T minus 6 days

The night before last at about midnight when I was on the verge of sleep, I panicked and realized I had never received a confirmation letter or phone call about the date of surgery and what if I had it wrong and we made all these arrangements and showed up and we weren't really scheduled?  Or we had missed it!  It was awful!  So as soon as I woke up yesterday I called and confirmed, and yes, everything is still on for the 27th. 


That means that next week at this time the surgery will be done and over with, and I think I will be feeling much calmer.  Her surgery, by the way, is spinal fusion of T2 through L1 with rods down either side of her spine for that length and pedicle screws holding them all together in the correct positioning.  The spine has 3 sections of vertebrae - cervical (neck) has 7, thoracic (upper back) has 12 and lumbar (lower back) has 5.  Then there are the sacrum and coccyx (tailbone), which are fused before birth and are in the pelvis.  So this surgery will affect just about all of her thoracic spine.  We do most of our bending from our cervical and lumbar areas, except slouching, which isn't good to do anyway. :) 

I got a lot done today, oil change, tires rotated, more laundry, started packing, etc.  I will work tomorrow and Friday morning then finish up packing Friday so we can hit the road Saturday morning.  I'm finding it good that I have a lot to do to keep me busy. 

Jaimi's been visiting with friends and hanging out with her siblings.  I love it when they get along.

A few people have given Jaimi care packages to help her survive the hospital stay and we have had other gifts as well.  She's having fun looking through her care packages and we are so grateful for all of the offers of help we have had.  It's so great to feel so loved.

Sometime I'll get a few pictures posted, especially so we can compare the before and after.  Jaimi had a well-child check up on Monday and measured in at 5' 5.5".  I'm really curious to see how tall she'll be after her spine is straightened a bit.  I wonder how her clothes will fit!