Where's Molly? ...

Minx is still very confused, and we believe sad, about the sudden and continued absence of his very good friend Molly.

Since there would be no one at home for a long time on the day of Chandler's surgery (2 weeks ago today), I asked my friend Patty to stop by and give the dogs a rawhide bone around lunch time, which would keep them busy and happy until someone was back home around dark. Shadow does what she does and took hers immediately down to the bottom of the yard and passed through the fence to Pumpkin - her puppy that Lala has. Minx was very excited and took his right from Patty. He chews on his bone, buries it, digs it up, chews on it some more and repeats that process for an entire day (or less) until the bone is no more. Molly, on the other hand, needed a little coaxing that day and Patty put it right at her paws for her to have close by, but she showed no real interest in the bone.

Minx has been carrying around what we believe to be the bone Molly had that day, since Molly left him. He brings it into his crate and sleeps with it at night, he carries it into the back yard with him each day. He'll bury it and dig it up, but has yet to gnaw even a little tiny piece off of it. This is just not what he does with his bones. He loves to chew up a good bone and has never "saved" one. We've hosed it down once or twice because it got sort of muddy and he still will not chew it up. He runs out of his crate in the morning with it hanging out of his mouth, ears perked up, looking like he's asking "Is she back? I've saved her bone for her. Where's Molly?" I think it's breaking all of our hearts to see him missing her so. He's gotten so much love and affection from each of us during the last week and a half. He's going to be even more spoiled than he already is!

Not sure, but I think I see a new 4 legged friend in Minxy-boy's near future. Stay posted for that. :-)

P.S. In case you haven't noticed, I enjoy changing the background on my blog. I sometimes like to express how I feel about what I wrote with a sort of matching background. Anyway, I looked for one that had pets or animals and came across this one that was named "Molly". I thought it was fitting.

Cabin Fever ...

Chandler has been couped up in this house since Saturday, July 10 when we returned home from the hospital. Other than going outside for our walks, she has not left this place!! We decided that she needed to get out. When Andy got home from work on Friday night, we told her we were going somewhere to eat and that she needed to make the decision as to where. The other thing we needed to accomplish is the child eating something other than fruit, mashed potatoes, waffles, cereal and soup. She really hasn't had an appetite to speak of and those are the only things she has wanted to eat. Austin was working Friday night, so she chose Chic-Fil-A. It was Austin's pleasure to help us (ha) and Chandler ate 1/2 a chicken sandwich!! yay! After we ate, we made a quick trip into Kroger so I could pick up a few things. She and Andy enjoyed bothering me and being silly while I tried to hurry up and pick up what we needed. And exactly the reason why I don't ever take anyone shopping with me - I ended up with extra stuff in my buggy that wasn't on the list!! We had fun and Chandler felt really good getting up and out of the house.

More Progress.....

Here we are less than 1 week post-surgery and Chandler is able to do everything without assistance! I'm still there hovering around with her every move and I'm certain I'm getting on her nerves, but she is able to do it all by herself. If we are close to time to get pain meds and she is hurting or sore, she may need to lean on me to stand up or sit down, but for the most part, she is doing it all on her own!! She is so strong - physically and mentally - and is doing really well.

Chandler asked point blank on Sunday night about Molly. We were all in the kitchen, Chandler was at the dinner table and she asked "did Molly die?" My eyes immediately welled up with tears, I could hardly see and I tried to keep busy and not look suspicious, but if she started crying, I was gonna lose it. Andy stepped in and told her the story about Molly. I left the room for a sec to pull it together and came back in to look busy again. Chandler said, "mom, are you crying?" Who me? Chandler didn't cry at all about Molly. I don't think it's because she didn't care about it, I think it's the pain meds she's on. I stared at the pill bottle for a moment. I was tempted to pop a couple of those little speckled pills and call it a day. Seriously, I'm happy that I can move on past that situation for now.

One more very important thing to report .... Chandler is 2" taller than she was before surgery!! We haven't done the official stand-against-the-wall-and-measure bit, but Andy measured her pre-op mark on the wall in the garage and then measured her against a wall inside. Amazing!!

Chandler's Progress Day 1 at HOME ...

