Life as a Leach

Abby's PICC line is in and we are on our way home! I did the PICC training while she was getting it placed so that we wouldn't have to wait on that in order to leave.   Now that we have had more time to digest all of the information given to us yesterday, I wanted to share a little more about the actual surgery.  Dr. Cahill will be fusing 4 or 5 more vertebrae, this time going into her cervical spine.  She will have a total of 8 or 9 vertebrae fused now.  If this doesn't work, he will have to fuse her entire neck, which would cause her very limited neck rotation.  We are hoping this works!!! During the surgery, she will be placed in traction using a halo-like device on her skull.  This is to get her in the best position possible for the fusion and will be removed before she leaves the OR.     While she is in her halo in the coming months during her recovery, she won't be able to move her head or neck at all.  This will make walking challengin...

We head to CHOP tomorrow after school for pre-op appointments on Thursday and a PICC line placement on Friday.  Although they have in the past required that Abby be admitted after PICC placement, this time they said we could go home until her surgery on Monday.  Yay!!  We are thrilled to spend a few more days with Caleb and be able to attend our extended family party. The main event is next Monday, the 19th.  As always, Abby loves to see pictures of people wearing their purple!  It makes us smile while we are waiting for her during surgery too.  :)  Make sure you hashtag it #purpleforabby so that we can find the pictures easily!