Hip surgery update

Last Thursday, Valentine's Day, Annabelle was scheduled to have her hip surgery.  We arrived to the hospital at 7:15 as requested and as we rounded the corner of the peds surgical unit we received a call that all surgeries that required an overnight stay were being cancelled because they didn't have any beds left on the peds floor.  We finally got to speak to someone in administration and they rescheduled us for Saturday surgery, which they typically do not do except for emergencies. 

On Saturday morning we arrived at the hospital and were brought right back to get ready for surgery.    After seeing the nurse and changing into a gown the anesthesiologist came in to introduce herself and check on Annabelle.  She was concerned about her cough and cold that Annabelle had for a few days, the cough being worse that morning.  After speaking with the doctor they decided to cancel the surgery and reschedule in 4 weeks once the cold has passed.  They were concerned the cold could develop into pneumonia post-op which is very serious and since she will be in a cast she wouldn't be able to cough or clear her chest which could be painful.

So yesterday I called and we are on the schedule for March 19th, typically times go by age so we are early morning.  She will then be in the cast for 6 weeks after that.  We appreciate all the good thoughts and prayers we can get and I will post an update after the surgery is done.

Florida Vacation

We took our first flight with Annabelle at the end of January to visit Brian's parents in Florida.  We went for 8 days and had a wonderful time.  Annabelle did great on all the flights!  She was a little fussy on the flight down, I thought it was because of lack of sleep or cabin pressure but we found out when we got down there that she had an ear infection.  After a couple days of antibiotics she was good as new and did great on the flight home!

While in Florida we had a great time swimming in the pool almost everyday and even took a day to go to the Shell Factory and Nature Center.  Annabelle got to pet and feed goats and sheep, she wasn't sure about it at first but enjoyed it after we fed a few.  We saw all kinds of birds, animals and of course alligators.  They also had a dinosaur area and a nice park with swings.  

Next Thursday (Valentines day) Annabelle is going to have hip surgery to help position her hip to hopefully start growing around the ball of the femur properly.  After surgery we will be in the hospital for a few days and she will be in a cast for 6 weeks so it will give her the time to heal.  Everyone keeps telling us that it's harder on the parents than the children, I really hope that is true.  

All the pictures are from our trip and are pretty self explanatory   I will try to update the blog after surgery to let everyone know how she is doing.