4 week Post Op Follow up- Surgery #1

Hi everyone !!
On Monday, September 19th, Mia had her follow up visit, post surgery !!  The visit went very well !!!
Dr. Heflin (did I mention how much we love him ??!!!)  ;)  was so very pleased with how well her hip looks, and how great she seems to be healing !!!  Oh, here's a pic of our fabulous doctor with Mia.....

Mia and Dr. John Heflin, M.D.

We talked a bit about some pain that she is continuing to have, and we agreed to 'watch' it, and of course call him if, Heaven forbid, it gets worse.  We set up a 'game plan' to leave this cast on for another 2 weeks.  At the 2 week mark, we'll go back to the hospital for what we hope will be an outpatient procedure, for them to shoot some dye into her hip (yes, there is a 'technical' medical term for this, but forgive me, it's late and I just can't think of it !! lol)...this dye will allow him to see the hip in great detail to be sure everything is actually healing as well as it appears to be.  While there, they will cut her out of this cast, and place her in a new one, known as a "pantaloon" cast.  This cast will differ in that both legs of the cast will be short, such as the left one is now.  She will wear the pantaloon cast for another 4-6 weeks.  We expect, hope and pray that this second cast will come off somewhere around mid-November, and then, guess what ???!!!  We get to take a break !!! YAAAY!!!!  He said that he feels that she needs a break, and that Daddy and I do too (see why I love this man ??!!), and so we will wait until after the holidays, AND her birthday before we start the process again on the other side.  I expect that surgery #2 will take place sometime at the beginning of March.
Giving Mia this break, will also allow the hip to get some usage, and help her to regain some range of motion in it, before immobilizing her again for another 2-3 months with the second surgery.  Hopefully, this will help strengthen those muscles, and keep the atrophying to a minimum.  I can hope !!! ;)

If the pain she has continues, I'll have no choice but to call the good Doctor back, but hopefully, we're making progress and that won't be necessary !!! 
We want to thank everyone for all of the gifts, cards, letters & most importantly, prayers, that you have sent, and continue to send !!! You have made her smile more than once, and this of course, makes Daddy and I smile LOTS !!!
We love and appreciate you all, and as always, thank you for being a miracle for our Mia !!!!
With a Mommy's grateful and humbled heart,
xoxoxo

Mia and Daddy in the waiting room....<3

 

 

 

Mia and Mommy <3

Surgery #1

Oh my gosh guys, PLEASE forgive me !!!  It has been absolutely NUTS in the past 13 days since her surgery, and I'm so sorry for not having updated this sooner !!!!!
Her first surgery went very well, praise God !!! The doctor was ...ummm....ok, 'blown away' by how bad she was...he said it was awful in there.  Poor angel !!  Surgery lasted right at 4 hours and he was pleased with the way it 'set'. 

Our girl, just out of recovery.

 

 

 

 

 

Resting comfortably, with "Jay", her teddy bear by her side.  They've had a rough time, these two !

Our hospital stay lasted 5 days...during which, we had a couple of 'issues' with her pain meds....let's just say that we have learned (the hard way), that Mia has a really bad adverse reaction to Valium.  We'll leave that there, and have now put that on her "allergy" list !! :/   After coming home from the hospital, we continued to have some uncontrolled pain.  This took us back to the emergency room.  There, they did a scan to be sure that the hip had not moved, and we were very happy to learn that it hadn't.  We were, however, readmitted, for pain management.  Thankfully, once we got that back under control, we were able to come home, and day by day, it has gotten a little easier.  She has had a terrible time getting used to this cast (as anyone can imagine), and her limitations are becoming painfully obvious to her, no pun intended !!
So as not overload this posting with pictures, I will post them on the "photos" page (what a concept, huh ?! LOL)...and everyone can see how well she's done !!!
We go back to the doctor on Sept. 19th for a follow up with a new scan, and to decide how much longer she will have to wear this cast !!! :)
We cannot begin to thank you all enough for your constant love, support & prayers !!! Please know, and believe, that we have relied on them heavily, and have gained tremendous strength from them !!!!  God used each one of you to hold us up and get us through !!!! One surgery down, 3 more to go !!!
Praise, Jesus, we will see her run again, one day soon !!! ;)
With a Mommy's grateful heart,
xoxox

"Jay" sends his love too ! <3

Say You Will....

Say that you'll come with us,

Say that you'll go too

Promise you'll be by our sides

And that you'll pull us through.

Say that she will walk again

and run and jump and dance,

say her pain will all be through

for sure, not just "a chance"

Say that you'll stay with her

in rooms where we can't go

and guide her surgeon's heart and hands,

and that Your peace he'll know.

Say that you will strengthen us

and help us help her heal,

And, say your strong and loving arms

are what we'll always feel.

Say you understand our hearts

our hopes, our prayers, our dreams

and say you'll take away our fears

as hard as that all seems.

