Seven Days and Counting!

Well, we're definitely heading into the home stretch! It's seven days and counting, my friends. Wow, how quickly time flies.

Here's where we stand with things:

1) Regular old fee-for-service MEDICAID has picked back up. Yay! So, everything should be covered for the surgery. We're still keeping our fingers crossed.

2) We went to see All Medical about the new wheelchair last week. They made some adjustments and we've kept the old wheelie for the time being. It will continue to "grow out" for Sophie B as she grows and until we are at a point where she is not growing so quickly. At that point (probably around the time she is 10 or so), we will be looking at a more customizable wheelie.

3) We go to get fitted for the AFOs tomorrow at Brace and Boot.

4) The Personal Care Aide referral has been made. At this point, we are waiting to hear from the organization that approves us. Once we schedule Sophie's evaluation with them, then we will be on board to actually get an aide.

5) The surgery time has been changed to 11 a.m. Sophie will arrive next Monday at 9:00 a.m. to begin all of the pre-op preparations.

We had a pre-op appointment with Dr. Piehl last Wednesday. He went over some things with us, too:

1) Sophie will be in the hospital for three-four days. She should be released sometime Thanksgiving Day.

2) For pain management, Sophie will be on a morphine drip in the hospital. It will give her a continuous dose each hour with the nurse giving extra doses as needed. She will also have oral valium, as needed for agitation. Once home, Sophie will be on Lortab elixer (liquid) with valium liquid as needed.

3) Sophie will see Dr. Piehl about 2 weeks after the surgery for a check on her casts and incisions. In addition, he will xray her hips to make sure everything is healing correctly. Her appt is on Tuesday, December 8.

4) We'll be transferring her mostly using a sheet transfer, which the nurses will show us in the hospital. This will be used for getting her from bed to wheelchair, wheelchair to couch, etc. The mattresses are going to be moved to the floor (to try to keep her from getting hurt - we know she will try to get in/out of the bed at some point) and we will have a rental, reclining wheelchair from All Medical.

Other than that, it's pretty much a wait-and-see proposition! Cross your fingers and pray! : )

On a different note, Sophie will be sporting a new hairstyle soon! Her hair has gotten really long and we are bobbing it for the surgery. We're haircutting on Saturday and I'm sure that a photo will be posted soon after. Look for it!

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and words of encouragement. Keep 'em coming!

Much love.