Surgery this week!

Well, we are here.  The last few days of 'normal' before surgery and PT rehab.  I am feeling more overwhelmed than anything at this point...but trying to just get through the last minute preparations. Last weekend, with incredibly bad timing, we found that both kids had head lice.  One of my absolute worst nightmares are bugs living ON MY FAMILY.  I don't like spiders or any little creepy crawly, so the mere idea of head lice has freaked me out for years.  And this is my first experience with them --and hopefully the last.  We hired an amazing company here in Virginia Beach that employs home health nurses to come to your home and do treatments to eradicate the bugs entirely.  It took about 5 hours to treat and comb Ava & Carter's hair as well as check all of our family members to be sure nobody else had any.  And we probably did about 10 loads of laundry - every sheet (twice?!), pillowcase, blanket, towels, clothes - this was NOT the spring cleaning I needed.  :/  But they did such an amazing job that we really haven't found anything in the days since with combing and retreatments.  Thank God!

Ava has been doing okay, but we can all definitely tell that she is in more pain than she lets on.  Her limp is worse, getting upstairs is harder, and she gets tired more easily.  The end of the year pool party for her class was last week and she really didn't join in the fun at all.  She said her leg hurt and she didn't really want to play.  It makes me so sad to see her not participate now - when she kind of can - knowing that she won't be able to in the coming months much at all.  I worry that she really doesn't understand what's coming...she thought we could just 'go out to dinner' for my mom's birthday next weekend 'after her surgery'.  :/  I think she's pretty tough - she rarely complains about her leg hurting anymore, but then she gets a scratch and has a hissy fit when it's time to take a bath because she knows it will sting in the water.  So, I can't quite figure out if she's gonna be tough and just take it all on or if she's going to be really upset when the pain of the surgery and PT come on strong.  The fear of the unknown is the hardest for me right now.  I am a planner and I like to have things lined up and know what to expect --and this whole thing is throwing me for a loop because I can't plan for how she's going to respond to treatment, react to pain, or how she's going to deal with the ex fix and having to be in a wheelchair and use a walker.  

I have been trying to fit in all of my sessions and editing before we leave - I really want to be able to put everything business-wise aside and focus on Ava and what she needs when we are in Baltimore.  My clients have been extremely gracious and everyone has been so kind when I tell them that the turnaround time for their image galleries is going to be more like 3-4 weeks instead of my usual 1-2. I'm sure I will want a bit of the escape of editing while we are there for the weeks of PT and Ava is sleeping or resting.  But I don't want to feel pressured to "get stuff done".  So I'm trying to feverishly finish up as much as possible before we leave.  I have a feeling it's not all going to get done, but I'm trying.

So, the schedule of the week is as follows:  Ava and I will be driving up to Baltimore on Wednesday afternoon and spending the night because her pre-op appointment is Thursday morning.  Ryan will be coming up after work on Thurs and Ava's surgery is scheduled for Friday morning.  The surgery is quite extensive and will take 3-4 hours.  We will update here when we have a chance.  She'll be in the hospital through Monday or Tuesday for sure and then we will move to the outpatient home across the street and continue with physical therapy for at least another week to ten days.

We've modified clothing to hopefully fit around the ex fix (with recommendations from other moms and my sisters BFF - Thanks, guys!) and are gathering the last of the activities, games, books, etc. to pack for the journey.  Now it's just a matter of steeling myself for the battle about to begin and letting the rest go.  Breathe....breathe....breathe.....