Hope ...

We had one of the best Thanksgivings ever .... given the news from Wednesday that we might be pretty close to the end of a long journey. It has been an emotional several days, as we've tried to reflect on all the blessings of the past year. It has been a really long time since we've heard truly good news, so that was refreshing in itself. We've operated five times in the past year and it has been such a long year. Last Thanksgiving I had hardware removal surgery two days before Thanksgiving and that is what started eight months of wound issues. You know that I've asked myself a million times why we ever took it out, but pain was the issue. The hardware rubbed on the skin and we didn't have a choice. It was like a 20 minute surgery and no one ever dreamed what was ahead. Texas wasn't even on our radar screen and we've been there five times ... the right doctors mean everything.

I've known pretty much immediately after every surgery that there was more to come ..... and to know now that the likelihood of us being finished with operating rooms could be a reality - it is the best feeling ever. I'm sure that there will be road blocks, long exercise sessions, long days, and mini-pitfalls still to come, but that is all much more bearable if you know the end is around the corner. I'm feeling like God just rolled out the red carpet of hope for me to walk on .... you can endure a lot more than you ever thought possible if hope exists.

Before all of this foot saga started, mom & I had a girly tradition of shopping together the day after Thanksgiving. It hasn't happened much over the past four years. Today wasn't as great as it will be next year with no cast, but we did fairly well & had fun. We wore matching red shirts that said, "Ho Ho Ho" in rhinestones .... one sales clerk thought we were twins. Mom loved the compliment .... I said the lady had been up since 3am and was tired. It was our laugh for the day. Anyway, we started early and had breakfast at St. Louis bread. Thanks mom for pushing me in the wheelchair .... next year I'll be walking well with two matching tennis shoes.

Looking forward to helping with Christmas decorating tomorrow .... off for leftover apple pie.

je

Good news ... great JOY & wiggling toes!

GOOD NEWS! It is with a joyful and grateful heart that I can happily share
that it looks like the tendon lengthening surgery worked - yippee, high five,
applause, hip-hip-hooray, yahoo, bravo, jump up and down, whew!

Today we learned the following at my post-op follow up appointment:
- the foot is completely flat to the ground
- could put weight on the entire foot (like normal) … this is big time good
- incision healed beautifully and is the best looking incision I’ve ever had
- no open wound or wound issue … such a relief
- the wiggling in my toes or toe movement returned
- the incision from the flap surgery (last May) has really faded a lot now
- not much swelling in the foot area

Honestly, the foot looked WAY better than I had ever dreamed could happen. I can’t even remember the last time that it looked as good as it did today – probably before I started all of this surgery mess. There is still stiffness & some swelling, but that is normal and will improve. Assuming the foot continues to remain down & nothing weird happens, we are going to be “good to go” with this! Time will tell on the shoe wear situation, but I’m guessing that should be much better as well with time ….. I could slip into a shoe before, but then the issue was that the foot was 1 ½ inches off the ground so if the foot remains down, we should be able to wear two matching shoes. As expected, it will take quite some time to have it feel somewhat normal.

I am very thankful that we didn’t have to cut again on the foot itself. If that had needed to occur, the outcome could have been much different. The latest incision is about 3 ½-4” and is just above the ankle on the shin. Snazzy red cast made its debut today and will be in place until December 8th. The beautiful black boot will follow after the cast comes off and some light exercise will begin.

I’m thankful for the Dallas surgeon & his willingness to operate. There were four other doctors that we saw that were not sure if his plan would work (they all wanted me to try the Botox as a temporary fix), so we spent days and days anguishing over whether or not to move forward. My Chicago dr. was the only one that thought it was worth trying … so glad she was bold & shared her feelings honestly … this is rare in the medical field.

We definitely made the right decision to go for the tendon lengthening surgery and we are all clear for no wound issues, which was the biggest risk. There was also a large risk of "over correcting," which would have meant that the foot would drop and I'd have to essentially drag the foot around - this did not happen either. I wondered if this was the case the other day because I was tripping at work, but we didn't over correct; it is just right ... God is so good.

I sent an e-mail to the Chicago surgeon tonight and told her that I’d come show her after the holidays – she has worked incredibly hard on my case & deserves the opportunity to see the final outcome. Don’t give up on continuing to pray for total healing ….. we are on the right path and it just needs to continue to go smoothly.

