her life even if she is in the hospital.

She really turned a corner yesterday afternoon when our close family friend Nancy came in and prayed over her. We saw Allie's fever drop, swelling go down, and a return to alertness after Nancy's visit.

Prayer works. Work it.

I Held Her

I held Allie yesterday but couldn't think of a tactful way to tell her that she weighs a ton more. How do you ever say that to a female?

Her little green cast is cute, bulky, clunky, and heavy. But she was as peaceful as an angel when I walked her around the PICU in my arms. She was responsive and at home in my arms.

Last night was rough, though. She had a fever all night. A number of things can be blamed. It could just be the invasive nature of the surgery. She's anemic, so they gave her a blood transfusion - that could be to blame. Or.. she might have an infection. They took cultures, chest xrays, and blood samples to narrow down the possibilities. So keep praying.

Here's the work she had done to her hips.

Keep praying...

Thanks.

Allie Status

Allie went in Thursday to have her hips repositioned and muscles lengthened. Her hips have migrated out of joint because her bones are growing at a faster rate than her muscles. So, like a bow string pulled tight, her bones have too much tension on them.

What the doctor planned on doing was 1) breaking then re-positioning her femur; 2) breaking her pelvis and re-shaping her hip joint sockets to receive her hip bones; 3 lengthening her her leg muscles by making incisions in three places to allow additional movement and flatten her feet (she's always on her tip-toes).

When the surgeon broke and repositioned her femurs, they "popped" into socket and the work on the pelvis was not needed. That's great news.

Allie is currently in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). The medical staff is still working to manage pain. We also need to have Allie take food orally before she can be released onto the floor and then home. Below are some videos. You can go to Facebook to see some photos.

Before right after taking "Happy Juice"

After, recovering in PICU

Thank you for your prayers, visits, encouraging text messages, and phone calls.

Postponed

If you've been praying for Allie's surgery today, thank you. The surgery was postponed until Thursday. It turns out that a brace that Allie will need became inconveniently unavailable this morning. This news was delivered after Allie was already sedated.

So let's do this again in a couple of days.

Thanks, Grandpa Jim

Grandpa bought Allie this tricked out little chair so Allie can sit up and enjoy the world vertically.

Allie's New Spoon

Eating and ergonomics. It's something we've always done without thinking. We naturally have everything easily within reach and we have no problem getting food to our mouths with normal utensils.

Not so with Allie. Allie's hands don't bend normally, so the spoon has to be bent. And she doesn't have the coordination to only put the spoon so far into her mouth (as opposed to down her throat) so there's a little mouth-guard attached that works as a spoon stopper.

Here's a demo:

Blogging Slacker

My mother-in-law called the other day to complain that nothing new about Allie has been posted.

I just want to let everyone know that I have reprimanded Allie and she will post something very soon.