Chandler did really well on her first night at home. We have found she is very comfortable in the lazy boy watching TV in the family room. Got a little deal all set up beside her so that drinks and snacks and remote are within arms reach. She hasn't really felt like talking too much and then last night at about 9:00pm, she suddenly sat up in the chair a little bit and started talking about everything. She was hungry and she wanted to move. She sat at the kitchen table and had some chicken & stars soup. She also enlightened us about lots of things she overheard us and different people who were at the hospital talking about when we all thought she was asleep. That was an interesting conversation. She also asked where Molly was. We told her that Molly is at the vet. I suppose we'll come clean on that one tonight. We have done lots of walking rounds in the house to get her up and keep her moving. Maybe we'll get outside one evening soon. She slept really well last night, only woke up once for some pain meds. This morning we got up and freshened up and she has had a good morning. She even wanted to go downstairs to visit Lala. I was a little nervous, but she did the stairs really well - Andy in front of her and me behind her - we visited with Lala for about 5 mintues and then headed back up. Also, today she is walking with me walking beside her, not holding her arm.

Seems that Chandler is up for visitors, so if anyone wants to pay her a visit, call us or come on by ... we're here all week.

WE ARE HOME ....

I'll make this one short and sweet .... it's 2:40pm and we made it!!! Can't even begin to tell you the rush of emotions I'm feeling right now. Chandler is doing good today. The car ride was very tiring for her, but she is happy to be home too. Many, many thanks to everyone for everything!! Thankfully the house didn't convert too much into a bachelor pad with just Andy and Austin being in and out of here since Wednesday. :-) Seriously, everything looked great when we got here and it's feeling good to get settled in. I think Chandler will be ready for visitors in the next day or so for anyone who might be wondering about that. I'll post again with that info later or you can always call, email or text. We will talk soon. Yay! Home Sweet Home!!

10:15am 7/10/2010 Update ...

We are officially going home today!! Not sure when yet. The dr has come by, so that part's done, I guess the fun paperwork / discharge papers need to get done, then we're out of here!! Chandler has done well on the Loritab. She did have a rough start to last night, she got sick a couple of times, but since we're here, they were able to give her Finagrin (sp?) through her IV. If we had been at home, I don't think the whole event would have gotten resolved quite as quickly. If nothing else, that made me feel good about us choosing to stay until today. She slept good once all that was over and apparently I did too. The nurses last night were quiet like little mice when they would come in. That hasn't necessarily been the case each night. I am happy to say that the next post title will read "we're home". I can't wait. :-)

8:00pm 7/9/2010 Update ...

Our 3:30pm PT went really well. Chandler's lower back has been hurting a little bit today and she really didn't want to go on the walk, but she's a trooper and she did as she was asked. We did a lap from our door to the nurse's station around the hallway and then back to our door. She was sort of ready to quit, but Brittany really wanted her to do a few stairs. By the way, we were able to get our IV stopped / removed for PT, so that was helpful not to have to roll the holder thing around with us. We ducked into the stairwell and Chandler climbed a few stairs and turned around and came back down. She did really well.

I'm sitting here thinking about the fact that this time tomorrow, we are actually going to be home. I stand amazed with today's medical technology ... a spinal fusion patient with a scar that's at least 12" long, has had their spine straightened and derotated / manipulated by hand, had 2 rods inserted and screwed to their spine and then got all sewn back together again ... is now up walking and will be back home 72 hours post surgery. I am so thankful that God has gifted so many people with the abilities, the intelligence, the desire to do these amazing and wonderful things that improve people's lives.

I will post again tomorrow to let everyone know that we have officially arrived home.

And THANKS again for all the thoughts and prayers. They have definitely helped us through this experience.

Sweet Molly-girl ...

Kleenex Alert ... In one of my posts in November 2009, I wrote about our 3 doggies. We love our four-legged friends and have "pet" names for each of them and Molly's was "Molly-girl". Unfortunately, Andy had to have Molly put down earlier this morning. I can't tell you how sad I am. I'm sad that Andy and Austin had to take care of this without Chandler and I there. I'm sad that I have on my brave face. I want very badly to take it off and mourn the loss of our sweet dog Molly. I'm sad that we will need to deal with this loss with Chandler at some point once we return home. The whole darn thing breaks my heart. I have almost cried a hundred times today - you wouldn't believe the bags under these eyes! I'm sure people see me and think, that poor lady.

