Bummer...

No pain relief for Amy at all yet. The backache from her injections is gone, thankfully, but the pain level in her feet hasn't changed at all. We'll call the Dr on Monday to see what the next step is.

emotional day

We just returned from Denver where Amy had her 7th surgery. This one was lumbar injections that will hopefully interrupt the pain signals from her feet to her brain. The Dr said it won't help 100%, but he's hoping for 50-60% at least. We should know in a day or so if things are better. If not, we return to Denver next Tuesday to discuss our options. I think Amy was disappointed that she woke up and could still feel pain in her feet. She's anticipating an instant "feel good" procedure and it's just not happening. Before surgery the Dr told us his part today would only take 5-10 minutes. I guess Amy didn't hear that the prep & recovery would take longer because when she woke up she was really irritated to see that she'd been gone almost an hour! Needless to say, she wasn't a happy camper. I'm beginning to suspect Amy just doesn't know what "normal" is like for the rest of us. She still feels pain, therefore nothing's helping. It breaks my heart to see this drag on. I have to remind myself daily that this is all part of God's perfect plan for Amy and for all of us. We'll take it easy today...rest and recover from an emotional day. And tomorrow we'll pick ourselves up and press on. In the meantime, we'll pray for the miracle that will make Amy feel better. We'd love your prayers, too.

Can you say "onions?"

One advantage of having a future chef in the house...she'll chop onions for me! I used to be able to chop onions with no tears at all until I was pregnant the first time. Not sure I understand why, but ever since then I avoid doing so unless I feel the need to shed a waterfall of tears. Go figure. Last night Amy chopped 2 large ones for me. Ah, youth! No tears were shed and her technique is poetry in motion. And me? I spent the time watching, tearing up (darn onion smell), and looking forward to the day when my "Chef Amy" wants to just take over in the kitchen and I can sit back and reap the benefits!

updated scar

I haven't shown the ankle pictures lately, but if you've been following Amy's progress you'll see that she's come a long way. The scar is looking better by the day. There's still pain, but that's nothing new. And if you look just above the scar you can see that the swelling is still there. Hopefully the lumbar injection she'll get on Thursday will help with both pain and swelling. If not, we have other options, but we'd really like to be done with this sooner rather than later as you can imagine. So once again I'm asking for prayer for Amy, for the Dr who will do the injection, and for the procedure itself. But most of all, please pray for God's will in Amy's life. Check back for an update later in the week.

I feel better...

At least now I know there are people reading my blog even if most of them don't leave feedback. I was beginning to think I was just talking to myself!
I just got off the phone after talking to my best friend in Alabama for over an hour. There's always so much to catch up on and never enough time. I feel like we barely scratched the surface, yet my numb ear tells me otherwise. It's kind of fun that we have kids who are close to the same ages--3 girls apiece plus one sweet little boy for Susan. We kind of help each other thru the parenting issues that are so challenging. I know, I know. You can't imagine that my sweet girls could ever be a challenge. And most of the time they're not. But this "platinum hair" came from somewhere, and I feel like I earned every single one! I always assumed that once the girls were more independent the parenting thing would slow down a bit. Boy, was I ever wrong! There's always something, isn't there? Thank goodness for the wisdom of those who have gone before us.

Is anyone out there?

While I've always enjoyed writing, I never expected to be writing this blog just for myself. I'd really hoped to hear from some of you out there. Feedback is good! Feedback is appreciated! It would be nice to know someone's out there and checking things out from time to time. Just a thought.

