Helping Hand

Yes, it's been quite silent here lately.  Birthday parties, Mother's Day, hosting a Keepers ceremony at our home, Boy Scout commitments, touch of pneumonia (poor Daniel), homeschooling, and the list goes on.  Promise to post pictures soon!

Right now, I just want to share a special blog post that Andrea posted over at Babe of My Heart.  I'm sure many of you in the adoption world know Andrea and all the work she does for the Created For Care retreats and Wiphan.

Here is an opportunity for us to serve the orphan in a real, profound way.  Please read about this wonderful young man, Shadrack.  Pray for him and give as the Lord leads you.  Thank you!!

Casts are off!

Well, that took me by surprise!  At Isabel's 4 week post-op appt, the doctor decided it was time to take the casts off and give her splints.  She screamed through the whole "take the casts off" episode AND the making of the made-to-order splints.  But, we are both happy that she can take off the splints to bathe, eat and swim in the pool.

We are still concerned about the rigidity and lack of use of her pointer fingers.  They were like her thumbs before surgery and she was quite nimble.  Now she uses her pinky and ring fingers to pick things up.  I feel like she's gone down a notch in capability.  Not good!  The surgeon keeps assuring me that whatever use she had of her fingers prior to surgery, she will have after surgery.  I hope he's right!  I actually had a heated discussion with the surgeon at her last appointment because we did not feel we were at all prepared or well-informed about this surgery.  It's not enough to say "look it up on the Internet" or "all surgeries have inherent risks."  Well, duh!!  I know THAT!  Specific to this surgery, what are the risks? Damage to ligaments and nerves?  I was told that the ulna bone would be moved.  It was only after surgery that I was told that it had to be broken in 3 places on one bone and 4 places on the other to make them straight and he had to shorten them a bit because the accompanying muscles were to short to stretch that long.  Um, ok... would have like to have known that was a possibility beforehand!!  I don't know if it would have changed our minds about going through with the surgery but it certainly would have made us pause.

After they took the casts off, I took a picture of her incision with my phone to send to Jim.  I don't know if the picture fully conveys how gnarly it is.  They did warn me that she would have a big incision from her elbow up over the top of her hand/wrist and that it would be quite a scar.  They were right about that!