Here I am: St Judes, Orthopedic Surgeon, and Blood Drive

On Monday, January 17th, Josh, Theo, and I headed to Peoria for Theo's three month ultrasound and check up with St Judes.

[Theo hates it when they put the gel on his tummy]

[But Poppy makes it all better!]

After the ultrasound we went and met with Dr. Libes (Oncology and Hematology) at St Judes. She said that Theo looked great and she would call us later with his ultrasound results (they were clear).

My old college roommate, Elizabeth, makes these adorable headbands. They are very soft and stay on my head while I am running. It's been hard to find a headband that is not too tight and not too loose to wear while working out. When she restocks I will definitely be buying more! Check out her store here!

Do you remember back in February when I mentioned a dangerous intersection by our house? I finally decided to try and do something about it so I went to a City Council safety meeting in November. They talked about two dangerous intersections: (1) Mondamin and Wabena and (2) Bell and McEvilly.

At that meeting they decided to put in another stop sign and new lights at the Mondamin and Wabena intersection, which was needed. And they decided to do a traffic study at the Bell and McEvilly intersection before moving forward with a stop sign or traffic light.

I decided I would go to the next safety meeting to see what the traffic study showed and what solution the City Council came up with. I didn't see a Safety Meeting on the city calendar, so I reached out to the City Clerk to see if she could help me. She said that they would be talking about the intersection at the Public Works meeting on January 18th. Perfect! I'll be there!

I went to the meeting and besides the City Council members, I was the only citizen there. Before the meeting started the Superintendent of Public Works asked me if I wanted to speak. I said no and that I was just there to listen. They proceeded with the meeting, but didn't talk about the intersection of Bell and McEvilly! UGH! After the meeting was adjourned I raised my hand and asked if I could ask a question. They all seemed shocked, but very welcoming. I asked them about the intersection at Bell Rd and McEvilly and if the traffic report had come back yet. They said they would get more information from the Sheriff and get back to me if I gave them my email. I did and then thanked them for allowing me to speak out of turn. I think they were just happy that someone cared enough to come to the meeting.

The next day I received another email from the Clerk asking me what "media" I was with. I told her I was just a concerned mom that is worried about a few intersections around town.

I then got an email from the Superintendent of Public Works and he asked me what exactly my concerns about that particular intersection were. I told him there are line-of-sight issues and that I had personally witnessed two major accidents there and I haven't even lived here that long. He agreed that this intersection has been an issue for sometime, but it's hard to do anything because the road is on a county line and they would need to get approval from two counties to move forward. He said that they will conduct a traffic and safety study in the spring and will hopefully be able to do something productive after the reports come back.

Hopefully we will be seeing a few new stop signs around town in the spring time!

🤞🏻🤞🏻

My favorite trainer, Tommy Rivs, is making a remarkable comeback from his lung cancer battle. I am so happy to see he is doing a new series on iFit!

On Wednesday, January 19th, Theo and I made the long drive back to Peoria to see the Orthopedic Surgeon. When we arrived at the clinic, we headed to the front desk to check in. The lady that checked us in asked if she could see Theo (he was in his wheelchair under the shade). I pulled back his shade and she squealed, "OH MY GOODNESS! HE LOOKS JUST LIKE BEN AFFLECK!" I started laughing and told her I had never been told that before. She then called over three other nurses. Two of the three agreed that he looks like Ben Affleck, but the third said he looks like Harry Potter! 🤣🤣 It's gotta be the glasses and the fluffy hair!

After leaving the front desk area we went to get Theo's hips x-rayed. He was pretty upset and didn't want to hold still.

We then met with the Orthopedic Surgeon, Dr. Akeson. He pulled up Theo's x-rays from last year and compared them to his current x-rays. He then did a physical exam of Theo's hips, legs, and ankles.

His conclusion was that Theo's hip dysplasia has gotten worse and needs to have surgery and he needs to have it soon. Dr. Akeson will perform a Femoral Varus Derotational Osteotomy AND he will also perform "lengthening" on some of Theo's tight muscles. Essentially the doctor will cut the neck of the femur and then position the head in the femur in the hip socket. He will then secure this with metal brackets that will be drilled into the bones. He will also cut/"release" some of Theo's tight muscles in his legs.

This is gonna be brutal.

Example of what Theo's legs will look like after the surgery:

After the surgery Theo will be admitted to the hospital for 4-5 days for pain management. Dr. Akeson said to be prepared for a hard recovery. They give these kids epidurals before the surgery too. Theo will be in a hip spica cast (see picture) for FIVE weeks while he recovers. The cast will extend from his waist to his knees and will have a bar in-between his legs to keep his hips stable.

Here is a picture of Theo's current car seat. See the issue? Theo won't be able to fit in his current car seat or wheelchair, since they are tight on his hips.

We are going to need something like this in order to bring him home. I'm not ready to drop $1000 on a new "Special Needs" car seat just for this surgery. Don't worry. I am going to call the hospital and see if they have something we can borrow for five weeks. Let's hope they do 🤞🏻🤞🏻 I know Theo will eventually need a car seat like this when he out grows his current car seat, BUT I don't want to buy one prematurely.

Josh couldn't come with us to Peoria because he had to go to a warehouse to check on some pipeline parts. Hopefully he will be back to work full time by the end of the month.

On Friday, January 21st, I went to Morris to donate blood with Red Cross. I use to donate a lot in high school and college. They would do "A Pint for A Pint" promotions where you would give a pint of blood and get a pint of ice cream. It was awesome! I haven't given recently and I really need to get back on track. If you can give please give!

It only took me 15 minutes to fill up my bag, so I was in and out in about 30 minutes total. On my way out I picked up a bag of cookies. I wasn't lightheaded or anything, but I really like Oreo's!

Josh took Theo out of his stander and Theo seemed interested in standing without his stander. Josh had to help him a lot, but he did push up well through his legs.