I Making Busy

So after 2.5 week straight of being constantly entertained Keely needed a brek. She went back o her room and was quietly playing. When we'd go to check on her she would say "go my room, i making busy." After about 45 minutes she came about out to the living room but i could not resist going to see what she'd been doing.

She had gone into a dresser and found her pajamas. Each doll was wrapped up in a pice of PJs and lined up in bed and ready for sleep. absolutely adorable! This is only a tiny sampling. All told there were about 5-7 babies wrapped up and waiting for bed. 

Nana and I went last week to get mani and pedicures and since then Keely has wanted her fingers and toes 'pretty'. Nana and I painted her fingernails (a really pale color) a night or two before she left. Julie and i (ok Julie, she is way more coordinated than I am) painted her toe nails a bright red. Daniel thinks its hilarious that I refuse to pierce Keely's ears but I'll girl her up with toenail polish.

How can you not find those little piggies ADORABLE???

Before and After

Surgery went really well. Dr Abel came out and said that surgery went even better than expected. He was able to fix 98% of the curve in my spine (the curve caused by the accident and not the natural curve). Healing has gone pretty well. I came home from the hospital on Wed. I'm still in quite a bite of pain and the drugs tend to knock me out which is why this post has taken so long to write.

Pictures speak louder than word, so here are a few pictures that tell the story better than I could:

The curve of my back pre surgery.

The curve of my back post-surgery. 

EDIT: The above 2 pictures were taken less than a week apart from each other. I didn't lose any weight between them. Straightening my spine made THAT big of a difference.

This is what my spine looked like for the 3 years between the accident an my surgery.

Th

This is my spine post surgery. In the front of my spine is where Dr Abel was able to actually replace T9 (the vertebrae that was crushing and causing the spinal curvature).  You can see the pins used to help hold my spine in place while the bone fuses. 

This picture shows my foot long scar where they did a posterior approach to straighten my spine. I'm so thankful that  they were able to do so so only going through the back instead of doing a thoracaotomy  (remove a rib, deflate a lung to reach my spine.

EDIT: This picture also shows my beautiful tattoo (Thanks Caitie!), which most of my extended family had no idea about. Whoops...

4 more days

So four more days (really 3 and a bit) until the big day. I've gotten this far by REALLY not thinking about it, but now its on my calendar (Surgery 8 am, hospital 6 am) and my pre-surgery instructions are taped to the fridge. Its really happening. I'm SO READY to get this chapter of my life overwith. I've been dealing with the effects of that accident for almost 3 years now and I'm ready.

I wanted to make sure everyone knows what is happening in surgery Friday and to make some specific prayer requests for those of you who like specifics. They're going to do a posterior approach, which means they will cut through the muscles in my back to reach my spine. At my pre-op appoint Dr Abel shared some great news. After much studying of my scans he THINKS that he can actually remove the 2 crushed vertebrae and replace them with titanium cages from the back. Previously he thought I'd have to have a thoracotomy (deflate the lung and go in that way) in order to do this. This would be GREAT in so many ways. First, it would completely straighten my spine (which we didn't think would happen with this posterior only surgery). Second, it would give the surgeon bone to use for my bone graft to encourage fusion without him having to harvest any from my hip bone. This would be the best possible outcome of this surgery and we only just found out it was even an option. PLEASE pray that Dr. Abel is able (hah) to do this. Otherwise he may suggest that I have a second surgery a week after the first where the vertebrae are replaced via a thoracotomy.

Please also pray that Keely does well with me being gone, its been awhile and she's gotten way more attached since the last time. Pray that my surgeon (Dr. Abel), and anesthesiologist and all of the rest of my doctors make wise decisions and have steady hands while they're playing so close to my spinal cord. Pray for a quick recovery and my pain to go away completely after healing.

Thank you everyone for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. I will make sure Daniel sends out texts and posts on my facebook (Heather Morris Hillesheim) as soon as I'm out of surgery. Now I just have to get through these last few days without having a panic attack or breaking down.

Gives me chills!

I received the galleys for my first physics book in the mail on Friday afternoon. Galleys are physical layouts of what each page in the book will actually look like. I'm checking one last time for typos (I've found way too many already) and for the placement of photos, etc. But THIS page....gave me goosebumps.