In limbo...

I am so not a Type A personality. But even I like to have some bit of control over when things are going to happen and what the plan is.

Sammy had his 6 month surgery follow-up appointment on Thursday. Everything went well and he is now at 10 degrees which means he's improved another 5 degrees in 6 months!

The doctor was saying how pleased she was with his progress--and then dropped the bombshell on me. She wants to do surgery next week, if possible, to remove the plates. Huh?? I was pretty much in shock since I've been planning on July to have them removed.

Apparently, his knees are where they should be and so the curving won't be corrected any further at this point. Also, leaving the plates in will over-correct his knees while continuing to stunt his growth, so she doesn't want to wait any longer than necessary to have them removed.

Her only concern about timing was did I want to do this before or after the baby arrived. What a loaded question. I was still in shock at the time--and Samuel was in a meeting so there was no way for me to call and ask him, so I booked it for March 2. Then I thought about it.

How am I going to leave a 2 or 3 week old baby, who is breastfeeding, and who may or may not take a bottle, to be at the hospital with Sammy for at least 6-8 hours. Then have Sammy need my attention 100% of the time. I remember how hard it was last time. He didn't walk for two weeks, he couldn't sleep through the night because of the pain, he wouldn't eat, he cried so much. I can't do that again with a newborn baby (and Hannah) as well. Even with Samuel's help. It literally took two of us trading off who got to sleep and who took care of Sammy because it was a 24 hour job at the time. I've been told the recovery will be much better this time since they are taking the plates OUT and not drilling through the bone and putting them IN like before, but I still know it's not going to be an easy recovery for him.

So after considering all this. I called Children's Hospital to see if we could reschedule for January 26th. Unfortunately, his surgeon is booked, but they are working on fitting us in. I am just waiting to hear back.

Which leads to my next uncertainty. Sammy's birthday party. His birthday is Febraury 15th and he's been wanting to have a party at Chuck E. Cheese (again). I knew we couldn't have it close to his actual birthday because who knows when the baby will arrive, so I set it for January 30th--thinking that was a pretty safe date.

Now with a possible January 26th surgery date looming over our heads, there is no way he will be able to have his party on the 30th, as he most likely won't be able to walk yet. So, yet another thing I have no idea when it's going to happen. And of course, invitations have already been sent, so I will have to let everyone know last minute that we are changing it. And there is no way I can cancel it, he's been looking forward to this for 5 months now.

Then there is question of when will the baby arrive. I'm not due until February 18th and I don't have a history of going into labor early, so I am just praying at this point that the baby stays put until then. As long as the stress of all this doesn't put me into labor, right?

I hope to hear back from CHLA sometime this afternoon, so we'll see what happens.