All Good News, except...

We heard almost entirely good news today. As far as Liza is concerned, Dr. Comair and Shirley (pictured with their beautiful patient) were very encouraging and impressed with her progress. Here are some details: She has been ordered to start physical therapy, which is the first mention we've ever heard of PT in this whole process. That means she has to begin forcing her neck to regain its range of motion. That will prove painful, so they gave her a different muscle relaxant that should help. She also had a worrisome nodule or lump on the left side of her neck. It was painful and sore to the touch. Dr. C said that it was a lymph node that usually swells up after surgery, nothing to worry about. He also said that future natural childbirth is still an option and should be much easier because the "problem has been fixed." The pain and tightness, mixed with frequent spasms, in her left side is the only part of the equation that Dr. C is not completely sure about. He feels it could be just a result of her "beautiful muscles" trying to heal themselves and the nerves beginning to work properly, but he isn't sure. He went into more detail about the difficulty he had with Liza's very muscular neck. He had to cut quite deeply through her "beautiful muscles" and then suture them on the midline. This causes the muscles to revolt and get all fired up, causing a lot of stiffness, soreness, and some spasms as they try to heal and return to normal working order.

Another good bit of news is...Liza can now pick up the kids! She did it immediately when she got home. They were both very happy and her new ability did not go unnoticed. But she overdid it a bit and is now paying the price, sitting on the chair in the living room as her entire body pulses and throbs.

The only bit of bad news we had today concerns our kids. We returned from Liza's appointment only to snatch our kids from our lovely babysitter Emily to rush to their doctor's appointment. As it turns out Andrew has developed congestion in his lungs and has been put on antibiotics and breathing treatments. We did one tonight already. And, little Izzy has yet another ear infection. In January of this year she had tubes put in after 13 consecutive infections. Currently, her right ear tube is in the process of falling out and she has developed an infection already. Bad news. So she is on antibiotics too and we are going to schedule a follow-up appointment with her ENT and revisit our options so that we don't go through Izzy's little "hell" all over again.

Overall it was a positive day with positive news for Liza. The kids are doing well but we feel a little set back. I'd better go now, I can hear Izzy whining for "mommy" in the next room. I added a picture of her getting into mommy's makeup today before our appointment. What fun little girls are. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts.