Two Big Reasons to Rejoice Today

We have two big reasons to rejoice today!

To start with, both girls had appointments with Dr. Goggins, our orthopedic surgeon, today.  He wrote a prescription for new HKFOs for Ramya as she has outgrown her current pair (Which is great news because she is finally gaining weight!!  Her eating hasn't improved, but she is looking so much healthier, building muscle, and retaining new information so much better!  Yeah!).  He also said he signed off on both the girls new wheelchairs, which they were both recently fitted for, so we are excited to get those.  The biggest news, though, is that Madi's scoliosis came in at 42 degrees when standing again (laying down with the pressure off her dislocated hip it goes down to 28ish degrees), which means her scoliosis is stable and right now there is no reason to proceed with detethering surgery.  Of course if she started declining neurologically, started losing function, or her scoliosis suddenly changed we would know the surgery was necessary, but for now, she does not need surgery.  We go back in 6 months and we will check Madi's scoliosis again at that time. 

Here is the second great bit of news today...

 

 

I know that is hard to read, but that is our U.S. approval to adopt from India.  That means we are one step closer to being able to bring "D" home!  I'm almost done with our dossier paperwork and then that will go to India for approval there.  We still have a long way to go, but I love that we are one step closer!

 

 

Please be praying for our doctor paperwork to get notarized correctly tomorrow (wait, today?  I'm up past midnight so often I forget it means a new day has begun :)).  We have had some issues getting it completed so far.  Basically, about 2 or 3 months ago we got full physicals and a blood panel done to make sure we were healthy.  Everything looked great so our doctor signed the paperwork needed for Arizona/US approval stating that we are healthy enough to adopt.  For our Dossier India wants a different form, though, that states (give or take), "Upon examination (insert name here) shows no signs or symptoms of hepatitis, tuberculosis, HIV, or any other communicable diseases."  I called our office, twice, to tell them what we needed.  We set an appointment date, found a travel notary, and showed up to get the doctor's signature notarized.  After waiting about 45 minutes we were told they wouldn't sign the paperwork because we had never actually been tested for hepatitis, tuberculosis, or HIV.  I tried so hard not to get frustrated, but was feeling pretty bummed.  Not only did we have to pay the travel notary anyhow, as well as our co-pays, but I have been going to the same doctor for about 22 years and David has been going to them for about 11 years.  They have done blood work for both adoptions, and we are always very healthy.  Not to mention the form said that it was "upon examination", not via blood test.  However, I do understand the only way to really know is to test us, so we went ahead and got tested.  All of our blood work and testing came back negative, as we expected, so they said they are now ready to sign the paperwork.  I made an appointment for tomorrow, as that is what worked for our travel notary, but I cannot be there as I teach at homeschool co-op.  I asked if I could drop off the form for the doctor/notary, since my signature does not need to be on the form,  and they said that was fine.  Once David got there to drop off the paperwork, though, they had no clue what the paperwork was for once we dropped it off.  Sigh.  Please be praying it all works out and the paperwork is able to be signed and notarized tomorrow, since this is one of the last "big" things I need to do in order to complete the Dossier.

 

Thank you for following our journey and sharing in our excitement! 

 

Ramya's Appointment with the Orthopedic Surgeon

On Monday we trekked back down to Cardon Children's Hospital to see Dr. Goggins, our orthopedic surgeon, but this time for Ramya.  This was her first visit with him as she previously saw Dr. Segal with Madi. 

Dr. Goggin's examined Ramya and said she looks good... her hips seem to be ok, her back seems to be straight, and he agreed with our decision to move up from KAFOs to HKFOs.  He was in a cheery mood and spent a long time with us.  It's so much nicer to see doctors out of their private office, instead of CRS.  At CRS they always seem rushed and stressed, but are always so much more relaxed in their offices. 