Molly had a tumor in her stomach that had grown to the point she could no longer eat. It came up rather suddenly and grew quickly. She just started acting different about 6 weeks ago, it seemed like nothing to worry too much over, she was still eating, just not playing quite as much. Then she started losing her appetite about 2 weeks ago, but she was still eating and drinking. The timing of her getting sick was just so unfortunate. She didn't eat to speak of since Sunday, so Andy took her to the vet on Thursday morning before he came back here to the hospital. They told him she had a tumor and that there certainly are options and places we could take her, but these options would be very costly and would give no guarantees that they could even help her. The vet kept her overnight last night and kept her comfy with an IV. Andy and Austin went and visited with her this morning before she was put to sleep.

This post is pretty long and if you don't have a minute, you may not want to read it all. I figure that "putting pen to paper" so to speak, to remember some great things about her could be somewhat therapeutic and I could use some good therapy right about now ... so here goes.

Molly found her way into our lives about 6 years ago. It was estimated that she was about 2 years old, which made her the same age as Minx. She had been tied on a leash and was left at a construction site of a new home being built in Hamilton Mill. She was left there along with an opened bag of dog food that had gotten all moldy. She was so timid and scared. The lady who found her is a runner and for several days she would see Molly poke her head around and watch as she went by. She stopped and walked over to her one day and couldn't get her to come to her. She repeated this several days and finally Molly came to her. She ran home and then drove back and just took Molly from there. Not being in the market for a dog, she couldn't really keep Molly and we just happened to be looking for a companion for Minx. The timing was right and Molly was the perfect dog for us. I can't tell you how long it took her to warm up to Andy. She was scared to death of men in the beginning. And that dog, I'll tell ya, I was a little frustrated those first couple of months because she was bound and determined to get out of our fence. She didn't really go anywhere, she just didn't want to be confined. We blocked so many holes in those early months and then one day she just stopped. I guess it finally sunk in that she was safe here and she just stopped digging. Minx was crate trained when we got Molly and he came in every night to sleep in his crate, so I needed to get her on the same schedule. We gave her a little time, but then once we began the process, literally the first night she was crate trained and on the same schedule as Minx. She LOVED her crate. It was her safe haven. She had the sweetest demeanor and spirit and wouldn't hurt a fly, but she was seriously protective of her home when other dogs came around. She also hated it when it rained outside. That dog has stayed in her crate for well over 12 hours before because she didn't want to be out in the rain or be too close to the sound of thunder. Critter Country Club is where we board our dogs when we go out of town and they got to know Molly and her quirky little behaviors. She actually loved it when we'd go there. Couldn't get out of the car fast enough. The vet is a different story. She would low crawl all the way in the door and about half the time, I'd have to carry her in. And then once we are in a room, she was so nervous, she pooped every time. Without fail. She loved to roll over and get you to scratch her belly. Harsh words broke her heart and would make her hang her head. She was so good though that it was rare for her to get scolded. She loved Minx and he loved her right back. He was the king of the yard and she let him be, but he knew not to push her too far on certain things because she would stand her ground.

We will miss our Molly-girl.

3:10pm 7/9/2010 Update ...

PT arrived at 10:00am as she said she would! Chandler hasn't been in that great of a mood today. I think the switch from morphine to Loritab is causing her to experience a little more pain. When the PT got here, she had Chandler get up and walk. We walked out of the room and down the hall to the nurses desk and then back to our room. Stood in the hallway for a minute and Brittany (the PT) asked Chandler if she wanted to walk down another hallway. Chandler said "not really". She rated her pain at that point a 7 (on a 1-10 scale). Brittany asked her to try the walk through the other hallway and so we did. I guess we got off the hook on doing any stairs, because we came back to the room at that point. Brittany will be back to visit us this afternoon at 3:30pm for more walking and possibly the stairs. After Brittany left, I took Chandler on a wheelchair ride through the hospital and outside to the gardens to see the pretty flowers and get some fresh air. Turns out, it was kind of hot for her outside, I was hitting the bumps too hard and sometimes my questions were getting on her nerves. Looks like some things will be back to normal in no time.