Say your love for us is great

say you're in control

say you'll help us turn to you

when 'weakness' takes its toll.

I shouldn't need reminding, Lord

I know you're with us everday

You show your love and 'lift us up'

through those you send our way.

The love that has surrounded us

could only come from you,

Bless them all, Lord, one by one

and let them know we love them too.

We're thankful that you carry us

as "uncertainty" draws near

we know that you will hold us tight

 with you, we need not fear.

Yes, I do believe you'll come with us

and that you will go too

and that you'll be right by our sides

and that you'll pull us through !

Cards & Letters

You guys are all soooooooo great !!!!!!
And, because so many of you have asked where you can send a card/letter, Mia's amazing Memaw & Poppy have set up a P.O. Box for her so that you can !!!!!!  Thank you, Memaw & Poppy !!!! And, thank you to all of you for your constant love, support & Prayers !!!! ;)

Please send to:

Miss Mia Jay

P.O. Box 27

Lovejoy, Ga 30250

USA

And, thank you all for being a miracle for our Mia ! ;)

With a Mommy's very grateful heart,

xoxo

Surgery details....

All ready to go.....

 Ok, so as you all know, today was the day to "meet the surgeon".  He is the best part of our visit !!!  He's a wonderfully sweet man, seems very capable, and he and Mia got along great !!! No meltdown like we on Friday with the pediatrician !!!  That's the good news !!!!  Mia really likes her "new friend" Dr. Heflin !!  And, Mommy and Daddy do too.

Now, onto the not so great part of the visit.  We have been up to this point, (clearly, quite foolishly I might add) been thinking, "okay we go in, we do surgery, we fix the problem, done deal."  Yeah, not so much.
Dr. Heflin took a new set of x-rays today to get a fresh look, and well, it's somewhat worse than we thought.  Apparently, her case is really bad.  He feels fairly confident that we can get this done with 4 surgeries.  He does not want to do both hips at the same time, because given the magnitude of the surgery, it would just be too much for Mia.  They want to minimalize blood loss and pain, and feel that to do the surgeries separate would be better.  So, on the 23rd, the will go in and fix her right hip only.  She will be in surgery for 4-5 hours....and, in the hospital for 4-5 days.  While in surgery, they will do away with the additional sets of hip sockets which Mia's body has tried to produce, the will have to cut and form the sockets which never formed correctly, they will have to "clean out" the area of the socket which right now has ligaments, tendons & muscles growing in there, since the femur was never in there to keep them out, and well, cause basically they could.  And, last but certainly not least, they will shorten her femurs by about a half inch.  They will put in "hardware" (plates, rods, screws, etc) to hold everything together.  Then, she will go in a cast for 3 months.  During that 3 months, she will undergo several CT scans, to be sure that the hip isn't moving...if it does move at all, we go in immediately, open her back up and put it back. (We're praying this doesn't happen !!) 
After the 3 months, they will cut her out of the cast, and do the entire process again on the left side.  Back in the cast for another 3 months.  At some point (and I'm not clear when, I was a little 'dumbfounded' and still somewhat stuck on 4 surgeries !) they will have to go in to remove the hardware.  One surgery for each side.  Hence the total 4.
Now, this surgery is Mia's best chance at being able to avoid total hip replacements by age 20.  And, while he says she will never be 100% and will always have limitations, this will ease her current pain, and prevent further crippling.  Or so we all hope.  He does feel that Mia's hips are "salvageable", (and he tried so hard to be kind when he said that), but he let us know he's
going to do his best to get her as close to "right" as he can.
The only thing he stressed over and over again, was how "major" this surgery is, and how "horrible and long her road to recovery will be".  By the end of the meeting, we got it.  There is nothing easy about this procedure...and there's nothing easy about afterwards.

So, we will be at Egleston Children's Hospital at 6 a.m. on the 23rd of August....to prepare for surgery at 7:30 a.m. 
We are going to ask that everyone say a prayer for Mia at 7:30 a.m. on the 23rd.  Please.

We are so grateful to each and every one of you for being with us, and for walking beside us.  We love and appreciate you, your prayers, and the way that you have all loved us.
We have incredible hopes for our Mia.  We trust that God will guide Dr. Heflin, God will heal our Mia, and that God hears all of your prayers for us. God gives us strength through you.
With an incredibly sincere heart, thank you.

And, thank you for being a miracle for our Mia,
With a Mommy's heart,
xoxo

waiting for the doctor, playing with Daddy's hat.

Aren't I cute ??!!

Meeting the new Pediatrician...

