Smile

 So Sam is feeling so good she actually let me take some pictures of her.  She is up and around working on her homework this week.


Her leg is looking fantastic and soon she may let me take a picture of that as well.


This week is spring break for the kids.  With everything happening so fast, I didn't sign Isabella up for any camps so she is hanging with us here at home.


Work is coming along although it can be a bit challenging being productive with a full house.


On top of that - it is absolutely beautiful outside.  I find myself wandering around playing with my plants - inside and outside.  
Isabella has cleaned her room - a gigantic feat for such a small girl...  She also has had a couple play-dates - which keeps her happy as well as mom.

Samantha has been getting out of the house a bit - usually just car drives - but that is a start.  She is off of the heavy narcotic drugs which is fantastic!  Every once in a while she will have a Valium at bedtime.  It helps with the phantom pain.  She has decided to name her phantom foot...   She doesn't like always trying to explain what type of pain she is experiencing - so she just calls it 'darling Mildred'.   With the Mildred pain - Advil won't help - she needs to actually  move around a bit or massage her leg.


There is still a bit of draining but I still think we are improving.  As you can see from the pictures - Samantha's beautiful smile has returned!   I love it...


We are heading up to Leadville for a couple of days.  Jeremy is taking Friday off from work and he and Isabella will probably try and ski one more time before all the snow melts away.


Samantha will take advantage of the quiet in Leadville and hopefully catch up on her reading.  I have work and the Spanish Festival skirts I am sewing to keep me busy. 


We will be back in the city late Saturday so I will have Sunday to work out in the yard.  I have a new garden I need to prep.  If this warm weather says here - I will be able to plant in April!  


I hope you all enjoy the pictures of my beautiful girls!  Like I mentioned before - I am trying to get Samantha to agree to a picture of her limb.  I think it is beautiful and would love to show it off.


Until then - love to everyone!

Finally - YAHOO!

Samantha had a good day yesterday and a great day today.  Finally she has been feeling better.

We had a wonderful lunch with friends on Saturday.  Samantha stayed off the couch all day!  She has lost a bit of weight over the last couple weeks, so it was really nice to see her eat.

After a great lunch both Isabella and Samantha set up a blanket in the front yard to just hang out and enjoy the weather while I cleaned out my front gardens.  My forsythia bush is almost in full yellow bloom and I have daffodils popping up everywhere.  We haven't got a lot of moisture this month so we are hoping for snow or at least rain soon.  We usually get most of our snow in March and April - but this year we have had really warm and windy weather.

It was such a beautiful day that the girls talked me into going out for ice cream - totally twisted my arm!  :)

Today - Samantha hung out at her dad's house to celebrate his birthday.  Jeremy and I met up with other friends and we headed to the zoo.  We spent another beautiful day outside.  Isabella was pooped.  Jeremy cooked up some steaks and we are just wrapping up a relaxing day.

Samantha's leg is looking fantastic.  The swelling at the surgical site is mostly gone.  There is still a bit of draining going on but much less than before.  She has started her exercises again and will be attacking her homework tomorrow.  I feel that we are on track to have her leg cast for her socket next week.  Then we are planning on about a week turnaround while they prepare the prosthetic and Sam is off.  She will have about 4 weeks of physical therapy (3 times a week).

Can you believe she will be walking in 3 weeks?  

YAHOO!

Sunny Day in Colorado

This week flew by.  I took Samantha to the doctor on Monday and the doctor confirmed she had the flu.  Tuesday and Wednesday - she had a fever off and on. 


We had an appointment scheduled on Thursday with Dr. Heare to take out her stitches.  She was still feeling yucky but her fever seemed to break.  Dr. Heare took a look at her leg and determined that she probably had a small infection at the surgical site as well.  It isn't bad and he wasn't concerned.  He just put Samantha on antibiotics for a while.  The stitches didn't come out either, but we did get her leg shrinker (like a compression sock for her limb).   All the doctors and the prosthetist agreed that her leg was looking fantastic.  


Sam has just been sleeping - letting her body work on healing itself.  Homework is piling up but next week is Spring Break, so hopefully Sam can get caught up a bit.


The weather has been beautiful - in the 70s and it is supposed to continue this weekend.  Samantha will spend Sunday with her dad - it is his birthday.  Jeremy and I are planning on meeting up with some friends and heading to the zoo.


We are taking a day at a time and I will be so glad when Samantha starts feeling better.  
take care!

Catch up...

It's been a few days since I have updated ...  So let me catch you up.  Samantha had her first physical therapy session on Friday afternoon.  She did fantastic!  No surprise there.  The biggest concern is that she can keep the extension with her knee.  If she loses that it will be hard to recover it - that is why Dr. Heare kept the splint on her leg after the surgery.


Samantha's physical therapist was impressed with the range she has.  She has full extension and she can bend her knee to 90 degrees.  Ideally they want to see about 135 degrees so she is on her way.  It is a lot easier get the bend back than the extension.


We will have a bit of work to ahead getting her hip in shape - but we knew that already.  The good news to take away is that once she is walking, the hip strength will be easier to gain than it would have been before.


Saturday came and it was time to cheer on Isabella.  She ran a 5k race - her time was 41 minutes and she took SECOND in her age group.  Her group was 12 and under and the girl who took first place is 11.  We are so proud of her - she is still wearing her medal.


Sunday was a chore day for me - I was able to get all my seedlings transplanted while Samantha rested.  Jeremy and Isabella took advantage of the windy day and flew kites.


Unfortunately, Samantha started running a fever on Sunday.  That is always scary after a surgery but I have been talking with her doctors.  She has a sore throat so we think she just caught the flu that is going around.  It sounds kind of weird but the doctors are relieved that her throat hurts. It would be scary if there wasn't a reason for the fever.  It would mean that the surgical site may be infected.  But that isn't the case.  We will continue to watch closely.  It just sucks that she has to feel so yucky as she is healing.


Check out Facebook for a picture of Isabella and her medal.  I am hoping Samantha will start to feel a bit better.  I will keep everyone posted!


Night - love to everyone!

Made it thru week one!

Yesterday was pretty nice for Samantha.  She had lunch with her dad and step mom and later in the afternoon took a bath and washed her hair.  That pretty much knocked her out.  We had to re-wrap her leg.  At this time we have Ace Bandages we are using to keep the leg tightly wrapped, it can't be too tight or too loose - we are learning.  I was up a couple times making adjustments last night.


Samantha slept for most of the day today.  She did get a visit from her best friend and that lifted her spirits.
She has just a few more days of relaxing - her tutor will come on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting next week and she is starting physical therapy tomorrow.


The plan is to keep the leg wrapped just right and do exercises to keep the knee's range of motion as great as possible.  It will make transitioning to a prosthetic easier.


Her sutures will come out in about a week and a half.  At that time we will get her 'stump shrinker' although you can't use that terminology in from of Sam - she cringes.  We call it her leg shrinker.  It is like a compression sock for the limb.  This will control the swelling and help the limb take on the shape it should have.  The next step will be at week 4 or 5 - she will have a cast of her limb taken and the first socket formed.  It is made from clear plastic.  The prosthetist will put together her leg with this socket and Samantha will start walking.  They use clear plastic so they can make sure she has the best fit  - that the pressure is put on the correct part of the limb for comfort.  Once they have a good socket formed, a more permanent one is cast and she will have her leg!


I think I need to put a count down together for Samantha.  Right now her emotions are all over the place - she is sad or happy or just sleeping.  I am hoping if we have a count down to Prom (April 28th), that it will motivate her to exercise her limb and get moving around a bit.  Right now I am not pushing too hard because she is still dealing with physical pain but each day that gets better.  She will have to do daily exercises to get in shape to walk.


Her list of 'to dos' is starting to look like mine.  She has homework, exercises - we have to plan for Prom and graduation...


It is never-ending.   I guess that is good - we always have something to look forward to!


Samantha has her first PT appointment tomorrow and Isabella has a 5K run on Saturday.  I will try to get some pictures posted of both.


love to everyone!

Pretty Tired

Just a quick update because it is late.  We have had a couple hard but good days.  Monday Samantha slept quite a bit.  I think she was catching up on the sleep she missed while in the hospital as well as trying hard to not to think about the upcoming doctor visit.


We met with Dr. Heare yesterday.  Samantha was really worried because she knew she would have to look at her leg.  Sure enough, Dr. Heare took the dressing and splint off and Samantha had to watch as he showed her how to wrap her leg.  Samantha was so brave and watched thru the tears how to care for her leg.  I was so proud of her!


