J has new hips!

We checked in at 7:15am and wiped Jennah down with an antimicrobial wipe before dressing her in a hospital gown. We met with 2 anesthesiologists and 1 of her orthopedic surgeons. Here is Jennah enjoying some last minutes of cuddling...

Finally, one of the anesthesiologists came by and told us it was time to give her our last hugs and say "see you later." I handed Jennah off to the Dr., right into her arms wrapped in her favorite purple blanket and Mr. Caterpillar. No tears ... yay for me!

We were issued one of the surgery pagers and proceeded down the corridor where we bumped into her main orthopedic surgeon, who looked like he had just finished breakfast. Good to know he'll be working on a full stomach! 

We were paged at 10:15 to learn that the surgery had begun. The sound of power tools whirr in my head. They expected the procedure to last 3 - 4 hours.

Just past 12:30, we were paged again and informed that they were just closing up and were beginning to cast. They expected her to be on the table for another hour.

At 1:30'ish, we were paged again and met with her surgeon. He detailed the procedure and showed us before and after x-rays. I never realized how terribly displaced Jennah's hips were until I saw her new, improved, bionic, no-way-getting-through-metal-detectors hips! Check it out ...

They've cut off some of her femur and stuck it into her pelvis. Hubby is yelling at me saying that this is complicated language. I assure him this is laymen terms! Anyway, let me know if you disagree ;)
OK, so there are chunks of her femur in her pelvis along with some allograft bone. You can also see the hardware in bright white. Not the oddly shaped big white thing that is supposed to protect the ovaries from radiation, but the plates, pins, and screws on both femurs. Stainless steel. Airport security will truly suck now!

It's nearly 4 PM now, and we still haven't seen little Jennah. She is still in recovery and we hope to see her soon  in her inpatient room where we will spend the next few days, inshallah.

Thank you all soooooo very much for the warm thoughts, messages, texts, FBs ... everything!!!
(((HUGS!!!)))

Cold feet ...

Not because the cast will cover nearly every part of her lower body just short of her feet, but because she went into a giggling fit last night around 11 PM while my bro and I were watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I don’t know what set her off, but she just started giggling and squealing so loud that grandma woke up and ran downstairs to see what was going on. Jennah was, and is today, so happy and in such a great mood. No pain, no constipation, just fun and laughter.


I wanted to pick up the phone and call the 24/7 surgery line and cancel this whole blasted thing. I’ve spent most of today preparing for tomorrow and the upcoming week’s madness. Make sure A & B have clothes to last the school week. Clean up the bedrooms so they have some place clean to sleep, get dressed, and brush their teeth. I don’t know how much of them I’ll see this week. I don’t know if they understand what is going to happen to their little sister. Maybe that’s a blessing, actually.

We are all spending a lot of time snuggling and cuddling with sweet little Jennah today. It’s going to be hard to do the same when she’s in a body cast.

Her last feed will be at midnight. Her last clear liquids at 4 AM. After I make sure A & B's breakfast and lunches are prepped, we’ll leave at 6:30 to get to the hospital in time for our 7:15 checkin. Then we pray and pray until we see her again, 6 hours later, inshallah.

I’d be happy if tomorrow never came …