Update on Annie's Spinal Fusion Infection Treatment

It's now been just over a year since Annie had her big spinal fusion surgery.  And it's been almost a year since she was diagnosed with a very serious infection because of her back surgery.  She had a 3 month course of IV antibiotics, followed by a 9 month course of oral antibiotics to try to eradicate the infection. We are finally nearing the end of this year-long treatment--Annie has about 2 more weeks to go on her antibiotic treatment.

We have very mixed feelings about having her off the antibiotics.  She has been very healthy the past year being on the antibiotics--not even a single UTI, of course. But we do look forward to administering one less drug, and doing away with some of the negative side effects.  However, we are very nervous about her recurrent UTIs returning, since any kind of bacteria she might develop in her body will now have the potential to spread to the metal rods in her back and cause another infection.  Once a child has their rods infected, it is highly likely that they will become re-infected again at a later date.  We pray this won't be the case for Annie, but we also keep that likelihood in the back of our minds.

If Annie's rods were to become infected again, her orthopedist would have to perform another major surgery to remove all the rods and hardware from her back.  This wouldn't affect her spine or scoliosis, because by now, her spine has fused together into a solid piece.  However, surgery to remove the hardware would be as major of a surgery as getting the hardware placed.  It's definitely something we might be facing, and we never know when.  Some infections recur after a year or after 5 years. There's no point in time that she will ever be considered in the clear.

The last couple weeks have been a little rough as Annie has developed worsening diarrhea.  Our first thought of course, was that she must finally have c-diff after such a long treatment on antibiotics.  However, her c-diff test ended up being negative which is a relief, but now we don't know what's causing the problem.  She was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis 4 years ago, so she might possibly have a flare-up, although her colitis has been well controlled, remaining in remission for the last 3 years.  It's also possible she just has some kind of viral bug that might be going around.  She's having more tests done next week, and we'll be meeting with her GI to try to get more answers.  Her antibiotics surely aren't helping the issue, but we don't think they are the cause either, since it's been almost a year now on them without any chronic diarrhea issues.

But otherwise, Annie continues to be happy and healthy.  We have a lot of potential changes coming soon having her off the antibiotics, but like always, we'll just take one day at a time and be grateful she's done as well as she has so far!

Christmas Break 2014

 We had a lot of fun over Christmas break this year.  We decided to make it more of a stay-cation than in years past, so we found a lot of new things to check out in Omaha.  Some were great, and others not so much, but it was fun to have some adventures the past couple weeks.  Here are just a few highlights.

Justin's mom sent us a beautiful 1000 piece puzzle.  We all helped out on various parts of it, but it was the HARDEST puzzle we've ever done!  There were TONS of empty black spaces and not much variety in colors.  We kept it on this white board with three large cookies sheets to hold all the pieces so we could work on it throughout the day or in the evenings while watching Christmas shows together.

It took over 2 weeks, working a couple hours every day, but we finished!  Justin and Molly did most of the work.  Then Lexie accidentally destroyed it.  I guess we get to do it again next year!

Before Christmas we went to Boys Town to see their Christmas stamp display and several nativities around the campus.  It was rather underwhelming.  So the next day we looked forward to seeing a light projection show on some new apartment buildings in midtown Omaha.  Again, it wasn't at all what we were expecting and we were again underwhelmed.  We've been trying to find some fun Christmas things around Omaha to make part of our traditions, but we won't be doing those two things again.

While we were in midtown, we decided to go see the decorated window displays we've heard advertised.  Again, I was expecting something elaborate like the ZCMI window displays in Salt Lake City that I grew up seeing.  The window displays here weren't nearly as exciting or elaborate, but it was fun to see some of them.  We might have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been snowing.

The day before Christmas Eve we decided to take the girls swimming since they don't get to do that much in the winter.  It turned out to be a blast and we had the whole pool to ourselves!  We very well might make swimming a new Christmas tradition!

 

Of course, Christmas Eve was full of our regular traditions and we all had a wonderful time together as a family.

 The girls had a great time, and Annie was even full of giggles too.

 Lexie even got to act as our photographer for some shots.  She's a natural!

Justin always enjoys building things for the girls for Christmas.  This year he made Lexie a jewelry box and Molly a bed for her American girl doll.  I sewed the sheet set, quilt and pillow.  I thought Molly was going to hyperventilate when she opened it, she was so excited!

 During the week after Christmas, we all went to see Big Hero 6 which was a fantastic movie.  And the girls had a fun time seeing a movie in the remodeled theater with huge reclining lazy boy armchairs! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of them lounging in the movie!

Later that week we went to the Joslyn Art Museum since we've lived here almost 6 years and have never been.  Their permanent collection got a little long for the girls, but they had a rotating exhibit on graphic novels and comic books, in which they showcased several that Molly reads.  It was interesting to see how they are designed.  Then we went to the kids' art area and spent a long time there playing.

Lexie did a great job drawing some still-life...

 Justin and Lexie built a pixel picture, and the girls had fun "painting" on a digital screen.

 They even had pots you could decorate and draw on.

Near the end of our break, we needed to make a trip to Scheel's so we couldn't resist riding the ferris wheel while there.

 We are so grateful for this holiday season to remember the Savior and His power in our lives.  We enjoyed some much-needed family time and feel so blessed to have another Christmas holiday all together.