roller coaster ride in Denver

Today was our appointment with Amy's pain mgmt clinic in Denver. (When we checked out after our 23 Dec appt we were told to make a follow up with the Medtronics dept and they scheduled it for today at 10:30.) So we took Amy out of school and headed north only to be told she had no appt. The Medtronics people weren't even there today...they'd cancelled all appts! Gee, we never got the word on that one. They double checked with the Dr and he said he only wanted us to see Medtronics down the road AFTER her lumbar injection procedure. Guess the person who read his handwriting on 23 Dec misinterpreted that and therein lies the confusion. So it was a frustrating day in that regard.
The good news? We were able to visit with Jeni, a sweet friend who works in the NICU at Children's Hospital right next door, and it was wonderful to see her. Afterward we headed to Johnson & Wales so Amy could visit the campus for the first time with an incoming student's eyes. We walked the campus a bit, bought a few things at the bookstore from a really "hot" guy (Amy's words, not mine!), and she tried on a chef jacket and saw the uniforms that are issued to incoming freshmen. Next on the agenda was a quick trip across town to see Laura for a few minutes. We took her to lunch and the grocery and heard all about her new social life as an RA, which clearly agrees with her. She looks good and it was wonderful to wrap our arms around her.
So yeah, the day started out a bit frustrating, but the good outweighed the bad for sure. Guess that's our silver lining for today!

Making you squirm...

A colleague of Brian's died the other night...just dropped dead with a torn aorta. He was 2 months away from retiring from active duty and was looking forward to things ahead. A single parent. NOT a Christian. Brian had to plan a memorial service and I know it was draining for him. I'm sure it wasn't easy to be an inspiration to the family when there was no hope of seeing him in Heaven someday. How sad to not have that assurance.
Yesterday I was reading about a teenager who died in an automobile accident. His memorial was a celebration even though there were also tears. The youth pastor opened the service by saying, "you know that Jeff changed addresses this week." What a great way to think about moving to Heaven--changing addresses! What a difference between the two services! One was a sad, sorrowful gathering, and one was a celebration of life.
Not one of us is guaranteed another day, another minute. I'm so thankful I'll be ready to "change addresses" when the time comes. I"m so thankful that Brian and the girls know they'll miss me and remember me, but they'll also celebrate when the time comes. I'm so thankful I have the assurance of seeing them again someday in Heaven.
Before he died, D.L. Moody said it best...“In a little while you will read in the newspaper that I am dead. Do not believe a word of it, for I will be more alive than ever before! “
Talking about this will make some of you squirm. That's ok. Maybe it will get you thinking. Maybe it will have an eternal impact. I sure hope so!

Family updates...

I don't think Amy has come down to earth yet, she's so happy. It's nice to see her smiling after all she's been thru. And now the search for scholarships begins. Johnson & Wales is a private college. But 18 year old dreams are important, after all, and not be taken lightly. She's worth it. I talked to Laura for awhile the other day and she seems really happy in her new dorm. The RA's all hang out together, so that made for instant friendships. Her classes are going well. I had to laugh, though, when she said, "it's not that I hate my circuits class, but now I know I don't ever want to be an electrical engineer." I think she's happy to stay with Environmental Engineering. Bethany's getting tired of the extra security precautions after the gang related shooting incident which began at her school last Friday. She's ready for things to get back to normal, whatever that is. She has a new babysitting job that she enjoys and it's nice for her to have a little bit of income. Brian still has some health issues that are troublesome, but the Dr's are finally getting closer to understanding where his pain is coming from. He needs to do another round of X-rays and then perhaps we'll know more. And me? Tired, but healthy and happy, thankfully!

the happiest person on earth!

After being told by multiple doctors that Amy's culinary dreams needed to be put on hold, and after paying deposits to CSU for her to attend there in the fall, and after being accepted into the honors program at Johnson & Wales in Denver, and after going thru all of the medical procedures in the past 20 months...Amy is now the happiest person on earth!!! Last night Brian and I talked things over and decided if her feet are going to hurt no matter where she is, we wanted her to follow her dreams and go to culinary school after all. Her new pain management doctor thinks he can get a handle on her pain before fall, and we're going to hope and pray this is so. When we asked Amy how she felt about switching to J & W from CSU, she lit up like a Christmas tree! So now it looks like we're going to have a chef in the family...one very, very happy chef!

we're getting there...

I haven't posted an update lately on Amy's foot and people have been asking. She no longer has an open wound, thankfully. The skin covering the wound is thin and purple, but with time that will settle down a bit. She's going to physical therapy twice weekly and yesterday Adrian applied kinesio tape. If you watched the Olympic volleyball female gold medalists, you saw the black tape on one of our girls. It's used to treat swelling issues by lifting the skin to allow fluids to disperse. We'll try it for awhile to see how she does with it. It's supposed to be amazing stuff. Meanwhile, we go back to the Dr in Denver on the 20th at the pain management clinic. Baby steps at this point, but we'll do whatever we can to make sure she's in good shape to head off to college in August. Thanks for your continued prayer support!

