Spring

Spring has hit. We took full advantage this weekend with baseball in the backyard, a family walk, and ice cream from the neighborhood ice cream truck. The kids loved the walk, especially Gavin who insisted on climbing on every rock and even making slides between rocks.

Surgery

We had a followup with Alexis's ortho today. Alexis has been standing a little weird (favoring one side, so she is crooked). Her toes are also gripping the ground in a weird way causing them to curl.

After discussing things with her ortho and taking X-rays, she agreed that she is having some negative impact from the rods and screws still being in her hips. Alexis showed pain upon touch, and she had a lot of tightness in her muscles. This suggests she is in quite a bit of pain and compensating for that. 

The X-ray showed that on the right side (her worst hip) the plate and screws have pulled out the bone with it. So, she thinks we need to shave off part of the bone. When she started explaining how she would do this, I stopped her and said I didn't need to know the approach...just that it needed to be done.

So, we will talk with oncology about a good timing for taking out the hardware from her hips and reducing bone on the right side. This will probably happen soon, as the indication is that Alexis is in quite a bit of pain with it. We spoke with oncology a while ago about it, and they said we could do it during maintenance if it needed to happen. So, now it is just finding the right timing so her counts are high for blood and platelets. It is considered a minor surgery. 

We ended the appointment with the ortho showing Alexis her port. Her ortho was diagnosed with cancer two years ago. Alexis was very impressed with seeing someone else's port and that they were like her. A new level of bedside manner! 

Easter

We decided to get up early and attend the 6:00am Easter service. Last year, there were over 1,000 people at both te 8:00 and 9:45 service compared to a couple hundred at the sunrise service. So, to play it safe with germs, we opted to get up early and do the sunrise service.

The service started with a bonfire in the   memorial garden where Laura's dad's ashes are scattered. We went in the church and then out the other side to get to the garden. Gavin shouted, "but I wanted to go to church!" He was thoroughly confused. It was a nice service.

After church, we headed back to Laura's mom's house, where the Easter bunny had come. Conner was quite concerned that he would know where to go, but I informed him that I let the bunny know where we would be. He then said, "He will have to hop, hop, hop all the way from our house to Grandma's...that's a long way!" He made it, and the kids had a blast hunting for the eggs. Conner got the most, Alexis the second, and Gavin not very many, as again this year he just wanted to stop and eat them. 

We then ate lunch at Laura's mom's house along with some family and Brian's parents. It was a nice lunch until Alexis interrupted with poop...in her underwear. She has been doing that quite a bit lately, and the doctors think it is attitude as opposed to medical reasoning. So, a little frustrating and not a fun way to end Easter dinner. 

After a long ride back home, we celebrated a successful weekend away. A little step toward normalcy.