Just a quick update on my munchkin. The surgery went really well. Her doctors are concerned about her spine starting to get too stiff which will prevent them from extended the rods as much as necessary, but they’re keeping a close eye on her and are hopeful she’ll have another 2-3 years (this number fluctuates greatly depending on the doctor and the visit, it’s been as high as 5 as low as 1) before her final fusion. She handled the whole procedure really well, a lot better then in the past. She still doesn’t like the pulse oximeter (little red light) taped to her finger but tolerates it eventually. They extended the rods a total of 1/4 an inch. She slept most of the day in the hospital, only waking long enough to get some food and fluids in her. Luckily since she did handle it so well, and met her requirements to go home they sent us home tonight! She’s doing great, has been sleeping since we got home but that’s to be expected. Thanks to everyone for all your love and support!

Well offically Jasmine turned 10 yesterday! My munchkin is growing up so fast! Although as I was putting clothes away this morning I realized Nyah is only one clothing size down from Jas, (Nyah’s in 5’s and Jasmine is barely into 7’s) made me wonder how long it’ll be before they’re wearing the same size. . . anyways I digress.

So since Jasmine was with bio-dad yesterday we clebrated her birthday Saturday. We woke up and I fixed french toast, per Jasmine’s request. Then she opened her presents, she did get her beloved Nintendo DSi. For those of you who don’t know origanlly I was going to just get her the DS, but while researching I found out about the DSi which does everything the DS does plus plays your music, has a camera and connects to the interenet. At first I thought I wanted to get it for her just because it was a cooler techie gadget, but Brandon pointed out that her iPod is no longer working . . . voila! Instant good reason to get it for her! But this and a few accessories were the only things she got from us, thank goodness for grandparents and aunts who each got her a game. She also did get a new outfit because every girl needs a new outfit for her birthday! Jasmine was a really good big sister and let Nyah help her open presents.

After opening presents we got ready, took Nyah to Grandpa Mike and Grandma Cindy (thanks for watching her!) then went to see American Fork Idol at the Desert Star. Grandma Paula Grandpa Rick, Aunt Erin, Sicily and Hannah all joined us for the show. Thanks for coming with us! BTW I got Jasmine’s hairdo from the blog http://babesinhairland.blogspot.com/












After the show we went to Mike and Cindy’s for some pie, then came home with the intention of having Hannah sleep over. Unfortunately Jasmine’s stomach had other ideas and she got a little sick. So she went to bed and eventually I got Hannah home (she didn’t want to sleep over anymore, who could blame her?) Happy Birthdayy my munchkin! I know it didn’t end well but the rest of the day was fun!

Thursday morning came and we had to run back up to Shriners to get the brace fitting done. This was really quick and easy, they only had to replace the straps on the brace. Then we came home and Jasmine spent the day relaxing on the couch and taking small cat naps, but Jasmine still wasn’t eating much.

Friday morning came and she slept till 9:30, not too big of a suprise but she still didn’t eat much and was complaining her tummy was upset. She also was alternating between being hot and cold which worried me that she was getting a temp. I took her temp and it was normal and looked at the dressing which was still clean and her skin wasn’t red around it. After eating 3 bites of cereal she went back to sleep. About noon I started to get worried that she really hadn’t eaten, was sleeping so much and that she was going between hot and cold so I called her doctor. He told me the signs of infection to watch for but to also take her off the percocet because all of this could also be caused by the drugs. She finally woke up about 1:30 and ate a piece of pizza. I gave her motrin instead of percocet which seemed to help. She said her back wasn’t hurting too bad and started playing webkinz with Nyah. Taking her off the percocet really ehlped she was grazing more then really eating, but at least she was getting food in her tummy. She also didn’t go back to sleep and did’t complain about being too hot or cold or that her tummy hurt anymore. So I think we’re out of the bad part and that she’s well on her way to recovery.

This morning she crawled into bed with me about 6am. Finally I got her to go back to sleep, but about 7:30 Nyah also crawled into bed with us. I wish I was able to take a picture on our queen size bed there was Nyah then me then Bella (with her head on Jasmine’s pillow) then Jasmine. I bet it was really cute! She’s eaten breakfast and is now playing with Nyah in her room and hasn’t even asked for any pain meds. I keep debating on if I should offer it but I figure if she’s hurting she’ll tell me and then I’ll give her some motrin. Really looks like she’s doing good and that she’ll definitely be going back to school on Monday! Now we all just need to keep our fingers crossed that her neck won’t keep rolling at the top and that the hooks will stay in place this time!

