School Days Have Begun
August 23, 2007 3:30 PM

I LOVE SCHOOL!!! The summer has ended and the girls are back in school now. We were not planning to send Juliana until the halo came off, but I could not break her little heart. The day before school started Thom and I talked about it and didn’t see a reason why she could not attend as long as it was alright with everyone involved in the school. I talked to her nurse, Margaret, on Sunday night and she was thrilled. Margaret hovers over her more than I do, so I am not too afraid of anything happening to her.

The girls fell right back into routine just as if summer never happened. Kendra loves first grade so far. Juliana is doing well in her new class with her new teachers. All of the kids in her class were with her last year in class.

We will be making a trip to Miami in the next 3 to 5 weeks. Juliana will have a CT scan to see the new bone that has formed from this distraction. I am assuming that he will be removing the halo while we are there also, but we won’t know anything else until we see the scan.

Stay tuned for funny school stories. I am sure that it won’t be long before I have them to report.

—Tami

Halos and Head-Butts
August 08, 2007 8:30 AM

SASSY!!! That is the word that best describes Juliana right now. She is doing wonderfully. We have already finished turning all of the screws. Now we are at the point where we just wait for the any new formed bone to solidify. Typically the rule is to wait twice the amount of time that it took to turn the screws. Juliana is not typical, but unless we speak with Dr. Wolfe and he decides differently we are expecting to have the halo taken off around the 11th of October. We are not sure if he is going to do anything besides remove the halo at that time. He doesn't even know until he gets her into the O.R. and can really see what he is dealing with. He may have to use more BMP (bone morphagenic protein) to fill in or strengthen the new bone.

At some point in the near future she is going to need to have her lower jaw repaired also. On the last set of scans that she had done we could really see how crooked it is growing. We could see the rib that Dr. Wolfe had placed in there to help complete her jaw, however the BMP that he used did not grow in the right direction. This was no fault of the doctor, just a risk that we take by using BMP.

I guess I better elaborate on the SASSY part. Juliana is a very determined four year old. She still shakes her finger at us if we are doing something that she doesn't like. And now with this "weapon" on her head she knows that she can hurt us with it. It doesn't hurt her at all when she bumps it, so she will head-butt us with it.

I just know that she is going to be heartbroken when we take Kendra to school and she can't stay with her. Juliana loves school so much. When she does return she will have the same nurse as last year, but a new classroom and new teachers. I am going to try to work on the same concepts as they are learning in the classroom. That way she won't miss out on too much. And she will be enrolled in the "Hospital-Homebound" program. So a couple of times per week one of the teachers will come to the house to work with her and check up on our progress. We have a lot of the same props and books that they use in the classroom. She really has a lot of fun with them. The last time her teachers came to visit a couple of weeks ago, they brought her some of the props that they had made for last year. She has them set up on her easel just like in the classroom.

I better go for now. Since Daddy is home this morning I am going to escape for some "me time."

—Tami