THE Surgery of 2011

THE Surgery of 2011 (orig. published 4.11.11)

Well - we're here! Here in Philadelphia for "The Surgery of 2011". Colson is relatively unaffected at the moment other than a few breakdowns because he misses his sister. Which is heartbreakingly sweet.

We started out yesterday at 7 am - dropped of Cayleigh at Gramma and Papa's at about 7:30. That was horrible in it's own right. Miss my Tiny Sunshine, but boy is she ever having fun! We made it 30 minutes down the road and realized we forgot the stroller, and with Colson being (a whopping!) 30 lbs, it would just be too difficult to carry him and the luggage everywhere so we stopped at a Target, where they let us in a little early so we could pick up a new umbrella stroller and not miss our flight. Scored some free Starbucks while there too! Things are looking up!

Made our flight with perfect timing. Colson loved being on the plane. The houses were "so tiny Mommy! How can anyone live in such small houses?"

He informed me that we were so high in the sky, we were "almost up to Jesus!". He said he wanted to meet Jesus and I told him that would be wonderful but we would prefer it if he would meet Jesus when he was much older. How old he wondered? Oh, 100 I said. How about One-hundred-and-forty! he said. Sure Colson, 140 is much much better than right now. We told him that we would miss him like we miss Gagey if he was up by Jesus and he said he wouldn't miss Gagey anymore if he was up by him. Very sweet my Colson. Very sweet.

We'd been calling both Ronald McDonald houses for the last month. Daily. They must be so annoyed. They don't take reservations, but we thought we'd try and see what we could do. Still nothing available for Sunday night so we ended up staying at the Four Points Sheraton which was a REALLY nice hotel, for a special Shriner's rate. I'm going to go leave a review for the hotel and I just want all of you to know, if you are ever traveling to Philadelphia, you should stay there - on Roosevelt Rd. A+++ service and just a really nice clean great hotel.

Philadelphia is really a hit or miss city. This was our welcome to "Northeast Philadelphia" sign. You have all these amazingly old buildings filled with history here. All these beautiful row houses, and you can have one completly run down one right next to one that's all fixed up.

Welcome! I think?

Beautiful old church - nestled right next to new fast food chains. This church actually has a sign on it that says "Have you been the victim of Evil Eye? Stop in for services!" Hah. Evil eye. I get that almost every day ;-)

Row houses everywhere you look

Philadelphia has beautiful murals all throughout the entire city. Everywhere you look, you will find one of these murals depiciting moments of Philly. Here's one I found a few blocks away from Shriner's this morning.

Colson was a little loopy after his breakfast this morning. It was his first visit to Dunkin Donuts and he picked out a chocolate donut with sprinkles on top. He jammed out to the radio with Mommy and Daddy in the car on the way to the hospital.

We got to Shriner's around noon, for a quick pre-op visit. I must remember that nothing is quick there. We finally saw Dr. VB about... 2:30 I think it was. While it's hard to wait, I have to remember that he's a really wonderful doctor, and he doesn't rush anyone. If you have something to ask him, or talk about or any concerns, he will sit with you as long as you need him to. It's a great quality and we appreciate it, even if we have to wait for our turn. He introduced us to a little girl who had the osteotomy surgery about a year ago. She's now in an external fixator on her right leg to straighten her legs. It was great to see how she was doing and to meet her parents and to talk to them on how the osteotomy went as well as the fixator procedure. She was a sweet little thing, and one tough cookie! I hope we get to stay in touch with them and see them again sometime. Here are a few pictures from our Shriner's visit today:

Waiting

Waiting

Waiting



Waiting

PS: Colson's shirt says "Dr. Van Bosse Fan Club" . Hehe :)





Making silly faces with Dr. VB!

And that's the wonderful Mimi back there too, she's Dr. VB's care

coordinator and we would be lost without her!



NEWS: I've been wondering what the next step will be for Colson. And I finally found out (Tracey, we'll need you! Again!). After this osteotomy surgery, Colson's next step, probably about a year from now, will be external fixation of his legs to straighten them. While this is great news in its own right, it's also the ONE single thing I hoped he would never have to go through. For those of you who don't know what external fixation is - you can find some information here: Wiki Info - External Fixator . Some images and more info can be found here: Tracey's Living with Arthrogryposis page .

The Ronald McDonald House had an opening today! Hooray!! I'm blogging this from our wonderful room (205 for you RMDH people) while Nick and Colson watch "The Science of Philadelphia" on TV. There's some guy doing a science experiment that's only working half the time. Hah. We are located right next to St. Christopher's Children's Hospital and I can't help but think of my sweet nephew Gage everytime the helicoptor flies over, or the ambulance sirens go off. Still miss you every day Gage. This house is MUCH different than the one in Madison and the one in Milwaukee. There is gated security, there's scan keys for all the entrances. If you go outside without it, you are locked out. Families that are staying overnight are tagged with orange bracelets, but I definitely do love the security in this "hit or miss" city.

Not just anyone can get in to this RMDH!

Picking out a new toy from the RMDH! Thank you!

And finally, we got to Skype tonight with my Sunshine and Gramma and Papa. She went to church yesterday with Papa and was just a "little Princess" he said. Then she visited the restaurant for breakfast and the girls doted on her and did her hair. Thanks girls! Today she went shopping with Gramma and got her very own rake! She got to help Gramma and Papa rake today and she just loved it. I think though, what she loved the most was seeing us on the computer. The sound of her squeal of delight when our video showed up for her to see was precious. She laughed and talked and showed us her puppy and her books. When it was time to say goodbye, she was sad, but Colson was devastated. "I miss my Cayleigh" he said and cried and cried. We'll see her soon Colson, just 7 more days.

Skype!

Tomorrow we are going to do something fun for Colson on his last day free from casts for awhile. I'll be sure to keep you all posted. My "Little Boy with Big Dreams" has quite the adventure ahead of him this week.

Much love.

-J-

PS: I honestly can't say enough thank you's to everyone who has donated to us for this trip, your generosity is overwhelming and your support both monetarily and through your thoughts and prayers is tremendously appreciated. We love you all and don't know how this trip would've been possible without you!