Fry mah hide!

First, the funny:

I want to thank Karen at The Naked Ovary for this link. It was exactly what I've been needing, other than a full-body massage from Brad Pitt. I prefer my site in Redneck.

Peanut is doing really well. She's asleep a lot, but you would be too if you had her drugs. When she's awake, she's almost back to her normal self. Not quite as happy and silly, but at least going through the motions.

What the doctor found was less muscle in her thighs than he had hoped for. I am starting to learn with this doctor that I need to ask him if the prognosis he is giving is what he expects or what he hopes. Anyway, people with arthrogryposis don't have as much muscle as they should, because their muscle is replaced with fibrous tissue, kind of like scar tissue. Their cellular makeup is different, and that is why clubfoot treatments work differently on them than on kids whose only problem is clubfoot, for example. He's not sure how this discovery is going to play out in her development, but he wants to maximize her chances, and has changed her treament plan.

Instead of back-to-back surgeries and three straight months of being in casts, she is going to have these long-leg casts removed after six weeks and then get intensive physical therapy for her legs to build up what muscle she has. She will have her hip surgery within six to eight months, because when that cast is on one of her legs will have to be in the cast too, locking up her knee and risking it getting stiff. The more strength and flexibility she has in that leg and knee the less it will be affected. I am somewhat relieved, honestly. I was so dreading three months of sponge baths (and I think we all remember how much she loves those).

We're getting through it, and she's adapting. Thanks for everyone's kind words. I am much more concerned with an acquaintance's son, a twenty-nine-week preemie who just had his second heart surgery. Hang in there, Carson.