One Week AWAY!

Seems like the past three months have gone by, literally in the blink of an eye!
It's hard to believe in just a few days we will be heading to St. Louis with Kaz. 

I'd like to think I have everything prepared by now, however that would be far from the truth! I've not packed the first thing or even pulled out a suitcase... Since our t-shirt fundraiser was such a success, I've been sorting through orders and delivering like a pizza man! Thank you to everyone for supporting Kaz and our trip during our stay in St. Louis! I think the shirts turned out awesome and can't wait to see everyone wearing them next week on Tuesday!

I'm finally sitting down, figuring out plans for the first couple of days in St. Louis over Easter weekend. At this point I'm really just anticipating the time with just the three of us...soaking up every last second with our boy before his big day. We hope to catch the UK game Saturday night when we get into town. Sunday we plan to visit a church, make a stop at the zoo, and take a peek at the Arch.

Monday, everything begins...
Kaz will meet Dr. Park and his therapists, who will be doing lots to prepare him (and us) for the big day. This appointment is suppose to be pretty lengthy, where they will be taking measurements, lots of notes, and even video taping him doing different activities.

If all goes as planned, Tuesday (April 7th) is surgery day! We won't have a confirmed start-time for surgery the following day until that Monday in the afternoon. We do know that it is not uncommon for the surgery to take as long as four and five hours. Basically, that whole time, we'll be awaiting calls from Dr. Park at the beginning, middle, and end of the procedure.

One thing that I know for sure is this boy is READY! Every night we are praying for his surgery... for the doctors... for him... for ME (mommy) ;)  
He knows he's getting an IV that will make him go to sleep. He understands that they will be going in to his back and making a cut to get rid of the stuff that makes his feet and legs tight. He's excited about having "regular legs like Mommy and Daddy".
The only thing he's not a big fan of is me leaving him with the doctors during the surgery (but who would be!).

Kaz is busy with his own schedule this week! He's made plans with some of his closest friends and family since things will be a bit different for a while after surgery. The "unknown" in this whole formula is the question of how long it may take for him to get back to where he started...
Since they are going in and cutting nerves, he will have to reteach his body to work the right way. And that's where the therapy part comes in and is so important.

So, I guess now that we're ONE WEEK AWAY, I should pack!

Another Prayer Answered!

I'm not sure if anyone reading this has ever been successful in the pursuit of receiving Medicaid?!

I know I never want to be on that horrible goose chase again...

Long story short, after over a year of attempting to get Kaz to qualify for Medicaid (which would financially help with all of his equipment, doctors appointments, followups, botox, etc.)... we have finally been APPROVED! All of this happened literally in the nick of time!

The best part of all is that we may not have to take out another mortgage loan (x4) in order to pay for this boy's therapy following his big surgery! It is also possible that he may be able to stay at Cardinal Hill following his In-Patient stay and receive his Out-Patient treatment daily there as well.

Since we're just 24 days away from surgery, we wanted to offer a way to support Kaz prior to surgery! A cool little t-shirt is in the works that we will share as soon as the final designs have been tweaked...we'd love for anyone interested to wear one the day of his surgery as a way to support him! If you're interested in purchasing one for $12, we'd love to print one for you once they're done. You can comment below or send me a message if interested and I will be happy to add you to the list. They will come in child and adult sizes!

"For we walk by faith, not by sight." - 2 Corinthians 5:7

1 Month Countdown!

We've made it to the 1 month home-stretch for Kaz's big day. 
Up until now, it's been one of those events that you only "talk about" and "plan for".
Now - it's finally upon us! In the middle of finalizing all plans for surgery between travel, PAPERWORK for days...,  and our stay during and after, one huge hurdle has finally been leaped! 

We have thankfully confirmed plan for therapy... Once discharged from the St. Louis Children's hospital, we will go straight to Cardinal Hill in Lexington for in-patient therapy. This could last up to four weeks. The major benefit of the in-patient process is that he will receive multiple therapy sessions a day. On the negative side....we will live there! The more therapy and the harder our boy works, the better at this stage! The next step, we will return to normal life (somewhat), beginning out-patient therapy with Shriner's Hospital from there. The out-patient therapy is still extremely rigorous, requiring 4-5 therapy sessions a week. 

In the meantime, we'd love for you to be praying for Kaz. Mainly prayers for him to stay healthy and endure the next month in preparation for the procedure that could change his life!