There is a specific way to wrap the limb to prevent swelling.  The better she can manage the swelling the faster she will be ready to have her socket cast.  There are so many new things we are learning and I will share all the details tomorrow.


The activity yesterday wore Sam out and we spent most of the evening and today managing her pain.  Right now she has everything under control and doing fine.


Goodnight - love to everyone!

A Perfect Day

We are home!  Samantha really wanted to go home yesterday, but she needed to get up on crutches before they would let us leave.

Samantha is still hesitant to look at her leg and she was thinking that when she gets out of bed she would have to look...   Whenever we encouraged her to get up, she would make herself sick.  She would tense up which in turn caused her pain to intensify.  She would then need more pain medication which would make her sleepy.  It was a vicious cycle.

So this morning before we had visitors we came up with a game plan.  Samantha is in control of when she looks but that shouldn't mean she can get out of bed...  Mom and Dad helped her hide her leg as mush as possible when she was standing or in her wheelchair.

Once she got the OK to not look, she relaxed.  She took a half dose of Valium and set a goal to leave the hospital today.  It took slow steps forward - first she had to get used to sitting up - then letting her leg point down off the bed.  They doctors warned us the first time it was down the blood rushes and it can cause pain.  Samantha was determined and is getting good at breathing thru the waves until the pain lessons.  Once she made it past the leg being down - she stood up and handled the leg without assistance on her crutches.  Woo hoo!  The doctors signed off and after two stops at different Starbucks for her Frappuccino and cheese box, we made it home.

The next hurdle was was getting out of the car and down 5 steps to the couch.  She did it all with her eyes closed or looking forward with the help of Mom and Dad.  She sighed with relief as she sank down into her usual spot on the couch.

There was a few tears but no one would know to look at her now.  She is hanging out with Isabella playing her Sims game - relaxed  and happy.

Jeremy has done a fantastic job holding down the home front with the help of my mom.  Mom was a lifesaver with Isabella, making Grandma's Cookies and getting homework done on time.  Now that we are home - Mom is sleeping and Jeremy is out in the garage doing whatever with a beer and music.

Samantha received so many well wishes - cards, balloons, plants (oh my!) and her first hour was spent arranging everything so she could see them all.  She keeps saying how wonderful all her friends and family are - and you all are!!  

It was almost 70 degrees today - sunny and beautiful! It is so good to be home!  

I am a bit drained so I will write more tomorrow.  I will let everyone know the next steps soon.

Until then - love to everyone!

Better Day

It was a typical night in the hospital.  Every 30 minutes or so checking this and that...   Samantha was able to sleep a bit and we have her pain under control.  


We have seen doctors, counselors and her physical therapist.  All agree that Samantha looks great and is doing a just fine.


Her dad and grandma spent the day with us and it started out right.  She got some free bagels which just hit the spot.  She watched 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' and napped off and on throughout the day.


Later she got a visit from Isabella, Zack and Annie (her brother and sister on her dad's side).  It was just what the doctor ordered.  Samantha loved to see them and they did a great job keeping her occupied for a couple hours.  It gets a bit crazy with little ones but they were happy to see her smile.


She has so many beautiful flowers and balloons and even a cookie basket!   Right now she is eating her dinner and watching 'The Breakfast Club'.  The goal tomorrow is to get out of bed and off IV pain medication.  Samantha s a bit hesitant to get into a wheel chair because it will be kind of hard not to see her leg.  We are taking it slow and when she is ready, I am sure she will again astound us with her strength and spirit.  Hopefully we will make it home as well.


Love to everyone!

Emotion

Just when you think it can't get any harder - it does.  Just when you think you couldn't be any prouder - you are!


Samantha knows her decision is the right one.  She told me that when she pictures herself in the future  - she is standing with her prosthetic leg on the beach in Italy.  Her hands are on her hips and she has the biggest smile on her face because she is so happy.  She mentioned something about being in a bikini and having a hot bod  - but as her mother I just breezed over that.  :)


The surgery went well - the doctor had to take a small plate out that was initially holding the alograft tibia to her healthy tibia.  That junction has healed beautifully and he left part of the alograft in place.  It gives her the perfect length of residual limb for the prosthetic.  He also used some of her flap (part of the skin graft done earlier) to go down and around the base of her limb. 


