I think that Anni would agree by now that it's neither an "adventure" nor is it "great" and as we finally get settled into a routine here at home, we look forward to Anni's continued progress–and IS she! It has been just under three weeks after surgery and we are in awe at the daily improvement that this girl shows us. She has begun the homebound study that the school district has arranged for her and we think that she will catch up without too much trouble. On Anni's first visit from the teacher, she gets a bunch of cards from her class which made her feel pretty special. I think this will help spur on her recovery! If nothing else, her own (lazy & spoiled) therapy dog should get her going.


Of course, getting to this point did not come without some bumps along the road. There were some large bumps. Then there were the small bumps. Like today, when the Rover's engine overheated on our way back from doctor's appointments in Jackson and it pee'd coolant at a pullout on the pass. Never mind my misfortune on her last day at the hospital when the Rover's water pump exploded–literally. I kind of figured that those pieces that went flying from underneath the Rover as I drove over the pass was somehow important.


On the other hand, seeing Anni up and about makes every effort we make for her worth it. Of course, she doesn't see our efforts to "make her fell better" as help...I think she thought in the beginning that we may be torturing her.

The forest service controlled burn just east of Driggs is scheduled to terminate tomorrow. I was told that the fires will smolder for a little bit longer so we will continue to enjoy this aromatic experience until it's good and ready to call itself done.


Those who don't have allergies should be so lucky. For Colter and myself, it's an annoying event however impressive the sight may be. Mornings are typically the worst for air quality. The smoke is thick and smell is not something one looks forward to when you open the door. In fact, we pretty much keep the doors and windows closed.


By afternoon, the layer of smoke has cleared and we can see that they've expanded the burn area. It used to be just this speck of smoke behind the mountain when it started. Now it seems like the whole mountain is on fire.
 

We watched this progress from our front porch. One night, Jud and I just sat on our chairs and watched the flare-ups in the darkness. Or we'd hang out in the afternoon out front, enjoy the cool afternoon breeze and watch the fire burn in the distance.

It's 11 p.m. The blasted antibiotic doo-dad is beeping like crazy and I haven't a clue how to shut it off. Of course, I probably shouldn't be messing with all these equipment but it's late at night in the dimmed lights of an ICU room and I can't sleep. I hear the nurses talking outside. I think there's another patient rolling in from OR. I'm surprised Anni seems to be sleeping through that beeping racket. But then again, if I was as doped up as she is now, I'd sleep through anything too. Somebody give me morphine!


We were starting to get nervous by 3:30 this afternoon and no one was calling back to tell us that Anni's done with surgery. It took another hour when we got a call that they're almost finished with her and that the surgery went very well but it wasn't until about 6:30 that we were able to get our first glimpse of Anni as she was wheeled out of Recovery to the ICU. We were a bit shocked. She looked like a blowfish with Fat Albert lips! (Just kidding Anni...)


The anaesthetist, Dr. Domsky, stopped in late tonight and assured me that this happens to everyone who undergoes that long a surgery on their stomach. Colter was surprisingly more distraught about seeing Anni in this condition. I guess he really does love his sister. Poor baby boy...we love you!


Of course, she's still our girl and we don't mind any photo-ops with the little puppy no matter how she's looking. On the plus side, Nurse Katie just came in, turned the offending beeping off and told me that Anni's on very little oxygen now which is a good thing. She's healthy. Strong as an ox. She's only pushed her "pain button" once tonight. Except, I wish I didn't keep getting up from this cot and giving Anni ice chips every time she wakes up...which is often. All this medical equipment, tubes stuck to her up the ying-yang, and they couldn't design a simple automatic ice-chip dispenser. Geez...

I've got a headache. Slept little. Woke up early. We drove to Jackson at 5:30 a.m., got the SJMC at 6:15 and were the first surgery patients to arrive. Had breakfast at the hospital restaurant with Jud after Anni left and now we're just waiting for occasional updates from the OR nurse.








So here's a clip of Anni as we wait for the versed to kick in up to when she gets rolled into surgery. She is a real trooper.  It's 1:30 p.m. and we just learned that they're at the halfway point. The screws are in and they're moving on to the rods. Another few hours to go.