After the hospital I decided to take the kids to Butterfly Wonderland.  We have never been, and it's on the way home, so I figured it was about time!  The kids had a blast!  There was a 3D movie, a place you could view chrysalises of all the different kinds of butterflies they get, a really neat habitat with thousands of butterflies in it, a small aquarium, and a few other exhibits with bees, ants, and other desert creatures.  The really loved the 3D movie on the butterfly life cycle and butterfly migration.  They kept reaching out and trying to touch the butterflies.  They also loved the butterfly habitat and got very excited when a butterfly landed on Madi's foot and stayed for a while.  Ramya did NOT want the butterflies to touch her and kept hiding behind me, but she really did have fun too.  She loved looking at the butterflies, she just didn't want them near her.  Here are a few pictures from our visit...

 

(after they emerge, they catch them and put them in the large habitat)

 

 

 

(This is the one on Madi's foot)

 

Conner wanted to make sure that Ramya knew all about scorpions and centipedes (part of their extra exibits).  He insisted on lifting her up himself and explaining to her that if she ever saw one, she should not touch it, get away very quickly, and tell mom.  I made sure to hover just in case she slipped, but he did great and was quite proud of himself.

 

 

 

Our next appointment with Dr. Goggins isn't for 6 months for both girls, and this time, I think I can coordinate them!  YEAH!

 

Ramya's New HKFOs... Spina Bifida Won't Keep Her Down!

Ramya had KAFOs (leg braces that went up to her thigh), but she was really struggling with walking and posture, so we had her fitted for HKFOS (leg braces that go up to her tummy).  Ron, at Hanger, did an awesome job as usually, and she loves them!  I can't wait to work on walking with her.... spina bifida isn't going to keep this girl down!  Here are a few pictures of her new braces....

 

 

We have two appointments downtown this week, so I decided to take the kiddos to Whole Foods for lunch to make our first trip special.  The love their gluten free pizza (you can even get it with dairy free cheese!!), and also enjoyed some sorbet for dessert. They were pretty happy kiddos!

 



Thursday we head down to see Dr. Goggins, our new orthopedic surgeon.  We are praying we can get a good picture of Madi's scoliosis and a clear game plan on how to proceed with detethering surgery.  I will keep you updated!

Our Appointment with Our New Orthopedic Surgeon

Today we made the trek down to Caron Children's Hospital to meet with Dr. Goggins, the doctor that we were hoping would take Dr. Segal's place.  Our appointment was at 3:15, and we live about an hour away, so we left at 2:15 to make it there in time.  We checked in right on time but actually didn't get to see the doctor until about 4:45, so it was quite the wait. I am happy to announce, though,  that we liked Dr. Goggins and plan to use him for Madi's upcoming surgery, as well as our future appointments.  He spent quite a bit of time with us and never tried to rush us along.  He was sweet with Madi and didn't seem to be bothered by her mini-meltdown during the appointment.  We talked about Madi's tight heel cord, the plan to fix it, the stander appeal we had in the works, her recent MRI, her scoliosis and tethering, and all of that fun stuff.  He is going to help us appeal her stander and seemed to have a good plan of attack.  He said he would write a letter with everything in it they were questioning so that they didn't have any more arguments, but is going to have his nurse help him with the logistics to make sure that it was done correctly.  I asked him to review her recent MRI and his findings left me quite hopeful.  He had a bit of a hard time seeing her scoliosis, as one scan stopped half way through where her scoliosis is located, and the other one started half way through.  He said he thought he was able to see it good enough, though, to see how she was doing.  Her spine is curved, but only down lower where the tethering is.  He said it was about 20% curved, which is a huge difference from the 50% we were told after her last x-ray.  Scoliosis between 20% and 30% can often be stopped, or even reversed, with the de-tethering surgery.  He also thought that the spine wasn't twisted/inverted, just curved from being pulled.  What amazing news!!  He also had a good plan for getting accurate x-rays in the future, so that we can better judge how her scoliosis is doing.  He's also on board with coordinating her heel cord lengthening surgery (the one he would do) with the spine detethering surgery.  The bummer is that she will have a cast on for 6 weeks, which will keep her out of the pool, but between the lengthening surgery and the cord release, we hope to keep her left leg/foot nice and flexible.

So that's that!  We have a new orthopedic surgeon and we are hopeful that we will get great care with him.  God really answered our prayers!  Thank you for joining us in prayer!