Surgery EVE!

Today was one long day to say the least!
At noon today, we headed down the pedway to the Children's Hospital to meet Dr. Park...

We started by watching a video to review details regarding the surgery before, during, and after.
Next we met the lady that answered questions and did a quick overview and consult with us about everything.

Then, we finally got to meet Dr. Park! 

Kaz definetly turned it on for him:) He was sure to show him the Kaz we all love! Dr. Park gave us wonderful feedback on the longterm outcome for Kaz as well as all of the other work we have to do from here. 

The good news is, there is a possibility we may not need to do the in-patient therapy we thought! That means we could end up returning home once leaving St. Louis and just having to travel daily for therapy in Lexington.

Big day tomorrow! We will check in at 5:45am and then the surgery is suppose to begin around 7:15am. Surgery should last until 11am. 
Prayers appreciated as always!

Check out Psalm 139 13-16... a good friend of mine sent it to me! All kiddos apply of course!

Happy Easter from St. Louis!

We made it to St. Louis last night! We found a great little spot on Euclid within walking distance of our hotel and stuck around for quite a while to catch some of the Final Four... Kaz made sure to make friends with the guys running the jukebox. He was happy to request his "usual" over the loud speak, Lady Antebellum and Florida Georgia Line ;)

Today we planned to visit a local church, however our plans didn't quite pan out. Neither Kaz or I slept a wink! So, after getting an early morning nap, we stopped for a bite to eat and then headed to the zoo! The St. Louis Zoo is beyond perfect and so was the weather. Kaz was sure to stop by all the good spots and take a peek at their animals here. No surprise, his favorite part was consuming as many sweets as possible, riding the train, and getting his face painted. The face painting part blew our mind because he's never been a fan! He chose a Superman mask, which I think looks pretty perfect on his handsome face:)

Tonight we are headed to the St. Louis Arch!

Tomorrow is a BIG day for Kaz! He will meet Dr. Park for the first time in person and also his therapists and anyone else playing a role is his surgery and post operative therapy. We are hoping to have a surgery time for Tuesday sometime tomorrow afternoon.

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!

St. Louis Bound!

I'm beginning to "pin" some ideas of places we can visit as a family prior to Kaz's big surgery! The options are endless...I never realized how much St. Louis had to offer. From the world-famous zoo to the massive arch, so much of this spot is FREE to visitors I'm discovering, which makes this whole planning thing even more fun. We will only have a couple of days prior to being hospital-bound, but I figured we should live it up while we can!

Another thing I've been ISO (which means "in search of" - don't worry I just figured this one out myself;) are some neat surprises for Kaz. I thought this would be something fun to shake things up a bit and a way to get his mind off of the yuck of surgery and hurting. I've stumbled upon a few things that I know will make his day! If only I could get Florida Georgia Line or Lady Antebellum in the flesh to appear, the kid probably wouldn't shed a tear ;) For now, we'll have to stick with pirates and ninja turtles!

These snow days somehow make the time drag along...waiting...
But I must say, our time together is precious! I'm so thankful for these extra moments to make memories with my ever-growing 3-year-old. 

It's all becoming REAL!

The prayer of Kaz walking one day (completely on his own) once seemed like a dream. I've always been in hopes that one day he would reach this goal, until the other day I realized... This is MY dream. Of course as a parent, you want your children to experience everything you did growing up and more! For him to walk in my mind, was always a requirement in order to truly enjoy life to it's fullest and experience everything I'd ever want for Kaz. I guess I just assumed all of this was his dream too?!

Until the other day when he was talking to a good friend of mine, it all seemed that we were both in agreement. That's when the surgery got brought up and Kaz starting talking about it with her. For the first time I heard him utter the words I'd been selfishly dreaming of the past three years with no hesitation at all... "I'm having surgery, and I'm going to WALK!". Until that day Kaz had never said he was going to walk and honestly, I can't say he minded being carried around too much. 

However, now that we're dreaming the same dreams and have our hopes set high, I say it's safe to say Kaz is now ready to accept this challenge and it's all becoming REAL!

We will spend the second week of April in St. Louis, with Kaz's surgery date scheduled for April 7th.

In the meantime, keeping him healthy and finalizing all the details are in the works. After following so many families that have gone through this same surgery, I now know it's truly a lifestyle shift. Today, I met with my employer to confirm details for my long-term leave and will be taking the rest of this year off following Kaz's surgery. I plan to be as involved as possible, attending therapy and providing home therapy daily!

Our family is believing for BIG things! Now that Kaz is finally onboard I don't think there's much that can stop him. Prayers along the way are so appreciated!