Hips good…knees not so much…

We had a nice, quiet weekend.  Tony took Kaylee and Brianna back to Grandma Donna’s for the weekend.  The dog pouted in his kennel and the cat crawled the walls, I guess the four legged critters didn’t enjoy the peace and quiet as much as Dan, Dani and I did! 

Dani had an appointment with Dr Haft today.  The plan was to see if her hips are still in place and we aren’t causing her more pain by putting her into a sitting position.  Luckily, there wasn’t much change from last year. But as he was stretching her legs, her knee popped.  Dan just thought it was her hips because we have heard that noise before.  So, after more x-rays…(Dan forgot to pack her kid kart so he had to lug her back and forth)…it showed that Dani’s knee cap is lower than the other and is dislocated.  Kids like Dani, he feels it would be invasive to put her thru surgery because she doesn’t walk.  My question is, does it cause her pain?  I didn’t go to this appointment because I just thought it was a “routine” appointment…

You’ll Never Know Until You Try…

Friday was a busy day for appointments in the German house.  We started the day with Dani’s renewal of her Family Support.  This is the program that pays for Dani’s diapers and put in our wood flooring!  An awesome program to be on when you have an child like Dani that challenges your household budget.  Meeting with Family Support always leaves me with renewed hoped for the girls.  The reason I say that is because our coordinator has a sister with cerebral palsy and basically got in her line of work to help other families.  She knows how it is to have a sibling take up so much time and it made a positive impact on her life.  I hope that the same goes for both Kaylee and Brianna.  It would be devastating to us if Dani has a negative impact on those big sisters of hers.

The second appointment was with the dentist.  Whew, not for me, but for all 3 girls.  I am so impressed with The Children’s Dental because Dani successfully had her first cleaning!  The hygienist was not scared (or did darn good on not showing it) of Dani and cleaned her teeth!  She even got x-rays done!  When the dentist talked to me about Dani losing her baby teeth, it hit me hard.  Holy crap, I forget the normal stuff with Dani that it didn’t even register with me that she will start losing her baby teeth.  Or maybe it was because Dani’s teeth just recently broke thru the gum line?  He said there was a lot of trauma done to her teeth (hmm, too many traumatic intubations) that she will lose her top teeth before her bottom teeth.  Brianna had another cavity free appointment!  We are starting to save our pennies because braces are in her future.  Kaylee, as well had a cavity free appointment!  Now, we are not as fortunate in her case to start saving, because in 6 to 12 months she will be fitted for braces.  Yikes, what a price tag!  The dentist saw my face when he was saying both girls need braces and assured me they will get Kaylee out of braces before putting Brianna in them.  Whew, I was counting dollar signs!!!

Our final appointment was with the Eye Doctors.  Dani had to go along even though she wasn’t being seen.  Dan and my eye both had improvement.  I thought your eyes were supposed to get worse with age? Kaylee’s eyes took a dramatic turn for the worse and was fitted for a new pair.  And Brianna has joined the “cool” group and was fitted for her first pair of goggles.  She has a different view about it, says she is going to look like a “nerd”.  She told the optometrist this and as I was wearing my glasses…oh Beans…

Saturday was a fun filled day.  The Heiers came down and we had a “girl” day and went to watch Alice in Wonderland.  (Well, Tony came along too).  The kids had fun.  It was funny to sit by Abby because whenever a weird looking character would come on, she would say, “there is Tony”.  And when Tweedee and Tweedledumb made their appearance, “there is Tony and Dustin.”

Happy Birthday Abby!

We went to Brookings on Saturday to celebrate Abby’s 5^th birthday party!  We really haven’t been anywhere since Christmas.  It was fun.  Dani did great!

Dani went to see Dr Johnson today.  She is getting tighter in her hips and legs.  Since Dani is no longer at her weight threshold for the Baclofen Pump surgery, we elected to up her medication.  We don’t see the point of putting her under again for the phenol and botox shots seeing that only lasted 3 months.  She goes in on the 22^nd to see Dr Haft to make sure her hips are still in place.  Hopefully they are, otherwise it could be causing her more pain.  Dani also got fitted for a bigger chair for her therapies.  She is getting so tall!

Other than the weekly chiropractor appointments and monthly port access, Dani has been pretty “quiet”.  Thank Goodness!  It has been a good stretch for Dani and hopefully, I didn’t just jinx it…