So Much Craziness, WITH PICTURES!!

Let me start off by saying, I don't type on a computer nearly enough!!  I do everything either on my iPhone or ipad.  It is seriously like having to relearn how to type.  I just expect every word to finish typing itself halfway through the word, or I expect it to put a period at the end of my sentence if I just push the space bar twice.  Man, typing on a computer makes me feel like a flaming idiot!!  So if there are all kind of grammatical errors in this post, now you know why.  (I also want to do emoticons after I think something is funny, just to realize that it is pretty stupid...)

Ok Ok, I FINALLY posted some pictures!!! The past few months have been down right crazy here at the Bird House!!!

Let me just do what I do best, and ramble.  

When Kenasyn finally got her Ponseti series casting for her right club foot done, we expected to have absolutely NO complications from then till she had surgery at the end of February.  We were not so lucky.  One Saturday morning I went to change Kena's diaper and discovered a hernia.  I had never seen a hernia before, I guess it was just my intuition telling me that it was, indeed, a hernia.  

I took my little Bug into the E.R. here in Idaho Falls and they confirmed that I was correct, but that there was nothing that they could do for her.  They said my best option was to schedule an appointment with her surgeon at Primary's and see what they would want to do.  So, that's what I did Monday morning, and got an appointment scheduled for that Wednesday.  But it was going to get worse, before it could get better!!! Not with the hernia, but with our family.  By Tuesday night, I was stricken by the stomach bug.  I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach.  I'll save ya the details, and just say that I spent most of my night in the bathroom.  The next morning, (still feeling like I'd been ran over by a semi-truck) Kenasyn and I loaded up and headed to her appointment in Salt Lake to see her surgeon.  He also confirmed that it was a hernia, and wanted to repair it the next day.  Kena and I went and got a hotel to recooperate from me having the stomach bug, and get some sleep.  I called and talked to Rayce that night, and him, Cayge, Icelynn, and Shylee all had the same bug.  I really hate being away from my kids when they're sick, but at the same time, it was kinda nice not having to clean up 4 people's barf!!

She was in such a good mood that morning.  Even though she refuses to eat anything other than formula, so she was completely starving, she was all smiles and giggles.  

Her surgeon was running a little behind, so I was able to take little bug out for a walk around the hospital in a wagon while we were waiting for him to arrive at the hospital.  (He is such a great doc!! This is the second time that he has came in on his day off to do emergency surgery on Kenasyn!!!!!)

Her surgery went great, and we were on the road just a mere hour after she was wheeled out of surgery.  She is so strong! I can't believe her strength and determination to feel well!!!  By the time we got home that night, most of the family was feeling much better.  

Did I mention that this all went down on Valentine's Day?  Not a very romantic day, but what can one do when you're in a completely other state with one child having emergency surgery, and 4 other members of your family are home puking their guts out?!

It was really quite amazing how Kenasyn changed after she had this surgery.  She was seriously like a whole new baby! She wasn't nearly as fussy, she started sleeping better at night, and she started eating! Like seriously eating!  She also really started scooting around the house, army crawling position.  She started being like a typical baby.  It was SO SO nice!! 

On February 26th, (just 12 days after her inguinal hernia repair) Kenasyn had an open hip reduction surgery.  They call it this because they have to "open" her up (sometimes they can place the hip in socket without cutting the child open), and a "reduction", because the femur was above her hip, so they had to lower it into place.  When they did this, they also did an unexpected hamstring lengthening.  

(this was before surgery, hanging out with Daddy looking out the window at Salt Lake City)

The type of cast that Kena was put in after her surgery is called a Spica cast (pronounced spike-a)

It was miserable!! For both Kenasyn and I!!  It went all the way up to her nipple line, and on the left leg (the hip that was dislocated) went all the way to her ankle, and just to her knee on the right.  There is an opening (as you can see) just big enough for a maxi pad.  In order to change her diaper, I had to shove a maxi pad up inside the cast, followed by a small diaper shoved up there.  Then to make sure it stayed in place, I put a larger diaper around this all on the outside of the cast.  We were at the hospital for 3 full days, and both of us were ready to come home!!!  She couldn't bend at the waist, so she had to be in a special carseat that we got on loan from the hospital.  

Rayce's side of the family finally got to welcome another boy into the family (there hasn't been a grandson in the Bird family since Cayge was born 11 years ago!!!  8 girls in a row!!!).  Paxton was born in January to Rayce's brother Jayson and his wife Tahnea.  They came in March to have him blessed.  He is such a chunker!! (at his 2 1/2 month checkup, he was over 13 pounds!!) (Side note: Rayce's favorite NFL team is the Detroit Lions, so we had to be sure to take pictures of these two together in the Lion's outfit we got Pax)

This little girl is so incredibly beautiful!!  She has the most scrumptious lips, and beautiful blue eyes!!!

About a week and a half after Kenasyn had surgery, she had a blowout!! When a little one does this in a Spica cast, it is next to impossible to get it clean.  The poo just absorbs into the cloth on the inside of the fabric, and rubs against the skin.  When we took her back down to Utah for a cast change, the sores that Kena had the doctor compared them to being as bad as a 2nd degree burn.  In fact, the medicine that I put on the sores that I could reach is for burns!!  I felt terrible. (Kenasyn had 2 cast changes in the 8 weeks she was in her spica)

Meanwhile, Shylee got some mysterious sickness that had her running a fever for 13 straight days.  She had no other symptoms, just a high fever.  I took her into the ER about 5 nights in, and she was dehydrated.  So she got an IV (with out even flinching, seriously) and a high dose of antibiotics.  Nothing helped, it just had to run its course.  It was pretty scary, but it passed, and luckily, no one else in the family caught it!!

Random picture of Ivory.  She LOVES watching Dora on the Ipad, and she will simply sit down anywhere to watch it!!

This little girls is so silly.  She has learned how to say cheese, and smile when you hold any type of object in front of her.  It seriously can vaguely resemble a phone or camera, and she will say "EEEE" and pull this silly grin!!

Cayge, Icelynn, (Cayge's friend) Jeremy, and Rayce rough housing!!

Baby Plank!! Kenasyn has amazing upper body strength! Between this strength and her spica cast, she can plank on just about anything!!!

We FINALLY got our van from Rayce winning Season 2 Face Off!!  Yes, I know, they showed him winning a car.  But that car was just for looks.  We talked Toyota into trading us the car for a van.  We could get whatever we wanted, we would just have to pay the difference.  And the Toyota Sienna holds the same value as the car that he initially won on the show.  I LOVE IT!!  It is the coolest mini van ever!! I feel so high tech! Plus the gas mileage is nearly triple what I was getting in my Yukon.

These three pictures are of Kenasyn on Easter Sunday.  She loved this little car at Rayce's parents house.  Her cast fit perfectly in there.  She was buckled in, but she wouldn't have needed it, she had a death grip on the steering wheel.  She loved it.  She seriously rode in that car for over 3 hours!!!

My Ivory has the funniest personality!  She loves to dress herself these days!

Ivory torturing our poor kitty on the trampoline.  I'm seriously amazed our 2 kitten's haven't died yet at the hands of this 2 year old!!

Kenasyn amazes me every day!  She is so incredibly strong and determined.  She loves standing at the railing.  The fact that she can even stand with one leg is amazing, the fact that she does it with a 2 pound cast on is a miracle!!!!!!

Rayce and his 2 sisters opened up "Bird Studios" in Shelley.  This is some of the kids with "Day of the Dead" make-up on when the local newspaper came in for pictures and interviews.

Just a few days ago, we went down to Lagoon in Utah.  We took the older 3 kids, and one of Cayge's friends with us, and met Rayce's Uncle Tim and Aunt Debbie with their 2 boys.  We all had a blast!  I managed to only take 2 photos, and this is one.  This is Shylee and her cousin Jack.

While we were at Lagoon, Rayce's sister Sarah watched the two babies for us.  I missed em like crazy, but it was nice to be able to spend some quality time with the older kids.  I feel like they get pushed by the way side with everything going on with Kenasyn.

This was just last night.  After 8 long weeks, Kenasyn finally got her cast off! She was SOOOOO stinky!!! She is really stiff, and still cranky, but cruising everywhere!  She is so tiny (I think you can tell by the picture)  She gained absolutely no weight, not even an ounce, the whole time she had her cast on.  Which, I wasn't really surprised, I mean she was lugging around a cast 1/4 her size! They gave us a brace to put her in while she sleeps, to insure that her hip stays in socket, and to help her muscles relax at night.
While we were down in Utah, we finally met with Kenasyn's neurosurgeon concerning her Tethered Spinal Cord.  Rayce and I were so relieved to here that she shouldn't need surgery any time soon.  When she starts presenting with problems, then we will cross that bridge.  It was such good news! I can't tell you how thrilled we are!
We also talk with her orthopedic surgeon about the type of amputation Kensasyn will be having.  Our original plan was to do what's called a through-knee disarticulation.  Meaning, they wouldn't have to cut any bone, they would just remove everything below the femur.  Rayce and I had both felt that this was not the answer for her.  I definitely didn't feel comfort in this decision.  Not that she shouldn't have her amputation, just that this type was the wrong choice.  So we discussed our options, and decided to just remove Kenasyn's foot, and just see how well she does with her knee.  We don't know what kind of range of motion she will have with this knee, but Rayce and I both felt that this really wasn't our decision to make.  We want to give Kenasyn the best options possible for her leg, and we feel that this is the best.  When she gets older, and decides that she would rather have a prosthetic knee, than she will be free to make that decision.  We felt as though we needed to try harder to keep as much knee as possible.  And to have her surgeon agree, it made us feel much better.  So as for now, this surgery is scheduled for the end of May, just 9 days after her 1st birthday.

Kenasyn's Update

Ok, so I am going to write my post, and later, I will do a post just with pix.  I PROMISE!!!

So much has happened since my post in November! Of course the kids are all growing, and doing well!  All three older kids had straight A's at the end of the semester, which made my heart sing!  I am so proud of my kids and how hard they work at school.  They all love school, and it really comes fairly easy to them.  I struggled SO bad in school when I was young, so to see them thrive means so much to me!!

Now to Kenasyn's update. (cause I know that's why you all are REALLY here, which is ok, cause that's what I mostly blog about anyways)

Kena is 8 months old, and I seriously can't believe she has been with us that long!  It feels like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital.  We are so completely in love with her!  She is such a character!  She makes us laugh and cry.  She brings us true joy and heartache.  She is such a fighter.  When she was first born, we were so unsure what life was going to bring for her, and rightly so... us as parents.  Most of her first diagnosis are the same, but some have changed.  Here is her current list of the different conditions she has:

Tibial Hemimelia (Left Leg)
Fibular Hemimelia (Right Leg - She has complete absence of fibula)  
Developmental Hip Dysplasia (Left Hip)
Sacral Agenisis
Severe Scoliosis
Anorectal Malformation with a Vaginal Fistula
Rotated Right Kidney
Tethered Spinal Cord
Fused Ribs
Fused Spinal Vertebrae

Yes, I know, that is quite the list.  Many times I think about all of these things, and it literally brings me to tears! But this girl is absolutely amazing!  We were told by her orthopedic surgeon and also her physical therapist that Kenasyn would probably never crawl, that she would just sit on her bottom and scoot around until she got her prosthetic.  But this girl is everywhere! She army crawls with the best of em.  They also said that because of her 3 major abdomen surgeries, she was likely to not sit or roll till she was nearly a year old.  But she sits and rolls with the best of em as well!  Nothing is going to hold this girl back!

SOOO, let me back up a few months.  Just a few days after my last post, Kenasyn went in for her 4th surgery.  It is called a ostomy takedown.  To the rest of us, it a colostomy reversal.  We had to arrive a day early (which happened to be Cayge's birthday, so I was heartbroken that I had to miss his entire birthday) for a bowel clean out.  Basically, they started her IV, then put a ng (nasogastric) feeding tube down her nose into her stomach.  It is a chemical that basically gives you explosive diarrhea.  And this one time, I was grateful that she had a colostomy bag, and not just a diaper! When they gave her the IV, they also did a blood draw to test and make sure that she was healthy for surgery.  And to my dismay, she was not.  Her white blood cell count was elevated, meaning she had an infection of some sort.  She was already on antibiotics for a UTI/kidney infection, so we weren't really sure what was causing the high white blood cell count.  So they gave her a higher dose of antibiotics, and do a blood draw again in the morning and just hope that the count went down over night.  So they did a blood draw first thing in the morning... and by first thing, I mean 4 in the morning!!!  They told me it would take about an hour for the results. (In the mean time, Rayce and his Dad were headed down to Salt Lake to join us for Kena's surgery)  After the hour past, the lab gal came in again and said that the 1st blood draw didn't work, so they had to poke her again.  I wasn't the happiest of campers! And I really didn't want Rayce to drive all the way down, just to have her not have surgery that day.  So, we finally got the test results back and her White Blood Cell count had went up enough to clear her for surgery.  Rayce and his dad arrived at the hospital about 10 minutes before we went down to the OR.  Let me tell you, handing your tiny baby off to a stranger that's going to put a tube down her throat and tape her eyes shut never feels good.  I was so anxious for her to get rid of her colostomy, but I HATED handing her off, knowing that she was going to get cut open.  It broke my heart, and I sat in the hallway to the OR and bawled like a damn baby.  (it is bringing tears to my eyes just thinking about how bad I hate doing it!  It sucks!!!)  But, we have the most AMAZING surgeon for Kenasyn.  He has wonderful bedside manners, he always keeps us informed, and he treats Kenasyn as though she is his daughter.  We love him, and are so eternally grateful for what he has done for Kenasyn!  He has done all 4 of her bowel/anal surgeries, and all things considered, we are pleased with what he has done!! (If anyone ever needs a referral to an amazing G.I. doc at Primary's let me know, cause he's fantastic!)
Even though it felt like eternity, Kenasyn's doc came out in about 3 hours to let us know that he was finished, and everything went very smoothly.  He was pleased with everything.  And it took everything in me to not give him a great big hug!!
They only let one parent back in the post-op area, so of course I went back (you couldn't NOT let me go back if you handcuffed me to a 2-ton cement brick!!!)  It is always SO sad when I go back and see my baby laying there in her metal crib trying to wake up from anesthesia.  But I got to hold her right off the bat, and of course when the nurse took the blanket off for me to pick her up, I just started crying at her 'no longer' colostomy site!  The nurse said that the incision was a lot larger than normal, but it was okay.  And I had to tell her that none of that mattered to me, the fact that she didn't have some stupid back stuck to her body was all I cared about.  I had my baby back.  Kenasyn had that stupid colostomy for 5 long months.  She was always a baby with a colostomy.  But now she was just a baby! She had nothing extra connected, and it was so nice!  And her scar from surgery is quite large.  4 inches to be exact, but the doc had to pull out 3 feet of bowel to make sure it was all healthy, plus he had to flush it all.  He also had to connect her stoma (the colostomy) with her mucus fistula (her anus), and since he had to pull out so much bowel, it was just easier and faster to connect the two sites.  But like I said, I don't care.  She might care when she gets older and wants to wear a bikini, but hey, maybe that will deter her from wearing them (at least her dad is hoping for that!).
In order for her internal sutures to heal, they had to put an Anderson Suction tube down her nose (basically the same thing as a ng tube) to suction all of the stomach bile that her body was producing.  Basically, the reason they do this is because if the stomach bile (acid) came into contact with the internal stitches, they would just disintegrate, which means she would empty her fecal matter into her abdominal cavity, and therefore would have to go back for emergency surgery.  Kenasyn went 6 straight days without eating.  It is heartbreaking to just watch your baby waste away.  But once she started eating, she put all the weight right back on.  We got to leave the hospital in 7 days, and I was so proud of Kenasyn.  She is such a trooper.  And because she went 5 months with no poo on her bottom in dirty diapers, her skin had major breakdown.  I had to make homemade wipes, because store-bought wipes either have alcohol or citric acid in them.  When your skin has open sores and is bleeding, those two ingredients is the last thing you want on it!!  I had to be so delicate when I changed her diaper for over a month from the skin break down.  If I wiped too hard, her skin would literally wipe off, and she would bleed something terrible.  But all in all, I am SO SO SO happy to change her poopy diapers!  I never realized that not being able to change your baby's poopy diapers would be such a bad thing!

Three weeks after Kenasyn's surgery, we met with her orthopedic surgeon at Shriner's.  That is when we found out that Kena also has Fibular Hemimelia of the right leg.  She has complete absence of her fibula.  They decided the best course of action at this time for her right leg, was to do serial casting.  She has had 5 total casts, and they have been progressively turning her foot (that previously looked clubbed) so that it faces the right direction.  On January 9th, the docs preformed a Tenodomy (the lengthening of her Achilles tendon) on Kenasyn, to give her more flexibility and extension in her right foot.  She did fantastic, and I am pleased to say, that she only has 3 more days of wearing this cast!  Then she will be placed in a special brace/boot to hold her foot in place.  This kid is such a trooper.

As of now, Kena has two more surgeries scheduled before she turns a year old.  If you've done the math, that is a total of 7 surgeries in under 1 year!!! I don't know anyone that can do so many major surgeries, and bounce back like nothing has happened!!  She is seriously so strong!  My little Warrior Baby!!  The next two surgeries are her hip reduction surgery (basically placing her dislocated hip into socket) and then her amputation.

I love this girl so much! (as I do my other kiddos too!)  Some days I am in awe at what she can do with her little battered body.  She never EVER acts like she is in pain, and is an all around happy baby! On the most part, I feel like I have it together too.  In so many ways, she is just like any other baby.  But she's a fighter, and I can guarantee that this girl is going to change the world someday!  She has already changed mine, her dads, her brother and sisters, and just about everybody that meets her!
But I have to admit, that it isn't always sunshine and butterflies!  The other day, there was a new baby born in the family.  And as much as my heart was filled with joy for this family, my heart ached for Kenasyn.  I cried all day.  Not one part of me was sad about this baby, or the family, or ANYTHING like that.  But I was sad for Kena.  I just want so much more for her than her poor body has to offer.  She has already been through so much.  When I heard the news of this little one's birth, my heart immediately started to hurt.  I thought back to the day Kenasyn was born, and how all of the tears I cried that day weren't out of joy, they were out of fear.  I was so terrified of all of the unknowns about what had happened to her body during development.  The day Kena was born was seriously one of the scariest days of my life.  But this day I cried because all I want for her is to be healthy.  I don't want people to look at her because she is different.  I don't want doctor after doctor to look at her and poke at her and cut at her.  I want her whole.  I want my baby to be just like my other four babies.  I want so much more for her!!!  But having said all of this, I know she will be more than I could ever imagine!  She proves it to me on a daily basis! All of her little mile stones proves to me that she doesn't need a "normal" body, that she can do everything everyone else does, plus more, with the one she has.  People say to me all the time: I don't know how you do it.  And my response is "do what?  I am just doing what any mother would do for any of her children."  They also say: she is so lucky to have you as a mom.  My response to that? "No, I am lucky to have her!!!!" And it's the truth!  Kena could have thousands of moms that take as good of care of her as I do, but she is mine.  She has blessed my life in SO many ways!  Too many ways to list!  She teaches me lessons on a daily basis, as she does with so many people around us!
Because of Kenasyn, I am a walking dictionary of all of her conditions.  Sometimes when people ask me what she has (like it's really one thing), I don't think they are ever prepared for the lengthy speech I give them about the multitude of issues that plagues her body.  But as any mom of a child with any kind of "condition", you become an expert!  You research, and research, and research until your fingers are numb from typing and your mind is numb from the answers you didn't want to know.  So, to save you from me telling you about each one of them, I have included links that give you an over view of most of the conditions she has.

Tibial Hemimelia: http://www.oandp.org/publications/jop/2006/2006-6.asp
Fibular Hemimelia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibular_hemimelia  (I realize how unreliable wikipedia is, but this actually gives a very good description of the condition)
Developmental Hip Dysplasia: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001966/
Sacral Agenisis: http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/s/sacral_agenesis/intro.htm
Tethered Spinal Cord: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/tethered_cord/tethered_cord.htm

Long overdue (p.s. sorry, no pictures) :(

Wholly Cow!! If I thought the last one was overdue, this one is LONG OVER DUE!!!!  So much has happened in the past few months!  All of the older kids have had birthdays, Kenasyn is going in for another surgery Wednesday, and life in general has just been crazy busy!!  The kids are all growing like weeds (well, except for Kena).

Cayge is maturing into a young man, and I can't believe that he will be 11 tomorrow!!  Where has the time gone?  He is such an amazing kid!  He had an excellent time playing tackle football this year!  The team wasn't the best, but he had a great time, and loved having his Dad and Grandpa Brian as part of the coaching staff.  So some stats on Caygee-Boy...  He is a whopping 76 pounds, and 52 inches tall.  He still is gung-ho over video games, sharks, the trampoline, art, and anything boyish!  Cayge is a straight A student in school, and he makes his parents proud on a daily basis.  He has only been in this school district one full year, and he has already been voted in by he's peers as a class leader and someone that they all look up to!  He is such a kind and loving kid.  And I can't believe that my 1st born is growing up so fast!!  I swear just a few blinks ago, the doctor was handing him to me for the very first time!!

Icelynn is such an amazing kid!  She is going to be JUST like her dad in every way... well I guess a feminine way, anyways. :)  She is loving ballet this year, and of course Cheerleading/tumbling.  She has just turned nine a few weeks ago, and she is so great in Cheerleading that they have put her in the 12+ class of girls!  She is so athletic, yet so dainty and girlish; it's adorable!  She of course is also a straight A student this year.  Her 3rd grade teacher is Mrs. Telford, and she was SO stoked about this!  Mrs. Telford was her Grandma Corolee's college roommate.  She also taught Aunt Genice, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Jayson and Uncle Casey.  Icelynn absolutely loves school, and purposely wakes up at six every morning, even though the bus doesn't come until 7:20.  She is so tiny for her age.  Most people only think she's 5 or 6, and to a 9 year old, that's quite offensive!  She is a mire 53 pounds, and 4 feet and a half inch.  But she is adorable, and love her SOOO much!

Shylee.  Wow!  When I went in to parent teacher conferences with her teacher (aptly named Mrs. Christensen... for those that don't know, that's my maiden name) she told me that Shylee is such a well behaved, well mannered child.  I asked if she ever sassed, or said hurtful things to the other children, and her teacher looked at me like I was crazy!  She said that she has never heard, or been told that Shy has ever said anything unkind, and that she has perfect little manners.  Well, I tell ya what, at least she's respectful to someone! Cause she sure isn't at home!! She is one feisty little bugger.  She is our one child that likes to push limits, and she pushes HARD!!  But we love her SO much, and she is So incredible kind and caring to her two baby sisters!  Shy also loves cheerleading and tap.  She isn't quite as athletic as Icelynn, but she puts on this award winning smile, and you can't even tell!  She is nearly the exact same size as Icee, at 53 pounds, 3 feet 11 1/2 inches tall.  EVERYONE that doesn't know them think they're twins, and it drives them both crazy.  But it sure makes buying clothes easy on me! :)

Ivory is growing up entirely too fast!  She talks and talks, and talks, and talks!!  And I believe she's brilliant! She can already count to 10 when asked, and with a little help, can count to nearly 20.  She knows the entire alphabet, and most of their sounds!  Now, you are all probably thinking: "wow! Candi has really put in a lot of time to give this little kiddo a head start!"  Actually, I am not :( waaw waaw!  My 2 year old is a genius because of the iPad! She knows how to work that thing better than the rest of us in the house!!  She knows exactly what games she wants, or movie to watch in netflix (which unfortunately for me, both are usually Dora the freakin Explorer!), and she doesn't like to share.  She will fight tooth and nail (usually literally) to get the iPad from the older kids!  And she doesn't stop until she gets it.  Why, yes, a have created a little monster!  Ivory rules this house!!! We sleep when she sleeps, and we are awake and chasing her when she's awake :)  But I love her, and her stalky "Bird" build!  My new favorite thing to do when she runs past me, is squish her cute little muscle butt!  She has been a great surprise and I had her potty trained about 1 week before her second birthday!  It has been fantastic, a little messy and stinky at times, but fantastic all the same!

And now for Kenasyn.  Sweet little Kena has been giving her mom and dad a run for their money!!!! I never knew stress until I conceived this little miracle!  If it's not one thing, it's another!  She is currently on antibiotics for her 2nd kidney/uti infection in the past 20 days.  She is so tiny, it is literally like holding a newborn, but she is very sturdy and holds her self upright like a champ.  In August, she went in for her reconstructive surgery on her bottom.  It was called a posterior saggital analrectoplasty.  Basically, the went in and made her look as normal as possible in her lady region.  This kiddo is such a trooper!  They told us to plan on being down there for 7-10 days; and we were home just 3 days after surgery!  I know that there is no way I could bounce back from 3 surgeries in 3 months like she has!  When I had my tubes tied, my incision was only like 1 inch long, and I boobed about that for nearly 2 weeks!  She is my little she-warrior, and I am so amazed at her strength!  I gather so much of that from her!  On days that I feel like I can't bring myself to doing something (usually little petty things) I look at her and she is doing something amazing that the doctors said she'd never be able to do.  But because of all these surgeries, and her infections, she has dropped down to just 9 pounds 9 ounces.  Her doctors are keeping a very close eye on her.  But with this surgery this week, she will most likely not be able to eat for anywhere from 3 to 10 days, so that's not going to help her any.
But, on a positive note... We took Kenasyn to a doctor in Baltimore, Maryland for her orthopedic issues.  He is literally the #1 Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon in the U.S. and is the ONLY doctor that specializes in her leg condition in the world.  And we got some really good news!  We were told that they will try and place her dislocated/malformed hip.  But more importantly... they told us she possibly has a knee!!!!!!!!!!!  That is the best news we could have ever hoped for!!! We won't know if any of this is going to work out for her though until just days before her operation to amputate, which will most likely be in January or February.  But until then, we will hold on to the hope that it will all be for the best!!!  So keep little Kenasyn on your positive vibe list for the next few days as she goes in for her 4th surgery to remover her colostomy bag!!  We are so excited to have our little baby back without anything extra hanging off her!!  I am a nervous wreck, and can't hardly keep my focus on anything.  I hate having to hand her off to complete strangers, knowing they are cutting her open, but I know that if I don't, she can't have the most "normal" life that I can give her.  So I will harbor my fears for just a little longer, just so my baby can have her body back.