1 year, 5 months

Gone are the days where Keillor and I would sit still for several pictures. Even in my cast, I'm trying to crawl all over him. Here the best that Dad got this morning:

 Lick attack!

 Sharing?

News from the month:
My understanding of words seems to have grown exponentially over the last few weeks. I'm still not saying a ton of words, but I usually understand what you're saying. Especially if you're asking me to do something. For example, I know what "Honey, please top ripping the pages of the book" means. I know what "Please set your bottle upright" means. And I know what "Keillor has had enough Cheerios" means.  Ok fine, I know lots of positive things, too. Dad has been working on identifying trees with me and I'm getting good at brushing my hair back when asked.

I'll also say any word you ask me to say. It just might not sound right to your ears. 

We've made several trips over to the Regis campus to watch the college baseball and softball recently. I enjoy the softball the best because the ladies are always yelling and cheering and they play my kind of dance music between batters and between innings. Dad wonders if I'll still sit still at the games once I'm out of the cast. We'll let you know in a few weeks!

I'm still a good eater and I enjoy feeding myself using my little fork. I usually need Mom or Dad's help getting the food on the fork, but I've surprised myself a few times when I've stabbed the avocado without any help. Don't worry, the avocado was already dead before I stabbed it.

My upper body strength continues to grow, as well. I have fun on my scooter, but I'm also comfortable just pulling myself around on the floor.

I'll be out of my cast in two weeks. I'm looking forward to getting back to crawling and dancing!

On Wisconsin

Mom's been in Washington, DC, for the past couple nights so Dad and I have been keeping busy. Last night was the Badger basketball game!

 Dad stopped at the store on the way home from work for proper Wisconsin Badger meal supplies.

 My reaction when I heard that I get to have sauerkraut for supper. 

 Cheers-ing while watching the game.

Grandpa

Grandpa Rick came through Denver on his way home from spring training baseball this past weekend. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling very well on Saturday and Sunday so we just took it easy around the house. We'll save the adventures for next visit!

My face sums up how I was feeling on Saturday. Blah!

 But by Sunday evening I was back to enjoying my books!

8th place

I was up in 2nd place for a portion of the weekend and now Dad says I'll be in 8th until Thursday at least. 

Even Grandma Linda is beating me and she picked her teams based on uniform colors!

Outside

Lindsey brought us outside for afternoon playtime last week...

 

My buddy, Finn, will be coming through that tunnel any moment now!

Hip update

Andy typing today...

Just wanted to share a quick update on Tess' right hip. This is the same hip that was operated on two weeks ago, but didn't stay in (or near) the socket.

It was nice to have a two week break from when we last spoke with Dr. Novais. It appears as if the time away from Tess also gave him and his colleagues plenty of time to consider Tess' hip status in an objective way. It is clear that he cares a great deal for Tess and that he spends an unusually large amount of time thinking about her hips.

We sent him four pages of questions while he was at his conference in Brazil last week. After the answers were emailed back to us earlier this week, it was clear that Tess was not going to have surgery any time soon. Tess' right hip is just too deformed to do anything productive at this time. The correct option is to wait and see how Tess' right hip develops over the next year or two. The chances of a successful surgery now are very very small and the chance of doing damage that would be harder fix in the future are high. She needs to develop more bone before we decide on the next course of action.

Both Denise and I are completely comfortable with this decision. In fact, we both became comfortable after reading Dr. Novais answers to our questions before we even spoke with him yesterday morning.

We are happy to share much more information for anyone that would like to know more. I just don't want to post it here on Tess and Keillor's blog. Please feel free to email or call us with questions!

So what now?

Tess will have her cast removed on Friday, April 11th (which will be the 12-week mark for the left hip). It'll involve Tess wearing her pink sound dampening ear muffs that you've seen her wearing at Buffs basketball games and a loud cast saw. She'll be awake and it'll go quick. She'll most likely be uncomfortable when the cast first comes off only because her legs will be so stiff. About two weeks after the cast is removed, she'll begin physical therapy to get herself standing and walking.

Walking with a hip not in socket will cause a limp, but it will not cause any damage to her spine, pelvis or other bones/muscles at this age.

Tess will have a 3-month, 6-month and 1-year check-up on her left hip and at the same time the right hip will also get x-rays. We'll be watching how the right femur grows over the next year or two and that will help direct the course of the next surgery.

So there you have it. We're relieved to have a course of action (even though the course of action is no action at this time) and we're excited to get that kid out of her cast in a few weeks.

Back to regular blog programming tomorrow...

March madness

Mom and Dad helped me make my picks last night! Each team was on its own piece of paper. Two teams were tossed in a bowl and I picked the winner. Simple process that only took us about a half hour (I demanded several breaks).

 Making my first pick.

 And the winner is...

 We only need to do this 62 more times!

 Milk break!

Trying to eat the little slips of paper.

 Reading break and a venue change.

Final results.

FYI: Dad advanced each of the #1 seeds to the second round for me. 

Then they were entered into the normal drawings with the rest of the teams.

Hats

Now that it's staying sunny for our evening walks, Dad says I've got to start wearing a hat occasionally.

So Grandma helped me try on a few this past weekend.

 Hmmm...ok, but it's a little small, right?

Any other options?

Fine. I will sit here, but I'm officially protesting. 

You think you're so smart since you can tie this on my head. Whatever!

Day-in-the-life: More exercise

We haven't had a ton of exciting pictures lately, so here's a little clip of me helping Dad.

Gardens

Grandma Linda is in town! Then she leaves tomorrow for a little road trip to Santa Fe and then we'll see her again next weekend for a few nights before she heads back to Minnesota.

Her annual pass to the Minnesota Arboretum allowed us into the Denver Botanic Gardens this afternoon and they have a new kids garden to explore!

Hip update

Andy typing here.

Here's a summary of Tess' hip conditions. We're happy to share more details with anyone, but please call or email for those.

The surgery on Tuesday was both successful and unsuccessful.

Successful: Tess continued to breathe during the entire procedure! We can't say that about the two previous times she was under anesthesia. Also, her left hip (that was operated on in January) has seated nicely into the socket and it should only get better during the next several weeks that it's in a cast.

Unsuccessful: Her right hip (Tuesday's operation) is no longer positioned near the socket. Both of Tess' hips are very deformed from the infection last year and the femoral heads just don't match with her sockets. We got very lucky with the left hip, but no such luck with right hip. The doctor positioned it just like he did the left, but by the time she got her MRI that night, the head had already slipped away from the socket.

What now? Two options basically:

1. Operate again in a couple weeks. Dr. Novais would cut Tess' femur to better position the head, plate the femur, and pin the head to the socket. It would be casted for 6 weeks and then the pin would be removed. At that point we hope the head would stay in the socket and she'd get another 6 week cast.

2. Do nothing and operate again when Tess is a year or two older. That would give her bones time to develop and Dr. Novais would be able to better remodel her hip at that time. She would walk later this summer after the cast comes off, but probably with a limp (that wouldn't cause her any pain).

Each option has several pros and cons with limited chances of success and we'll be considering those over the next several days.

Day-in-the-life: Exercise

You've seen my various chairs that keep me busy with playing and reading, but I'm also able to move myself around the house occasionally. Sure it requires the help of a Christmas gift from Aunt Jill and Uncle Jeff, but at least I have my freedom!

Home

Just a quick update to let you know that we're home. Tess is doing well and just finished a little supper.

We're all a little exhausted so I'll need to save the update on her hips for another post, but didn't want to keep folks wondering where we are.

Thanks again for all the prayers and well wishes!

Back to regular programming tomorrow morning...

Surgery update #8

Tess got some solid chunks of sleep last night. She was up at 11:00 and 3:00, but was able to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, 6:00 am was her first dose of oral medicine so she had to be up for that and was not too happy.

Last evening was a bit rough because she went through some episodes of coughing and then puking. She's also much more swollen than back in January. We weren't able to get her to smile or do anthing before Denise went home at 10:00 pm so we're hoping today starts off better. I asked her for a high five and she shook her head at me, so at least that's some sort of reaction!

The only main thing that's different than back in January is that she still has her epidural. Denise and I are convinced that's what's causing the difference in behavior. Anyhow, that was shut off at 6:00 am and we'll be on oral pain medication going forward.

Still hoping we get to go home today!

I owe everyone a post about her hips and I'll do that later this morning.

 We brought this duct tape from home and the nurses used it to make a bow for her hair. 

Tuesday afternoon right when we got up to our room.

Surgery update #7

Ok, we're hanging out with Tess now and she's snoozing away. She got to have some apple juice a little while ago (which she doesn't get at home) and then some more apple juice and then a little more apple juice. After that it was out for a nap.

We're waiting to head up to her room and then we'll go down for her MRI this evening.

Pictures later hopefully!

Surgery update #6

Dr. Novais just finished up with Tess and they're doing the cast now. So it'll be about an hour until they're done with that. At that point, we'll get to go see her in recovery. Then we'll go down to the MRI with her just like back in January.

Surgery update #5

15 or 20 minutes left for Dr. Novais then 45 minutes for the cast. He'll then come out and visit with us while Tess goes for an MRI with the anesthesia team. So not sure when we'll get to see her but we're excited to visit with the doc.

Surgery update #4

Things are still going well. About another 45 minutes of surgery and then 45 minutes to put the new cast on. 

Speaking of the cast, we couldn't decide on a good color of green so you'll see pink again for the next six weeks. New color of duct tape, though!

Surgery update #3

Just got a call from Nurse Nicole. No real update. Things are good. Dr. Novais is just working away on the right hip. Next call in about an hour.

Surgery update #2

Two bits of great news just received:

1. The left hip is looking solid so they're proceeding with the right hip surgery.

2. And this part made me cry a little bit: Nurse Nicole just called Denise and said, "So I don't know how you've done it, but Tess was so clean that we didn't need to give her a bath. And we've never seen a cast in such good condition after six weeks." Those of you that know me know I'm not joking about crying.

Surgery update #1

Andy typing this morning...

Smooth morning so far. Tess was a rock star getting up at 5:00. And once again, she didn't complain about not getting to eat or drink anything before surgery.

The nurse took her away at about 7:45 and we won't get an update until around 9:00.

The plan:
1. Tess goes to sleep
2. Cast comes off
3. Arthrogram and a gentle exam of the left hip which will tell us if it's stable. If it's not stable, they can't roll her onto that hip to operate on the right hip. If that's the case, she'll just get a new cast and we're done for the day. The right hip will be handled at some future point. But Dr. Novais thinks the left hip will be stable so...
4. Continue with the rip hip surgery
5. MRI to make sure both hips are in place

Like the January surgery, it should last into the afternoon.

The nurse will call us every hour with a check-in so we'll post anything interesting.

Fake smile

I recently developed a second type of smile. Mom and Dad call it my fake smile since I only do it for the camera.

1 year, 4 months

Time for monthly pictures with my pup! Except neither of us are very cooperative when it comes to posing for Dad.

About to head out for our morning walk. 

My threshold for joining Dad and Keillor is anything over 20 degrees. Luckily, the thermometer hit 21 right after breakfast so I got to go with!

Sure, I can't move my arms, but I really do enjoy getting out.

Back inside with Dad trying to get us both to sit still.

Keillor's regular spot when I'm playing in my chair.

I do this when you ask, "Point to your chubby cheeks."

And here's me letting Dad know that he's taken enough shots.

What a month! I am learning so much lately.

I am getting quite good at a number of words: Mama, dada, bye bye, puffs (one of my favorite snacks), banana (comes out 'nana'). Heck, I'll give anything a try if you ask me to say a word. I do say, "Keillor," but it comes out sounding like a little whining noise. He's not quite recognizing when I try to call him over.

My animal sounds are also getting quite good. Cow, kitty, goose, grizzly bear, turkey, and horse. Seriously, my horse sounds is legit. We'll try to get a video of it one of these days. 

My favorite foods this month: Popcorn and chocolate cake. Otherwise known as the perfect meal, if you ask Dad. I've only tried each of them once and I'm excited to have them again. I also ate almost all of the pickled herring Dad gave me the other night, but I'm still not sure about it. I made a funny face with each bite.

Dad and I have been working on identifying trees over on the Regis campus the past few weeks, as well. At this point I only know what a "tree" is, but I'm looking forward to learning the different types. I am confident I'll have the difference between coniferous and deciduous sorted by April.

Surgery on my other hip on Tuesday so we're looking forward to showing you my new cast soon!