Update on Mya and a thank you

She has been in her external fixator for 10 weeks now... she has grown her femur 2 inches or more because the last time she was at Dr. Standard that is what it was and that has been 2 weeks. I bought her a new pair of tennis shoes and they are the first pair in yrs. that she has not needed a lift put on... ptl. She is walking all the time now and so we are returning her wheelchair on Thursday at her next appt.. She still hates doing the pt that we do 2 times a day.. especially the bending of her knee. We have great numbers on all of her ROM (range of motion) and even though it is tough she is doing well. For a week now she is also free of a pinsite infection. She had one on one of her knee pins but it cleared up on the change of antibiotic .. we are hopeful that she won't have to be on it again (clindamyacin) she has also used Keflex and SMZ but they keep using stronger ones . They say to expect 6 to 8 pinsite infections with ex. fixators... we have had 3 or 4. She is on roxicet and lorazepam for pain and anxiety - given at least 30 min. before we do her pt... Luke was on all of these meds. for the whole time of his ex. fixator which was for a yr. and they come off of these meds with no issues usually... so we are expecting the same with Mya. We are thinking from the way her leg looks that she is at the end of her growth period... and then she will be in it for as long as it took to grow the femur for "consolidation"...that means we hope early April for her to have it removed. She has to eat and or drink lots of protein and calcium while we are in the fixator... she has been super at drinking milk and yougart and I make her fruit smoothies or milkshakes... as you can see she loves them !

Also we have a wheelchair that was my dad's that we can use if she needs one instead of the one we rented... since she really does not now use one all the kids have been enjoying it.

I was worried when we first did her surgery knowing that we were going to get Andrew and Gracie that it would be difficult. It was but I am so glad that we did it early . While I was gone our daughter , Leah was in charge of Mya. She had shadowed me and I had taught her how to do the pt and how to bath Mya and do pin care. Leah did a super job and has discovered that she enjoys and would be great in the medical proffession... She is a mature 16 yr old and is so tender but firm with Mya. She has been a great help and on nites like tonite when Paul and I have a date nite... she does Mya in the evenings for me and I am so grateful for her. I had such confidence in her ability and she lived up to it well. Molly and Mike drove Mya to her post op for me and Mary Kate and Keith managed the family at home while we were gone. Our friends the Livermoors from our church asked to have some of our kids while we were gone and another family the Nuss' invited Anna over...... so a huge thanks to them for all of their support .... WE LOVE YOU GUYS!