A year of Milestones...

What a year 2009 will be for the Andersons. In May Amy will graduate from high school and turn 18-all in a 24 hour period. Beginning in August we'll have 2 girls in college...can you believe it? In September I turn 50 (no black allowed...I haven't met a birthday yet that bothered me) and a week later Bethany turns 16. In November Laura will celebrate her 21st birthday. And in December Brian and I will celebrate 25 years of marriage! (Not bad considering we only knew each other 5 days before we were engaged!) Celebrate with us...it's going to be a wild ride!

technology

My girls are constantly trying to teach me new things that are second nature to them. I'm still learning my way around my Macbook Pro after years of a PC, but I'm getting there. Now Laura has me signed onto Facebook against my wishes. I know my nieces/nephews are probably mortified that I'm going to check up on them! Not to worry, though. So far I can only do the bare minimum. I'm light years away from being able to keep tabs on anyone!

I knew it!

I got a call back from the office in Denver today. The lady said "the Dr wants to do ____procedure on Amy in the OR." Yes," I reminded her. " That's why we called yesterday!" They still don't know why it wasn't in the notes and they were sorry about the mix up. It's nice to know I'm not losing my mind, not that I was worried. I knew I was right! Sometimes we moms know what the heck we're talking about.

Who's in charge here, anyway?

You can all sleep easy tonight. I've calmed down. I finally remembered I'm not in control of this situation, but thankfully I know WHO is!!! I'm just going to let Him handle this. He's better at it anyway. Night, God!

to add insult to injury...

As if the morning wasn't frustrating enough with the Dr's office in Denver, this afternoon (AFTER our 1st physical therapy appt here in the Springs) we received authorization from our insurance company for Amy's PT to be done in Denver. Yeah, right...it's just a 5 minute hop down the road several times a week. No problem. Agh! At the appt with this Dr in December he specifically asked us where we wanted to do Amy's PT and we told him the Springs. Mom brought up a good point. If his office can't get their act together, do we really want this guy to do a procedure on Amy? Food for thought.

incompetency

I spent a lot of my morning on the phone with the Dr's office in Denver. On the 23rd of December he told us we could expect a call the following week from ______ in his office to schedule the lumbar injection procedure for Amy to be done in January. Since I still hadn't heard anything I decided to call her instead. She can find NO record that the Dr wants to do anything--no procedure at all. He's in surgery today so she can't talk to him till tomorrow. She wants me to call back on Wednesday. Also on the 23rd, the Dr asked where we'd like for Amy to do her physical therapy and we told him we had a PT here in the Springs. No problem, right? This afternoon I got a message (left while we were at PT) saying the office in Denver is ready to schedule her for PT up there. Agh!!! Why can't people get their act together?!!! It was bad enough that we had to wait 2 full hours past her appt time in December just to be seen. Now their records are messed up? Come on, doctors...get it right the first time!!! We've spent a lot of time in various medical offices in the past 1 1/2 years, but never has it been quite this frustrating. And now I'm off to count to 10 (or 100...whatever it takes!)

Back to the grind...

We took Laura back to school today, and it was a LONG day! She's going to be an RA this semester which meant we needed to move her from one dorm to another. Her new room isn't much bigger than our walk-in closet. I'm talking TINY! (Believe me, it helps that her clothes are so small!) She's really excited and the small size doesn't seem to matter much to her. It's a single, for goodness sake! She's in a suite with 7 other girls but has her own entrance in and out of her room. She has about 33 students that she's responsible for--both guys and girls. I'd love to see her stand up to those big boys when they get out of line! Thankfully, her hall director is a football player and he'll be around to help her out. I think she'll be just fine, though. She's one spunky little lady!

I'm just saying...

Maybe watching a Twilight Zone marathon yesterday had nothing to do with it, but somehow I ended up with two girls in bed with me this morning. They said "Talky Tina" didn't bother them, but who knows?