It's Monday. The kids are in school and Jud went fishing to de-stress. Most of the house cleaning is done. The loads of laundry are just about washed. I just have to finish cleaning the garage and tidy up my office and craft room. My parents are able to help out with the little man for the week by staying with him (and hopefully keeping him in line) while we spend the better part of the week in Jackson. Surgery begins at 7:30 in the morning. We leave at 5:30 from home and hop over the pass to St. John's Medical Center in Jackson. When everyone gets home this afternoon, we probably ought to review this tidy little packet that the hospital provided to acquaint us with what to expect.


It will be a long day of surgery. She will be in ICU for the first day or two before being moved to the Primary Care Unit. We ask that you hold off on your visit until the day after surgery. If you will be visiting while she is in ICU, please keep in mind that the hospital has greater restrictions in that unit. I'm sure that Anni will be tickled happy to see family, friends and gifts during her stay but you may want to wait to visit, do the Macarena with her, and give gifts until she has been moved to PCU. Mylar balloons are the only types allowed in the hospital (something about potential allergens). Her expected stay is about 5 days in the hospital so we hope to be home by the end of the week.

We have these next two days before Anni's spine surgery. We've already played out the game of "we wish we did" and replayed the woulda-coulda-shoulda in our heads.

The day we noticed Anni's unusual curves, the first thing to come to my mind was, "Oh my gosh...it looks like mom's tweaked back." It put us in a bit of a panic because my mom is having joint issues and I didn't want Anni to have problems, assuming that she was putting a lot of weight on that side. The next move was to have her checked out. Maybe she was just a little too rough in play and screwed up her back. Surely, a little physical therapy could help her out.

Instead, we find she has Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis. According to our research, only a small percentage of the population gets scoliosis–roughly 2%–of which are mostly females. Annika falls into the most common form called idiopathic scoliosis. It simply means that the cause is unknown except for a seeming constant that otherwise healthy children whose families have a history of this condition are at higher risk of developing this curvature.

While some scoliotic spines can be addressed by simple monitoring and observation–if the curves are smaller than 20º–others progress to a degree that requires bracing to prevent progression. In Anni's case, her curvature is already in excess of 50º with a likelihood of quick and continued progression since she still has a lot of growth left. The course of treatment is spinal fusion surgery. Bracing will not work given the severity of her curvature. Growing rods were also presented to us as an alternative to delay the inevitable fusion surgery. We weren't hip on that idea.

To my knowledge, scoliosis screening is no longer done in the schools. It is left to parents to monitor this and the general health of their children. It's unfortunate that we aren't well-educated about scoliosis. We are drilled about immunization and flu shots, warned against drugs and sexual deseases but because scoliosis is not a "widespread" condition, I guess it's just left in the marginal bliss of ignorance. Personally, I think a 1 in 50 odds is not a rare enough condition to be ignored.

Here are a few good websites for information about scoliosis:

Understanding Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

Scoliosis Research Society

iScoliosis.com

Mark Twain wrote, "Golf is a good walk spoiled." There are days when I have to admit that it sure feels like a pull-your-hair-out experience when you can't hit or putt worth a damn. But when you see your drives reach 200 yards, it makes you want to keep on going! And then there's the occasional surprise when you are playing along and a deer runs across the fairway.


Jud's parents stopped by for a nice visit and we went to the creamery for some gelatos. I have to keep cleaning the house but I think I'll go for a 9-hole round to ease the stress. It's beautiful today (finally). The snow-capped mountains are a great background and the sun is out. There's just a few wisps of clouds above and a bit of a breeze.

It's September 10th and it's been in the 50's these past few days ... and there is snow on the mountains. Yeah, it sucks but Anni loves it. She says she misses winter. I mean, really???

I am not interested in seeing it this early. Anni wanted to take pictures of our drive over Teton Pass on the way to Jackson. The peak is shrouded in clouds and a light drizzle has fallen. The white stuff has landed on the higher elevations.  Let this be just a momentary aberration because I am not ready to tackle a winter season just yet.

Okay, the trip over this huge pass is always impressive no matter what the season. At 8431 feet in elevation, it's white-knuckle driving in the winter (we've run right into an avalanche at one point) and slow in the summer (it sucks to be the one behind an RV or semi-truck). Passing can be a dicey experience.

But it's good to have Anni on the passenger side because she makes sure I'm not doing any crazy stuff. Like staring at the puffy clouds on the mountains instead of the road.

We've clocked a lot of miles in the last few weeks. I may be exhausted from all the appointments and the seemingly endless runs over this pass but Anni is downright sick and bored of the whole thing.

