The Hard Life of a Three Year Old

I happened to overhear Leah saying to herself, "Issues, issues, issues." I asked her, "Leah do you have issues?" (Shaking her head sadly back and forth) "Yes, I have issues".

Another Update on Zach's Knees

We had our big appt. in Iowa City. Basically, this doctor is not convinced that Zach has OCD. However, whether or not it has a name is not the point because he still has a defect on the back of both patellas. We have some options to consider but basically it came down to-without surgery he won't recover enough to be able to run during high school. We have scheduled his surgery for his right knee (the worst one) on April 12th. They will do a laproscopic surgery which means they will make two slits and insert a camera to look at the lesion. Depending on what he sees, he has two options. Number 1 is microfracture which involves poking holes in his kneecap to cause bleeding and therefore scar tissue will build up and heal over the lesion so it doesn't swell anymore. This will be fibrocartilage and not the hyaline cartilage he was born with. You can't regrow that cartilage. If the doctor thinks the lesion is worse than that surgery could help, then number 2 will happen. They will cut him open further, pull back the kneecap and place a cartilage "plug" that they take from a different part of his knee. That is obviously more invasive but it is a good option to be able to do it right then and not have a separate surgery. He will have to miss about a week of school but then can go back with crutches. It was a whole lot for me to process and I'm still working on it.

The Wheels on the Tractor Go Round and Round

Me: Hey Gracie! Show me how you can fit in here.

Tracy: Yes, yes do it, Grace! It will be so cute!

Tracy: Hey, maybe Bethany could fit in there. Try it Bethany!
Me: Okay Tracy, your turn!

Tracy: Okay, I'll try anything!

Me: (Tracy was occupied elsewhere) Caleb, do you think you fit in this wheel?

Caleb: I don't think so.

Me: Just try it!

Tracy: Ok Leisha, you try.

Me: Oh I don't think I'm that flexible.

Tracy: Oh you can fit, just try.

Me: This is really hard!!

Me: Hey, Thomas, do you want to sit in here?

Thomas: Yep.

Trey Buddy!
Me: Zach!

Tracy: No way, he won't fit, he's too tall.

Me: Caleb did it.

Tracy: Oh, ok then.

Me: Come on Laura...

Tracy: Oh yes! Yes, do it Laura!

Laura: Ummm, what?

Me: Hannah, sit in here

Hannah: Okay, sure.Go Lexi!

Leah Babe

Me: Caroline, can you sit in here?

Caroline: (nods)

Fun Weekend

This last weekend, the men in my family descended upon Walcott to have their annual Knutsen Skat Tournament. My dad, Dave, my brothers-in-law Brian and Mark, and Mark's sons Caleb and Micah, came to my house to play cards on Friday night and Saturday. The wives and children gathered at my mom's house to play with cousins and enjoy time together.

I would love to show you pictures of the guys at my house but I can't! Who wants to take pictures of a bunch of boys anyway?

Here are the girls playing dress up.

On Saturday, we went out to the interstate to look at the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum. Then we went for an ice cream treat!
Next we went to Moline to see the John Deere tractors

Leah asked me to turn the radio to Baby Stuck Like Glue:)

Oh yeah, by the way, congrats to the winner of the card tournament. My dad!:)

Zach's Knees

If you read this post and this post, you know we were going back to the doctor to get the results of his second MRI and to see what else the doctor could tell us. We saw the MRI and it is almost a mirror image of the first one. The doctor gave us alot of information on OCD and was honest and forthcoming about the procedures that he performs and what they entail and how long the recovery time would be. He thinks that Zach should make a good enough recovery to still be able to run in the future. And then he said, "This is what I do but there are other procedures out there and it would be prudent for you to get a second or even third opinion before making your decision."
"Where do we go for that?" I asked.
He said, "There are few places here in the Quad Cities that do these kinds of procedures but the only one I would recommend for his case is Dr. Amendola at the Uof I Sports Medicine Center."
Dave said, "That's where we want to go."
Since you can't just run off to Iowa City and get an appt. to see this doctor, Dr. Hussain is sending a referal to his office and they will call us to set up a time when we can go and meet him. It's funny, my coworker said that we should go to him because she just had knee surgery, so when Dr H. said his name I was able to say I had heard of him.
In the meantime, while we wait, I am praising God for sending us to the right place and through the right channels. And to this doctor who is very knowledgable and gracious enough to recommend a second opinion. We were prepared to ask for one but it's good to know he did the right thing and we didn't have to.

Update on Zach's Knees

Well, Dr. Ellis recommended we see Dr. Hussain for Zach's knees. He's a surgeon so it's not surprising that he wants to do surgery. He said Zach has a disease called Osteochondritis Dissecans or OCD. You can look it up online but it is a disease that is rare but is found in teenagers. The cause of it is up to alot of speculation but the doctor has said that most probably, it is nothing he has done, it just happens. He ordered an MRI on his other knee so we did that last week. We go in this week to see the results and talk about the next step. He already told us that he wants to do surgery on both knees, first the left and then the right. The part that surprised us was that he doesn't think Zach should be involved in running sports. He says that when his knees are fixed, the scar tissue will be weaker than the original cartilage so there will be a chance for reinjury. This will be something we will discuss on Wednesday. Dave and I will both be there to ask questions and talk about other options and getting another opinion. At this point, nothing has been decided so we don't really know the next step, but we are hoping and praying that we have a good visit on Wednesday. We don't want Zach to never be able to run again so we will do what we need to do to get the right care for him.
More to come after Wednesday...

Didn't Notice Leah

Leah got to go to preschool with me on Friday. Her work was to put a row of numbered puzzles together and then put little red pegs in for each number. I showed her how to fit number 1 next to number 2 and asked her which one would be next. She looked through the stack and came up with number 3. Then she put the rest of them together by naming them out loud. I had no idea she knew any of the numbers, especially number 7 or 8 or 9 or...well 10. But she knew them all. After she put all the red pegs in she was so excited, she ran to Nana and said, Look, Nana I did it! She slowly counted each one in order, 1,2,3... Of course Nana and I oohed and aahed appropriately. Then she proceeded to count them all backwards. Nana looked at me in shock and said, "She just counted those backwards!" When I looked at Leah she said, "Oh, I didn't notice that".
What a nut:)