The second surgery

Olivia's appointment was today at 1 p.m. We stayed with my sister last night, so we took advantage of the morning in DC, and went to Arlington National Cemetery. We didn't have too much time to go through it all, but we were able to see JFK's grave and the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The kids have only seen a small amount of DC outside of Walter Reed Hospital, so we jumped on the chance to do a little sightseeing.

Of course parking was difficult to come by at WR, but we were at the appointment at exactly 1:00 p.m. They would like us to arrive 15-20 minutes early, but that didn't happen today. Thankfully the appointment didn't take too long, and Dr. Todd stayed on schedule.

During the appointment he checked all of Olivia's incision sites from the first surgery, and thought they looked good. He said her flexibility is good, and what he had hoped, so "Keep it up!" Then we talked about the second surgery. He explained that it was our decision when to have the second surgery, but from his earlier recommendation we have been planning April all along. I told him that we wanted to do it after Jack's birthday (April 6) but not until the next week, so the week after Easter would be ideal for us. He said that'd work, so we got it scheduled for April 16th. Her pre-op appointment will be April 1.

He will do an x-ray the day of the pre-op to allow for the most time for the benefit from the 1st surgery. The x-ray results will help him solidify the plans for the surgery.

We will be praying throughout Lent for Olivia's surgery to go well. I expect that it will.

Thanks for keeping up with us.