Dr Oswald came by again this morning to check on Chandler and said that we could go home today or tomorrow morning! He felt like she is doing great and is ready. Andy and I decided that we'd rather her be on the Loritab for 24 hours under some watchful eyes before we go home. So far so good. Unless something significant changes, we will head out of here sometime tomorrow morning.

9:05am 7/9/2010 Update ...

Good morning! Chandler slept pretty well last night. She wasn't too restless. She is able to turn from side to side completely on her own and did lots of that last night. We got up a couple of times for a restroom break. At about 5:00am she was awake and restless and wanted to sit in the chair, so we moved there and I think she may have dozed off a couple of times sitting there. The dr came by around 6:15am and said it was time to remove the drain. We moved back to sitting on the side of the bed for this. I think the most uncomfortable part was the removal of the tape holding the drain tube. Drain is gone, that's good. Then the nurse came back in around 7:00am and said the dr had ordered that her best friend ... the morphine pump be removed. I told Chandler, quick, hit the button one more time. Morphine pump - gone. We are now moving to oral pain medication. She will be taking Loritab. Yum. Physical therapy will be here around 10:00am for a walk around the hall and I hear we're gonna do a few stairs as well. Chandler does still have an IV, so I don't think we'll be going too far down the stairs before we come back up again. I think she will do well. Have a great morning and I'll post again soon.

9:45pm 7/8/2010 Update ...

Chandler has done great today. It was a long, eventful day for her. She had lots of visitors today and was able to visit a fair amount with all of them. She got up and out of bed about 6 times today. PT ended up not making her do the lap up to and back from the nurses desk. She just wasn't quite up for it and today was not a day that they pushed her ... tomorrow, however, will be a different story. She did get up and walk from one side of the room to the other, sat in the chair a couple of different times for an hour or so, and is doing really well doing some shifting in the bed on her own. Tomorrow we are doing the lap to the nurses desk and also doing a few stairs. Again, I say, I am amazed. She is being a very good patient and we are so proud of her.

We had another milestone tonight, that I knew would eventually happen .... tonight when the nurse came in to take her vital signs, Chandler asked if it was OK to get her cell phone out. :-)

12:15pm 7/8/2010 Update ...

Last night lasted a long time. Chandler started waking up around 11:15pm about the time I was settling in to go to sleep. A quick reminder that I need to shift into the mode of "when she sleeps I sleep". I won't need a reminder on that one. Last night consisted of lots of sips of water, scrating itches, shifting in the bed every two hours - from one side (propped on pillows) to the other and also laying flat, beeps which resulted in calls to the nurse to make the beeps go away, and her asking "where's my button" (pain pump). She did well and her pain has been very manageable.

The physical therapist came to visit around 10:00am this morning. We talked about how Chandler would accomplish the big move from bed to chair, then we did it. I'm amazed. She is doing so well. With our help, she sat up in the bed, sat on the edge of the bed, stood up, walked a few steps and sat down in the chair. She stayed in the chair for about 1.5 hours. She is holding her own cup for drinking, pulling herself to the side a little bit here and there while in the bed, moving her legs and feet, now we can add sitting up in the chair. All the while, I'm trying to hold it together because it had sort of made me sick to my stomach to see her this way.

The next big feat will be a lap around the nurses desk later this afternoon. I certainly will report back later to let you know how that goes. THANK YOU for keeping Chandler in your thoughts and prayers.

10:45pm Update ...

I'm sort of happy to say that this day is almost behind us. What a whirlwind of events and emotions. Chandler is a champ at pushing her morphine button. She was pretty restless most of the afternoon and used up as much pain meds as the machine would allow. She was in and out and surprised us with some of the things she answered or commented on when we thought she was asleep. Tricky stuff that morphine. :-) She finally fell asleep about 9:00pm. I think maybe the morphine caught up with her and helped her rest. Her oxygen levels were dipping down pretty low and she wasn't breathing as many breaths per minute as they would like and the crazy (wonderful) machine kept on beeping. The nurse put her on oxygen at about 9:45pm. She has been sleeping like a baby ever since. Chandler will have to shift from one side to another (being propped up on pillows) every two hours through the night - with the help of myself and a nurse. Thankfully, she didn't wake up much on the last shift and went right back to sleep. She needs to get a good night's rest as tomorrow will be a big day. She will need to begin turning some on her own, she will sit up in bed (ouch!), and she will get something more than ice chips and water (yay!).