Okey dokey....weeeeell, the lesson learned today was, "don't assume anything will be simple" !! LOL

Today, we went to meet Mia's new pediatrician.  The thought process was that since she is going to be a new patient for him, and him a new doctor for her, well, I thought they should meet.  I don't know that I won't need to call him after surgery for something else, and I just kinda thought that as her new doctor he should have a "heads up" that she's having the surgery, etc.  For the past couple of weeks and up until today, I was thinking..."no shots....no real examination....yeah, ok...we should be good !!!  A piece of cake !!".  WRONG!!
Apparently all of these doctors visits have made my girl somewhat paranoid.  She had a HORRIBLE meltdown, didn't want him to touch her, to look at her or anything!  It was just "ugly".  On a couple of different levels.  Our new doctor (who really is a VERY nice man) said that Mia looked good...checked her iron...looked her over...watched her walk...and, said to let him know how the surgery goes.  I feel better that he knows, at least, a little something about her now.  As the visit progressed, I began to get a glimpse of not only Monday's visit to meet her surgeon...but, the week after, when we go for surgery.  If she reacts anything like she did today...well, let's just pray she doesn't.  The only thing that calmed her down was her music.  Thank God I have her favorite group (Il Volo) on my phone....she said, "Ignazio sing to me and make me feel better.".....You got it !!! Grabbed the phone, pushed the button and said, "Sing, Ignazio, Sing !!!"....thankfully, it worked, she settled down, and we could get her dressed and out of there !!!! ;)

Aside from the meltdown of "biblical proportions", the visit was very good.  We believe we have found a very good doctor for our Mia to see....and, we became even more incredibly aware of how grateful we are for all of the prayers being said for Mia and for us.  Please, please keep them up !!!  Clearly, we need them !!  ;)

Monday (8/15/11) should be another post, after we meet the surgeon, and get all the details for surgery.

Thank you all for your continued love, support and prayers, and thank you for being a miracle for our Mia !!!
With a Mommy's heart,
xoxox

listening to Ignazio, Gianluca & Piero, and beginning to settle down....

This is Daddy's "she's breaking my heart" face....he just wanted to get his girl out of there !! ;)

A Side Note...

Ok, well, we're going to digress from health related things for just a minute.  We have GOT to tell you all about the MOST amazing group of people that we have met, but first, we must introduce you to the reason why !!!  Over on the right hand side of this page is a section called "Little things that make Mia smile"...and, in that list, you will see "Il Volo".  <---there's your reason 'why' !! LOL  Mia wants to make sure that everyone knows who Il Volo is, how much she loves them, and how great they have been to her ! 
We first encountered Il Volo when they made their American debut on American Idol....had a dear friend, (thanks JJ!!) not called and told us to "put it on, NOW !!"...we would have missed them !!! As soon as they came on the screen, both Mia and I were hooked !!!!  These are three of the most talented young men we've seen perform in a VERY long time !!!!  And, they are amazing !!!!

From left to right in the pic above is:  Piero, Gianluca & Ignazio.  Oh yeah, all Italian, all the time !!! ;)  And, since I am Italian, and Mia is 1/2 Italian...well, they're just SO up our alley !!! lol 
In case you've never heard of them....have a listen.... ;)

Oh yeah, incredible....we know !!!! ;)  And, to think....Piero is 17 (may have just turned 18), Gianluca & Ignazio...both 16 !! ;)

Now, onto the amazing people !!! Through a video of Mia which I had posted on Il Volo's fan page, we were spotted by (and have since adopted ! LOL) Wendy Marcinkiewicz.  She heads up Il Volo's fan club out of Houston, is a huge fan, and loves our Mia so very much !!!  Wendy put Mia out on every fan page imaginable, and literally sent Mia "around the world" !!!  She's asked everyone to help us pray !!!....on  Mia's facebook page (which you can access on the right)...we have met and received messages of love, hope and incredible prayer from all over !! We have heard from Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Indonesia, Italy, France, and of course from right here in the good old USA !!! And the list continues to grow.  These boys can't imagine the impact they've had and how they've touched people everywhere !!!  I can't tell you how kind and loving everyone has been !!!!!
Wendy, Caitlyn, Gladys and everyone else....you have touched our hearts sooooooo much !!!!! And, we do truly love and appreciate you !!!  Il Volo fans everywhere have blessed our lives !!! xoxo
Ignazio and his beautiful fiance, Francesca have both sent Mia messages on facebook, "wishing her all the good of this world", "sending her BIG hugs & kisses" they say they will "pray without ceasing for the little princess", and that she has kidnapped their hearts.  Yeah, these kids are worthy of "all the good of this world", we love them and wish them all the best !!

So, there you go....amazing group....amazing people !!! Does our Mia have good taste or what ?????  Give Il Volo a try....become a fan....you're going to find yourself in some unbelievable company !!!!

 Thank you Il Volo for the smile you bring to my Mia, to me, and to countless others !!!
Thank you Il Volo fans everywhere for your love, support and prayers !!!!  We add you to an amazing 'circle of love' for our Mia, and we are proud to call you all our friends !!!

And, as always, thank you all for being a miracle for our Mia !!!! ;)
With a happy, singing O Sole Mio, Mommy's heart,
xoxo