HI Ladies!

Karen-Thank you for sharing your story. It is so helpful to hear another person's experience as it gives us all strength to walk through all of this. And you are so right, our babies don't have a "long term disability", thank God! I am glad to hear that Summer is over the half way point and it sounds like you have adjusted fairly well so I know in time, we will too.

So, here's the latest. Taylor had her surgery yesterday morning. The hardest part emotionally was giving her to the anesthesiologist's so they could bring her to the OR. Well, that was the hardest part yesterday anyway. The past 24 hours have been almost unbearable. I kept telling the resident on call last night that Taylor needed something to help her relax like a muscle relaxer and he kept saying No and continued to give her narcotics and benadryl which was literally making her crazy. Up until a few hours ago, she had only slept 3 hours total in the past 24 hours. The resident finally agreed to give her a relaxer and now she has slept for over 2 hours. I couldn't help but cry this morning. I've never felt so heart broken and helpless. As a mother, all you want to do is help your children, and I realized that I can't do anything to "fix" this for my baby. Very heartbreaking! But, I know she will adapt in time.

As far as her surgery, it went well. She will be in the spica cast for 3 full months and will have to have 2 cast changes under general anesthesia during that time. After the cast comes off, she will be in the brace for 1 year (the first three months of that, she will wear it 24/7 except for bathing and diapering).

Anyway, I will keep you all posted!

Rachelle and Taylor