Praising God for his faithfulness and hope in the time of need …. there is a lot to be thankful for – much too long to write it all out tonight, but I will at some point. Going to bed tonight with great hope for a brighter new year ahead …. wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving and hoping that you can find lots to be thankful for, too.

Wiggling toes with a thankful heart,
Jenny

Cast, crutches, & Cane ....

New cane .... the usher at church this morning joked with me that he had told and told me to stop playing football ..... I told him that I made the touchdown, so that was all that was important.





Boring white cast for now, but we've moving up to "Holiday Red" on Wednesday .... the sides were slit for swelling on the flight home and so the cast has a little "give" when I walk. Don't you love the snazzy toes?



Leopard print crutches .... all the hospital staff knew that they belonged to me! People ask me everyday where I got them .... mom needs to go into business.

Doing well ....

On Friday after work I got a new cane to help with walking ... it has a padded handle and is not bent at the top like the original wooden style. It is the best $11.50 that I have ever spent! It doesn't do a lot for the self esteem factor, but hopefully it will only be a two week deal. We had fried chicken for dinner on Friday night and I went to bed early, after seeing over 500 kids last week at work.

Yesterday and today have been good days. I am walking better, although it is rather stiff with the hard cast that goes to the knee. Mom & I ran errands Saturday and had lunch out. We stopped by my house to pick up some items that I had forgotten there. I made apple and cranberry crisp and Blake came over for stir fry for dinner last night. Yesterday I was able to squirt some lotion onto the skin area at the top of the cast, since the sides have been split .... felt so good on the skin.

We will be home for Thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to a short work week. All votes are in for a red cast, so red is definitely the winner! I did receive an e-mail last week from my Chicago dr. and her thinking was that my foot was going to be better than ever after the final cast comes off on December 10th .... let's hope she is right. She thought that I'd get all the necessary range of motion back with exercise and time.

Better go eat lunch .... will post crutch pictures later today.
Hope you are staying warm!

Love,
je

Blessings

Tonight I walked a little more around the house with a cane …. it was a tad bit easier than last night, so baby steps are happening. Not a big plus on the self-esteem factor with the cane, but it will be short lived. I did get clarification today on from the Dallas surgeon’s office as to the “plan” or what to expect for the next few weeks.

Next Wednesday - cast change & take out stitches – Should I do a red or green cast?
2 more weeks in the walking cast …. takes us to December 10th
3-4 weeks in the walking boot …. Who knows what round we’ll be on w/the fashionable “boot!”
Start pt …. likely at the start of 2009

Today I was blessed to receive a sizeable financial gift that will help with on-going medical expenses. I have a special fund set up for this, but this gift was very unexpected and gratefully appreciated …. Thanks HC!

Neat story that happened this week …………. On Tuesday afternoon I received a phone call from a parent of a student that was going to visit JA today. The parent explained that her daughters’ teacher had told the kids that they had to dress up or look nice for the learning trip (occurred today). This mother was upset because her daughter didn’t have the appropriate clothing and she was afraid that she would not be allowed to join her classmates. I suggested that she wear anything, except jeans and that would be fine. The mother went on to explain that because of their family economic situation her daughter didn’t have anything else other than jeans and she was going to be lucky to feed her kids for the remainder of this week.

I told the mother to give me 24 hrs. and let me see what I could do. I shared the story with several others at JA and the following afternoon we couriered two huge boxes of clothing, new scarf/gloves, new folders for school, and new PJs to her house about 40 miles away from Chesterfield. Today this girl visited JA BizTown dressed in a new outfit and beamed all day in delight. It was so much fun to see her blessed by the quick help with clothing. I spoke w/her briefly today and asked her to mail me her Christmas list in a postage paid envelope. We’ll see if she follows through, but I can make that happen as well if she takes the time to send me her list. Think how fun it would be to deliver all the gifts on her list.

I see almost 10,000 kids in one school year and I’m sure there are hundreds in the same situation. This child had the same name as mine, so perhaps that is why she stood out. How often do we just put on clothing and not even think about not having clothes? Pretty often.

I also had the privilege of sending 250 build-a-bears to a homeless shelter in downtown STL today. They are going to be given to homeless children at a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday …. Kids have been making the bears at JA for the past month. Hopefully they will be warm, snuggly and a bright spot in the lives of many kiddos. I wish I was there to see them all distributed, but that will have to wait until I can walk better.

Grateful for all the little things in life & big blessings in the past month ….
Love,
je

Almost to the one-week post-op point ....

