Omphalocele Update

In the midst of a crazy Fiesta week in San Antonio, we loaded up the car and headed to Houston for Harper's check up at TCH.  We had been told in the fall that we would plan for surgery this summer based on her stomach and how it was looking.  The muscles are still splaying and when she strains, her stomach has a bulge that pops out - kind of like a giant, vertical hernia in the middle of her stomach.  We had also been given the directions to either put her back in PT or keep her in gymnastics but to focus on strengthening her abdomen and core muscles.  So we've kept up with the gymnastics which Harps loves but I don't see a future as the next Gabby Douglas - the Squirrel has her mother's unfortunate lack of coordination.   

You can imagine our surprise and happiness when Dr. Cass said he was very pleased with how Harper was looking and wanted to see her back in the fall - no need for surgery this summer!  Dr. Cass said her abdominal muscles were looking much better than they were earlier this year and he'd like to hold off a little longer to see what kind of natural repair her body can do on it's own before taking medical action.  He does still feel like she'll need surgery at some point but the better she looks on her own, the less invasive the surgery will need to be.  There can still be some improvement to those core muscles and surgery will eventually help.  He also thinks we can help the look of her stomach from a cosmetic standpoint.  But overall, he was pleased and you can only imagine how happy we were to not have to worry about surgery over the summer with all we have going on with Steve.  

On a side note, Harper's parents are idiots.  Harris stayed overnight with Honey and Grandy so that we could give our full attention to what we thought would be a pre-surgery appointment.  While Harper loves her little brother and the constant audience he provides for her, she loves having her mom and dad all to herself every now and again.  We went out to dinner the night before her appointment in Houston.  Walking back to the car, the Squirrel was holding both of our hands, wanting to be swung in between us.  Apparently, our swinging must have been a little too exciting because by the time we got to the car, she was screaming in pain and complaining about her arm hurting.  

After a night in pain and tears spent in a hotel room with a two year old, we thought we had done some serious damage and were feeling like pretty crappy parents.  Thankfully we had our TCH appointment and asked if they could take a look.  They booked us in with ortho, sent us over for x-rays and added about 2 hours on to our appointment and trip back home.  Well, low and behold, while the x-rays were being taken, she miraculously healed.  The crying stopped and by the time the doctor from ortho came to see us, we had a Squirrel that was laughing and singing.  Apparently, we gave her nursemaid's elbow - we pulled her elbow out of joint. Awesome.  When they took her x-rays, her arm was being twisted to get different shots and they managed to accidentally pop her arm back in socket.

So moral of the story - don't swing your kids around by their arms!  And if you're going to, be sure you have an appointment somewhere on the campus of Texas Children's Hospital the next day.