One final set of appointments out of the way and all we need to do now is just relax before the big day. She only had a few questions to ask Dr. Beck, trooped through the blood draw with the admitting nurse at SJMC, toured the hospital and now just wants to spend the weekend, presumably doing nothing. Does she look like she cares at this point?

So here's this girl...had no idea I had such a cute, smart and slightly "twisted" little baby. And I mean twisted in more ways than one. She is now on Facebook (a little too much if you ask me) and she's constantly saying odd things both on and off. Take these pictures for example:


Cute and cuddly girl creates "Bob" the ball next to her with hair made of moss who then gets kak'd and transforms to "Steve" who then ... well, not sure what the rest of the story is exactly. She has these fascinating little stories. Then there's the constant name changes on her FB profile. I think she's currently Annika Frito Lay Tolman. Last week, she was Doritos, Amethyst Sunstone prior to that I think, and AJ before that among others. Can't wait to see who she'll be next week. Maybe She'll be Choco Anni.


The other "twist" in Anni is on her body–specifically, her spine. A few weeks ago, we noticed something that we had never seen before.  I suppose I could say that it just "grew" overnight but you'll probably laugh at me. I did go back to old pics I took and noticed that her posture was starting to tweak to the right by summer of last year (shown in a July '09 vacation shown with her bro in 100º+ heat on the Las Vegas Strip–don't they look like they're enjoying the baking sun?) but not enough that I would have given it a second thought. She certainly didn't have the noticeable rib hump that is so prominent now on the right posterior side of her spine.


On August 20th, we met with Dr. Joshua Beck at Teton Orthopaedics in Jackson. We were previously told by a RN-P that Anni had scoliosis but to what degree, we didn't know. Anni's x-rays showed an s-curve scolio deformity with a 21º curvature on the bottom and a 50º curvature along the upper thoracic vertebrae. A second consult at PCMC with another surgeon confirms a slightly larger curvature above 50º based on his own measurement. So here's the skinny: I'd give you all the medical lingo but it comes down to a diagnosis called Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS)...a rather pompous name of a condition for which they know the who but they haven't a clue about the why.


These past several weeks have been a mad rush of research, phone calls, consultations, doctors visits, tests and the necessary second opinion. But the long and the short of it is–and I quote the second surgeon–you don't get to choose your parents (it's genetic) and you don't get to choose when and to what degree it's going to happen to you (she's only 11). Both surgeons agree that her only course of treatment is corrective spinal fusion surgery. We've chosen to stay with Dr. Beck for the procedure. We have a good feeling about him and we find comfort in our ability to quickly communicate with him and his staff. Her surgery is scheduled for this coming Tuesday, September 14th at 7:30 a.m. We would WELCOME AND APPRECIATE your prayers and thoughts for her.


On a side note, this wonder girl turned 11 yesterday. I rather thought she had great Karma on her birthday. She brought cookies to her class, got some really cool earrings from us, won a very pretty purple leather purse at my fitness club's raffle prize drawing, bought pretty nail polish and got lots of love of from her mommy and daddy. You'd never know it but Colter's just waiting to get a slice out of that birthday cake. Silly boy! We love you both!!!!

Well, I've really left the family blog on the backburner for a while haven't I? Summer (what little of it arrived this year) has come to a close and I can only hope for a reasonable Fall. Surely, that's not too much to ask? Football officially starts tonight with the Vikings playing against the Saints. Maybe Bret Favre will just keep skidding along until he's carried off the field on a stretcher. He's graying but he's back.


Seriously, I could leave football behind...like really far behind...but the Judster isn't going to let his favorite teams go unseen this season so I have to just go with the flow. I guess I'll just have to recap the more entertaining parts of the last few months to pass the time in the next few months. I'm working on compiling and archiving a lot of our memories so I can digitize them which also means that I am taking the role of family photo-biographer rather seriously. I am taking SO many pictures that I think the kids are protesting but I don't doubt that they're going to thank me later. Take our 2010 summer vacation, for starters. We went to San Diego again. We really like that place (not that I would live there) at least for a visit.



So we came home to find the tail end of summer upon us. It's a month later and chilly today. Not my ideal September weather but when you live here, you simply have to find a way to deal with it. We've gathered the wood (well, okay–Jud gathered the wood) for the fireplace this winter, we picked our wild huckleberries to hopefully last us until the next fall harvest, and enjoyed a nice Labor Day weekend campout at Grassy Lake last week. I had forgotten how much fun camping can be. Thank goodness the mosquitoes were hardly a bother.


Yeah...it was STILL a good summer!