Monday

I checked Jasmine out of school at 12, we stopped and got McD’s and took it up to Shriners. Once we got there we went up stairs in the playroom to eat, Jasmine was really excited because I let her go downstairs to the cafeteria by herself to get some ketchup. After eating she got an x-ray, then we got settled into her room. Aunt Erin came up and we were hanging out, and I got a call from Brandon. Apparantly his boss decided Brandon needed to be here for Jasmine’s surgery and was flying him home again! Luckily I have the best sister in the whole world and she came back later that night and hung out with Jasmine while I ran to the airport and picked Brandon up. By the time Brandon and I got back to the hospital it was almost 11, so he hung out with us for just a bit and then went home to try and get some sleep. I kept telling Jasmine she needed to go to sleep and her argument was that she’d be sleeping all day during her surgery, kind of hard reasoning to argue with, but we got to sleep finally about 12:30. Through out the evening Jasmine was in really good spirits and was handling it all very well. She even went out with a bunch of other kids and made a ground hog with green poofy balls for the grass, white poofy balls for the clouds, blue feathers for the sky and brown felt cut in the shape of a ground hog with his mouth drawn on and a googly eye.



Also earlier in the evening one of her doctors had looked at the x-ray and noticed that the top hook on one of the rods had detattched from her spine! No wonder the girl had been complaing that her back hurt! Also I had told her doctor that I had noticed her neck was rolling forward a bit at the top of the rods. Due to both of these complications they needed to open the top up again to reattatch the rod and move both of them up one vertebrea. This would hopefully stop her neck from rolling forward anymore.

Tuesday

6:30 came way too fast by my clock, but that’s when they came in to give her a valium before the surgery. It was the usual run down, hang out in the room as they get her ready, put goopy stuff on her hand where the IV will go, no eating or drinking, hang out some more. Brandon got back up there, looking very tired by the way. About 8am they came and wheeled her back into the pre-op room where we waited again for about 10 minutes. Jasmine was really nervous and crying, but doing ok. About 8:20 they rolled her back into surgery saying that due to having to move the top ones too the surgery would be about 3 hours. Brandon and I spent the morning in her room hanging out after getting something to eat. Half way through the surgery a nurse called and said all was going well. Almost exactly 3 hours later they rolled Jasmine back into her room, already grumpy as could be! She immediately ate a popsicle, and within 20 minutes wanted to get up and go to the bathroom.



Don’t know if anyone has ever had surgery, but eating, drinking, walking and going to the bathroom are all very good signs! Infact we had a hard time convincing her she needed to stay laying down! I mostly attribute this to the local anesthetic because once it wore off she was a little less gung ho about getting up and walking. After the popsicle she also ate some jello and then devoured 2 bowls of chicken noodle soup. We had to make her stop eating to, saying we needed to let her tummy settle before she ate anymore. Next we went down and got a new x-ray done. Luckily the girls in x-ray are awesome and always let us check out the x-rays after they take them. They have a new system at Shriners where everything is computerized, so they don’t have to develop them anymore and just pull them up on the computer screen. It’s really nice because they pulled up Mondays x-rays right next to the new ones so we could see the difference. The old hooks at the top pointed out towards her shoulder blades, and the new ones pointed in towards her spine. Dr. D’Astous thought the new placement would hold them better. Also the rolling of her neck seemed slightly improved. Back upstairs to battle Jasmine to stay in bed, keep her IV in, and the pulse oximeter on her toe. Needless to say she was one grumpy girl. I know, I know, who can blame her with everything she’s been through right? But after telling her for the fiftieth time why she has to leave the IV in, can’t get up and walk around, has to have the stupid light on her toe I was getting rather frustrated. Luckily eventually it was time for Brandon and I to go home and get some sleep. (thus the quick post from last night) Jasmine’s dad spent the night in the hospital with her.