Tomorrow marks post-op week #1 ... yeah! It doesn't seem like it has been a week, but I'll take it. I learned from the surgeon that it doesn't really matter whether or not I put weight on the foot now. If it isn't going to heal, no one seems to think that it will because I did or did not walk on it. The surgeon said to walk on it and see how it goes .... I tried walking a little around the house tonight. Pretty sore and no walking records are in the picture for anytime soon. I've never walked with a cast before .... it is more of a challenge than it appears. Haven't been needing much pain medication, but if I start to walk on it that will change. I'm tough though .... I can do it!

I did read the op notes yesterday and there was some discrepancy in numbers as for how far the foot was actually brought down. (We were told one thing and something else was typed in the report.) It is no big deal, as long as the surgery works. The bottom line is that numbers don't mean a lot until we see how it will function. The report did say that the contracted tendon was severe, so it is good that we didn't wait around hold out for the botox. Forty degrees is what a normal person has for the "gas pedal" range-of-motion .... I've heard anywhere from 20-30 is what I will have. Pray that it sways closer to the 30 degrees range-of-motion.

Glad there are only two work days left this week. Next week will be a much lighter week with students only on Monday. My first post-op appt. w/the St. Louis surgeon is at 2pm next Wednesday (two week mark).

My mom deserves a spa weekend somewhere or something .... my dad has a hamstring injury and was at an urgent care place over the weekend. He is in a lot of pain until it improves. He has crutches, too & is struggling to walk. He did see my ortho dr. today about it, but it is going to be some time before it works itself out.

There has been lots of illness related to kids this week at work, so I am using the Purell lots. Even though the surgery is done, I still need to remain well.

Love,
je

Survived day #1 of work ....

I survived the first day back at work, but I'm exhausted! Just a lot of activity with kids today, parents, teachers, etc. and everyone asking continually how I was doing. We have kids for 5 visit days this week, so it is a really big kiddo weak. It seems that everyone at my office is sick with colds, so I'm praying they bypass me .... I'm using lots of antibacterial gel.

Probably the hardest part is that the Dallas surgeon said that I could walk on it, but I am choosing not to for the first week ..... a) hoping that this provides the extra healing boost that it needs .... b) there won't be anything pulling on the incision where it could possibly come apart and c) there won't be any reason that it shouldn't heal. Well, it is like anything else .... when someone tells you that you can walk on it, you want to walk on it. It would have been better for me to have learned in a week that walking on it as tolerated was okay. I haven't cheated yet though and it has been 4 days - yahoo! I am very thankful that he did split the two sides of the cast (to allow for swelling), so there are some tiny air holes through the cotton that I can get a finger into to itch.

I'm taking zinc, vit E and vit C, which all are supposed to promote healing and am pushing the protein (Thanks, Vicki!). My toes were pretty chilly on the car ride to work this morning, so I need to locate my "toe cover" and get using it.

Tired feet headed to bed early tonight ....
je

Made it home ....

We arrived home safely last night about 6pm. Yesterday was a really long day! Getting through the security stuff at the airport with a wheelchair, crutches, carry on stuff, ID, boarding passes and everything else is quite the ordeal. I really couldn't carry much of anything, so the burden definitely fell on mom. We made it and were hoping all the way that that is the last time. The flight attendant on the trip home felt sorry for our situation, so he kept bringing us more and more peanuts, pretzels, Coke .... he must have come by 3-4 times with all of that.

We came home & had pizza for dinner and everyone headed to bed early. It was so great to be able to sleep without the pain pump machine, as it sat near my head and continually made a noise of the medicine pumping. I was glad that mom was able to get it removed from my leg successfully, as I couldn't see it being at the back side of my leg. I was really stressed on Friday as to whether or not I'd be able able to fly home on Saturday, due to the fact that I couldn't keep my eyes open for anything. The medicine was different this time and the reaction wasn't anywhere close to "normal" for me. Amazing what 24 hrs. and a lot of prayer does!

The Dallas surgeon did say that I could put weight on the foot and walk on it as tolerated, but I haven't yet. I need to find out if I need to be doing that for some specific reason. If not, I know from past history that it would help it to heal if I could go 1-2 weeks w/no weight on the foot. I've only used the crutches so far & haven't put any weight on it. There is a hard cast with a walking type shoe that comes off. We won't know for a little while as to the success of the surgery. I need to walk on it and see if the foot stays down. Dr. C was able to lengthen the tendon to about 30 degrees (40 is normal), so hopefully this will be enough. We all knew that we'd never get 40 degrees which is fine. There is a chance that I can get it to stretch a little more with exercise eventually. I am anxious to read the operative report that is being sent to me when it is ready.