One thing I don't think I've mentioned is that Chandler will be 1.5 to 2" taller. We did our pre-surgery measurements at home on Tuesday. After we measured, Chandler retrieved a pair of my high heels and stood face to face with Andy and I to see just what her new vantage point might feel like. We were all anxious speculating what the post-surgery measurments might be.

Below is the picture of Chandler's xray taken on 6/28/2010. Top curve 64, bottom curve 46. This is a scanned picture of a print out, so it may not be the greatest, but hopefully can give you some idea what her poor spine looked like.

Thank you again to everyone who has taken the time to call us, visit us, email us, post a comment on the blog, post a comment on facebook .... you can't imagine how loved and covered in prayer we feel. For that, we are thankful to you all.

3:45pm Update ...

Chandler is in room 4253. She is in pain and has picked up quickly on pushing the button on her morphine pump. Andy, Austin and I were in the room before she was and as the two nurses were getting her bed wheeled in, they asked "who is Austin?" They said that she kept asking over and over where he was and if they knew if he was there yet. She loves that boy.

Surgery is OVER ...

She came through it very well. The dr was very excited about being able to preserve L4 for more lower back mobility / flexibility. The rods stop at L3. Her top curve will be less than 10 degrees, bottom curve mostly gone. Her rotation presented a bit of an issue. She was very tight. He was able to de-rotate about 75%. She will still have a little bit of a rib hump on the right back side, but it will be much less noticeable. We should get to see her in about 1 to 1.5 hours. I'll post again after we see her. We are thankful and we are blessed.

10:21am Update ...

Another update call from Alice that all is well with Chandler. That's all we get ... that's all we want ... to know that she is fine. THANK YOU each and every one for lifting Chandler, the dr's, nurses and us up in prayer!!

8:51am Update ...

Just got a call from Alice, Chandler's nurse. Surgery got underway at approx 8:15. Chandler is doing well so far.

7:55am Update .....

Chandler went in to surgery right at 7:30am. We arrived here at 6:00am and she was a little anxious waiting in the pre-op room, so they gave her a little drink that helped her get over that pretty quickly. :-) I asked if I could have one too. The nurse wasn't amused.

We should get an update every hour or so. Will post again as soon as I do.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and your prayers.

Chandler's Surgery....

Here we are ... less than 24 hours pre-surgery for Chandler. She will be going in for back surgery at 7:30am tomorrow morning, Wednesday, July 7th at Egleston.

Quick, nutshell version that got us here: Oddly enough, we discovered that she had scoliosis 2 years ago this month. I believe the night time bracing since October 2008, the physical therapy and her active, athletic life-style helped hold the top curve of 39 degrees and bottom curve of 25 degrees. We also went in for dr's visits to get updated xrays every 6 months. Everything had held, and there were no changes on the xrays until the last 6 month check up in May, at which time we found the top curve had progressed to 60 degrees and the bottom curve to 46. With this progressive scoliosis, we really were only left with only one choice ... to have corrective surgery.

Dr. Timothy Oswald and his world-class team of dr's and nurses will be performing her surgery. For them tomorrow, I pray for clear minds and steady hands as they take on this monumental task! The surgery will take approx 4 hours. She will then move into recovery and then into a room. The first 24 hours, she will be groggy at best. They don't want her to really remember much, if anything, about that first day. Soon after the 24 hour post-surgery mark, they will have her up to take a few steps!

Chandler makes no bones about the fact that she has a strong desire to be back on the basketball court, kicking the soccer ball, and running cross country and track when she is able. The dr told her that as long as she abides by his guidelines, she will get there. Albeit a "new normal" when she does ... she will get there. And I'm pretty sure she will have the best posture of all. :-)

I am thankful that we don't have to shoulder this burden alone. We have made peace with the decision / situation, we're trusting God's plan, and now we're moving on to the next step. As difficult as the idea is to imagine, I know that God loves Chandler even more than I do and I know that he is going to take good care of her. He has a plan for her and this is part of it.

We have challenging days ahead and we covet your prayers.