Wednesday

4:30 am is WAY to early to be awake! Brandon’s plane was leaving about 6, so this is when we had to leave the house. Took him to the airport, went back home showered and headed back up to the hospital. I was downtown by 6:30 so I stopped at Smith’s and wandered around for a half an hour before going up there. But even at 7 she was still sleeping, so I hung out in the playroom for another half an hour before her dad woke up. First thing he tells me is that her doctor might want to keep her an extra day since she had to get the upper parts of her rods moved. I get into the room and she continues to sleep till 9 when her doctor comes in, she wakes up long enough for him to quickly examine her and ask a few questions. Luckily he decided she could go home today! Not that she wouldn’t have been able to deal with staying there another day I just know she’d be a lot more comfortable at home. Anyway the bad news of the morning was if this surgery doesn’t work and the rods continue to dislodge or her neck continues to roll her doctor said we’d have to explore other options, like doing a halo. UGH! FRAK! NOOOOOOOO! Were my basic thoughts on that. For a halo they put screws in the kids head and then traction from their head and they run around in these little walker looking things for 6 weeks, the ENTIRE time we’d have to live at the hospital. Ya, know you know why I had that reaction. But we’re keeping our fingers crossed she won’t have to do that. Back to today, Jasmine fell back asleep and she slept and she slept and she slept. About noon her dad had to get going, and she slept some more. Finally about 12:30 she woke up and decided she was ready to go home. Unfortunately the brace guys hadn’t been up to check her brace and make sure it was still doing what they wanted it to do. Her nurse called down and found out they had decided they were too busy and scheduled her for tomorrow. ugh. Option one stay the night in the hospital again and have the 11am appointment Thursday, option 2 go home come back up for 11am appointment. We went for option 2, duh! So down to the car we went, got her settled into her carseat, had to stop driving to re-adjust her to make her more comfortable 3 times and she was still asleep by the time we got on the freeway! We got home and she went straight into bed and slept till 5pm when I woke her up to give her pain meds, at which point she finally woke up. She wanted to play with her new webkinz. The rest of the evening was uneventful until I told her it was almost time for bed. Of course she insisted she wasn’t tired, to which I insisted I didn’t care she was going to get back on a normal sleep pattern if it killed me! Luckily it didn’t I just told her that’s how she was going to get better faster. So now she sleeps again. We’ll see how long that lasts!

We go back in 3-4 weeks for a check up and if all is well she’ll be getting another extension in 5 months. Kinda crappy saying that if all goes well she’ll get more surgery, but more surgery is better then a halo!

So all in all it went well even with a few bumps in the road. Jasmine is in good spirits as usual again, thanks to massive amounts of sleep! I’m doing good, just tired.

Thank you to everyone for your love and support! We appreciate you all!

Sorry but this will b quick, I don’t have a lot of time. Jasmine did great, there was one complication but I’ll get into that on a later post. For the quick version now, she’s fine. Only 20 minutes after surgery she wanted to get up and start walking around. She quickly downed a popsicle, jello and two bowls of chicken noodle soup before we said she needed to let her tummy settle before she had more. It looks like she’s in good shape to be coming home tomorrow. Once we get home tomorrow I’ll post the long version and some pictures.

Thank you to everyone for all of your well wishes and support!

Jas continues to do well, as with before she has a hard time sitting for too long in class but luckily her teacher is really understanding and works with her. Every morning before school she still takes her motrin, and if she plays too hard at night she also takes some more before bed. The incisions are starting to itch pretty bad which is hard because they’re still pretty sensitive, so how do you scratch something you can’t touch? As usual she’s in good spirits and is one happy kid for all the crap she goes through.

I just realized I hadn’t updated that we got Jasmine’s next surgery date. We will check in to Shriner’s on Monday February 2nd in the afternoon. Her surgery will be Tuesday morning, and then we’ll come home Wednesday afternoon barring any complications. This surgery will be a lot easier and faster then the last one since they are only going in to extend the rods so she can continue to grow. She will have this same type of surgery every 5 months until she is 11 or 12, depending on when her doctor determines that her trunk has finished growing. After she stops growing they will do the final surgery of fusing her spine and put in permenant rods. After that surgery Jasmine should be done with major surgeries and will only really have to deal with braces, headgear and probably more speech therapy.

Luckily Eddie’s sister in law Autumn has agreed to take Nyah for me while Jasmine is in the hospital and Eddie will be driving her out to Tooele and picking her up. I think this will be better for Nyah then bouncing inbetween houses like we’ve done previously.

Literally I was here watching this for 5 minutes. Each grade got to perform 3 songs before they were quickly ushered off the stage to make room for the next grade, but I did manage to get a few cute pictures of Jasmine.

Jasmine has been for lack of a better word, obsessed with Zac Efron for quite awhile now Yesterday I was in the kitchen and I hear Nyah and Jasmine coming up the stairs. Jasmine says “I have a HUGE crush on Zac Efron” I just find it so cute, and so reminiscent of my younger days. It’s so much fun watching her grow up and starting to have crushes on boys. One day in the car Jasmine told me she has a new boyfriend in school. I asked if he knew she was his girlfriend. She said “Well duh! No mom, that would be too embarassing!” I had to supress a laugh and explain that he should really know that, and usually the boy and girl decide together that they’re boyfriend/girlfriend.