Got my hair washed this morning and am just laying low otherwise. Can't believe tomorrow is back to work already - it has been a fast past four days. The rest of my family has been raking leaves this afternoon, so I got out of that task. Hope you are staying warm this chilly weekend!

Love,
jenny

Doing better ....

I am finally doing better this morning and feel like I can at least have a conversation without falling asleep. I slept like 22 hours yesterday, which is not like me at all. I was getting a little worried about it last night. I talked to the anesthetic guy on the phone and he said that all was normal. I seem to be more alert this morning. We took out the pain pump (it was almost empty anyway), so now it is easier to get around. I'm down to taking 1 Darvacet and 1 Aleve for pain medication every 6 hrs. This is the same as I have taken everyday, so not much difference there.

Everyone at the surgery center said that we had a great doctor, so that was reassuring to hear. He said that I could put weight on it now, but I'm going to give it at least a week with no weight, as that will help it to heal better. I have a tingle feeling in my right little finger, but that is from the anesthetic - it happens almost every time and lasts several days and then the feeling comes back. It is a weird deal and makes no sense, but I've had it before.

We had a huge breakfast at the house where we are staying with great yeast rolls with frosting - love that! It is only 38 degrees here today and very windy, which is really cold for Dallas. We're leaving for the airport about 1:15ish ... 4:00pm flight home. This blog post is my 250th post ..... amazing!

Thanks for praying the past few days .... it has helped and has meant a lot to us.

Love & hugs,
je

Good day today

All went well today ... I am exhausted, so this is going to be reall short. I will writemore tomorrow. We made it to TX safely and Dr. C thinks that he was able to bring the foot down ... or at least it willl be better. No nausea yet - yeah! I have a pain pump and cathter thta will stay in until Saturday. My eyes are closing .... more info. tomorrow.

je

Ready for TX tomorrow ....

I'm ready to go and am going into tomorrow thinking that it will all go successfully. I think the surgery will be more like noon, instead of 12:30. No matter what happens, we definitely made the right decision to move forward with the surgical option. The pain has continued to increase and hopefully that part will all be over soon! The new battery for my scooter at work was delivered today, so it is back in working order and is charging for my use on Monday at work.

My prayer for tomorrow is that He will be glorified, it will be obvious to the surgeon that the surgery was successful, no nausea, good anesthetic person, safe traveling, and for continued patience with the cast situation. I'm very glad we are staying with a close friend and not a hotel - will be much easier.

Off to eat a big snack, since it will be late afternoon before I can eat anything tomorrow. Go Dr. C tomorrow - use that surgical skill!

Laura - no new PJ's this time .... still have sets from plenty of previous surgeries!

"Let us run the race that is before us and never give up" - Hebrews 12:1
Check back Thursday evening for a blog update ....

Much love,
je

Texas ahead ....

Whew ... what a whirlwind day it has been! I met with the ENT dr. on Monday morning. It was a HUGE blessing that we go to the same church as Dr. Chole as Monday was his research day and I was the only patient that he saw. He said that I was on the tail end of the ear infection and the drops that I had been using caused a white "film" to cover the ear canal, which was preventing hearing. It looked very similar to an ear fungus, so that explained all the confusion w/other doctors. He gave me the okay for surgery, cleaned out some of the drop residue and said that the rest should clear up in another week or so. Spots on my leg are still looking a little better each day .... who knows how much Saran wrap I've used.

Monday night I had a huge parent volunteer training session until 8pm .... did errands last night and tonight made holiday wreaths at church with mom before coming home. We've had kids each day at work this week, but I am hoping to be able to work at my desk a little more tomorrow. Thankfully it was a really easy group of kids today.

I'm talking with the anesthetic guy tomorrow night between 6-9pm and then we leave for Dallas at 7am on Thursday. Going to try to leave work a little early tomorrow as I still have a lot of things to wrap up and finalize at home. My refrig needs to be emptied and I need to make a few more trips to mom & dad's house w/items for the next month. I got the AT&T details organized tonight to be able to connect to the web via my cell phone, so we are "good to go" for taking the laptop with us to TX. I wanted to buy holiday cards this week, but couldn't find anything that I liked rather quickly, so I'm waiting for now on that .... maybe I can do a photo card wearing a shoe!

Will try to do one more blog entry tomorrow evening .... I felt the best today (other than the foot) that I've felt in the past month, so that was good. I was cleaning out computer files on Sunday night and came across a bunch of foot pics from last March/April and was again reminded at how far we've come .... all are too graphic to post, but I was shocked at how awful the open incision looked. God is good and we've made a ton of progress in the past year .... hopefully our final step in a long journey is near completion. Keep the faith that all will end positively! I'm confident that God will continue to orchestrate all the details for the remainder of this week and in the weeks ahead.

Thanks for checking in and for praying for us over the next several days.

Love and hugs,
Jenny

Finally .... this is the week!

I'm okay! Sorry for no updates the past few days .... I have been out of town this weekend at a baby shower in IL. I managed to get into see a dermatologist on Thursday of last week and got some new super strong cream for the spots on my leg. (It is the non-surgical leg) I put in on once before bedtime and then have to wrap the area in saran wrap and sleep with it that way ... sounds crazy, but it is slowly working! It will be passable and better by Thursday of this week.

As for the ear, it is not a lot better so tomorrow I'm going to see an ENT dr. at Wash U .... he happens to go to our church, otherwise there would have been no getting in to this specialist on such short notice. Not really much ear pain left, but clearly hearing is still a challenge so it is not quite right yet.

Despite all of this, we're still okay to do the surgery. I'm supposed to talk to Dallas tomorrow and then the anesthetic dr. on Wednesday evening between 6-9pm. Mom finished my crutch covers tonight and they are so fun .... I'll take a picture and will have to post it. Will be glad when I make some progress on the ear situation tomorrow and then I think we're ready to get on with it .... feeling relaxed and have most things organized. Planning on taking the laptop to TX & will have an Internet connection via my cell phone.

I've heard of a lot of friends with colds, flu, and upper respiratory junk in the past two weeks, and am very thankful that I have managed to stay clear of all of that. Emotionally I'm doing well and still feel good about our decision to hopefully have this all be over soon. This surgery won't be nearly as involved or difficult as last May - that was a really big deal. Keep praying for wisdom for Dr. C and his assistant Diana, that skin cells will heal well, and for all the flight details to happen like clockwork. Pray also that the surgery on Thursday is successful and there won't be any need to consider a more involved option.

Thursday, November 13th .... will be a BIG DAY!
7:00am - Leave for Dallas
9:00am - Arrive in Dallas
10:30am - Check into hospital
12:30pm - Tendon lengthening surgery

Saturday, November 15th - 6pm - Arrive Home
Monday, November 17th - 8am - Back to work!

How many people can say they flew and had surgery on the same day? Thanks for checking in and for continuing to pray .... need to call it a day, as extra sleep the next few days would be a good thing.

Love & hugs,
je

Ugh ... one thing after the next!

Keep praying that this ear infection clears up and now there are several infection spots on my leg. I started a steroid cream, but I can't do an oral steroid for pre-op reasons. If this doesn't improve shortly, we are going to have to cancel the surgery, flight reservations, and all the details would need to be changed. It would be A LOT of work, so pray that the medication starts to work! I had to get out of a big conference in Rhode Island that I was supposed to be at the week before Thanksgiving, so we really need to keep our surgery date of 11/13.

I'm tired of paying co-pays for rechecks w/no progress. Today was a really rough day with pain & there were big issues with kids in BizTown today, but I'm definitely frustrated w/these other issues ... there is no time for this! Will keep you posted ....

je

Ear issues ....

My ear troubles are continuing .... the ear infection that I had several weeks ago is still there! I went round & round with my family doctor and a doc-in-the box at an urgent care place this week and got nowhere. This morning I saw another dr. in the practice of my family dr. and expressed my concern that my hearing was lacking, pain was still present and that I was having surgery soon and didn't want to be dealing with this. Sure enough - full blown ear infection. He prescribed a stronger ear drop and took a culture of it ... he wondered if it is some ear fungus - gross! At any rate, just pray that it clears up. I've never had ear problems before, so this is a new one. A big part of my job is speaking and it is hard if you can't hear yourself. This is my last weekend to get stuff done at my house and I'm feeling so-so.

We have a baby shower for my cousins wife in IL next weekend & then off to Dallas. I was limping around work all week and had a lot of foot pain, so I'm ready to get on with it.

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful fall weekend!
je