It may sound strange to folks, but Samantha was really proud of that skin graft - she thinks it is beautiful because it healed so well.  When she is ready to look at her leg, she will be happy about that part.


There were a lot of tears today - from everyone.  They tell us we will all go thru a grieving process and that it is all really normal.  


When Samantha woke up after the surgery, she had some trouble managing her pain.  I think part of it was that it was really painful but part may have been related to the emotional pain.  Later after we were in the room and the family had left, we talked more about it.  She said she was just so sad...   She said she hated being sad but I suggested she let herself be sad for just a little bit then she can be happy.


My girl is so brave!  My heart is bursting for her now - sorrow for her loss - pride like you can't believe for how she is handling this.  You look at your child when they are born and count their fingers and toes, touch their beautiful faces - revel in how absolutely perfect they are.  You watch them grow and smile as they run and play.  For a while I was really angry that cancer stopped her from running and playing.  We are so grateful that she is healthy but now she is going to be able to run.  No more limits and my girl is perfect still.


love to everyone! 

March 7th - Samantha is back in surgery

So Samantha was ready to move forward and asked for a time sooner than later for her surgery.  She is actually back in surgery right now.  The last week has flown by - we have been visiting different prosthetists and we have seen many many great options for her prosthetic.  She is focusing on the positives and for the most part is happy with her decision.


This morning was hard.  Even though we know this is the best thing for her, it is and will be hard. 


I will post later tonight with more details and let everyone know her state of mind.


love to everyone!

Another adventure

I let this go for a while.  We have all been busy just being normal and it has been wonderful.  Samantha just reached her 4 years cancer free mark.  She is a Senior in high school and looking to graduate in May.  She is so beautiful and laughs a lot.  She has strong opinions so the house is never boring.  Here is Sam at her 18th birthday.

Daniel moved out in August of last year. He is living in Fort Collins and loving it.  He has a girlfriend (Jennie) who is going to CSU while he works at a local vegetarian restaurant.  He absolutely loves living on his own - well sort of - he lives with 3 other college boys.  He is looking forward to moving into a smaller place with Jennie. 

Isabella is in second grade at an immersion school - learning Spanish.  She loves her school and it is super fun to watch her learn another language.  At this school, 80% of her day is in Spanish with the remaining time in English. 

Jeremy is keeping busy by challenging himself with running races and mountain bike races.  He just completed a 55K (about 33 miles) over President's Day weekend.  Our summer is filling up fast.

I just started my seeds for this year's garden and mainly juggle my time between the kids, work and Jeremy's races.  I am really looking forward to the spring!

But the real reason I am going to start posting again has to do with Samantha.  Recently she was experiencing pain in her heel and around the area of her leg reconstruction.  We found that some of the hardware was coming loose.  Her doctor checked and the bones were well healed and so he suggested removing the screws which also meant we needed to remove the rod in her tibia.  About 4 weeks ago she had that surgery - but we found out last Thursday that even though the bone was well healed the allograft (dead bone used to reconstruct her leg) had broke.  At this point Samantha has 2 options.  She can have another surgery to put a metal plate back into her leg.  They would then have to use a procedure (not sure of the name) to try and stimulate bone growth around the allograft.  This would mean she would be on crutches for another 6 months with another 6 months in a brace hoping it would heal.  The doctors gave this option a 50/50 chance of working.  If it did work she would then need another surgery the following summer to even out her legs.  Currently her left leg is about 5cm shorter than her right so she walks with a limp.

Samantha's second option would be a below the knee amputation.  With this option - she would be walking in about 6 to 8 weeks.  She would have less limitations and would not need any more surgeries.  Needless to say the last week has been a rough one.  Given that this is her senior year, she has many things she wants to do.  So she has decided to go with the below knee amputation.  This is her decision and we all support it.  She knows the next 5 weeks will be pretty rough but she is focusing on everything she will be able to do once she has her prosthetic.  The sky is the limit!

Her surgery is scheduled for Wednesday March 7th in the afternoon.  We will probably be in the hospital for a couple of days.  I will post here and let everyone know how she is doing.

Here is to another adventure!