Praise the Lord!!

We are very pleased and excited to announce that Sadie has NO MORE BRACES!!! YAY!! Thank you God!! We went to her Shriner's appointment on November 4th and were a little nervous about it because we hadn't been the best about making her wear them this summer. It was just TOO hot! And the braces were making welps and she would sweat really bad in them! So we prayed, prayed, prayed that God would still heal them without braces and He did!

Although her legs are still not "perfectly" straight (they are very close and SO much better than they used to be), the doctors agreed that her growth plates in her knees were healed and healthy so that being said, her legs will straighten and grow the right way as she grows taller. We were so happy!! Sadie celebrated the news with a fast run around the hallways of the hospital!! We couldn't keep up with her! She said she wanted to "throw them braces AWAY!" As I was putting her in the car, I started crying, and she said "NO MORE BRACES!!!!" and let out a loud scream! My sweet, sweet Sadie!!

I also have to brag on Laney Beth! During the summer/early fall, she drew and sold artwork to family and friends and saved up all that money and took it to Wal-Mart and bought new toys for patients at the hospital. I was sooooo proud of her! She delivered them right before Sadie's appointment and the lady in charge of donations told her how much they appreciated it and how much it would help little kids who were scared or hurting at the hospital...yes I cried during this too!It was an emotional, GREAT, awesome day!! Thank you God for your blessings!! We have so much to be thankful for!

Sadie's Legs Update

Hey All :)I will start with the bad news first..Sadie still has to wear her braces :( But the good news is the braces ARE working and they told us when we come back in six months we will more than likely get to get rid of them! Yay! Her legs in November were at a 21 degree angle but today her left leg is at a 15 degree angle and her right is at a 19 degree angle!! Woo hoo! If you'll remember they told us that we would not see any changes in the first 6 months BUT what do they know anyways?! Haha GOD is good! :)We were also told that we can take them off of her for bedtime, when she's just laying/sitting down or swimming. Before they had said only take them off at bath time. Which I will admit we didn't follow the rules all the time :/ Its hard sometimes but even with our 'cheating' the braces have worked tremendously!Then we visited the shop for some adjustments (her legs have grown a lot) and some pressure points were bothering her so they had to make her braces a bit longer and push them out. They told us in six months at our appointment in November we should be able to get rid of them!!! Then we dropped off some toys/coloring books for Shriners patients (we have been collecting stuff since February for a part in Hearts for Hannah..you can go here to read about it:http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hannahgracecrumby).

Here is a picture of her legs in June 2009 (at our family reunion)

Here they are today (June 12, 2010)

PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!

Thank you all so much for your prayers!! You do not know how MUCH they mean to us!!

Sade-Sade

So, we finally got Sadie an appointment with Shriner's Hospital! We went on November 5th to St. Louis! Had tons of fun sightseeing and spending the night with Brandon's cousin Jami and her husband David! We only got to stay one night though so it was kind of a fast and exhausting trip! Ha

Brandon and the girls had never been to the St. Louis Arch

so we decided to take them up in it!

Sadie kept saying "Me look, Me look!!" She had a lot of fun

collecting leaves and rocks outside for Pepaw too :)

Laney LOVED the arch! She said it was like riding in a dryer to the top and

she just smiled the whole time!!

We decided to try Shriner's because Sadie's pediatrician was not at all pleased with the treatment we were receiving from the Tulsa specialist. They were basically just having us come up there for nothing and each time we went it was the same old "let's wait and see" story.. They didn't even do x-rays last time and we were basically in and out within 5 minutes. Seriously. Grr.

So anyways, the doctors and staff at Shriner's were awesome! They took special care of both our sweet girls and the nurses played with them and they even got stuffed elephants! The had a lot of fun! Best of all, Shriner's is free! Which is a GREAT thing for us right now since Brandon got laid off back in August. Helped us out tremendously!!

They took x-rays of her legs and even regular pictures. And they also watched her walk several times up and down the hallway. They told us that her bones were now at a 21 degree angle. If you'll remember last year (in October) they were only at a 10 degree angle. They didn't "officially" say Blount's disease but they talked a lot about it. Back last year at our first orthopedic appointment in Springdale, we were told that after the legs get to a 15-20 degree angle, they consider it Blount's disease...so we're not really sure. The doctors recommended leg braces for Sadie OR we could come back in 6 months and re-do the x-rays again. It was totally up to us but she recommended that we went ahead and got her fit for them. Of course, we know that her legs have gotten worse and the longer we wait the harder it will be on Sadie so we went ahead and had her measured and fit for the blount's braces.

This is just an example picture I found on the internet of the way Sadie's legs look.

The doctors also noticed her knee popping out of place as well..

She will have to wear these braces anywhere from one to two years. They will go from her hips down to the UGLY boots she will have to wear. I know it's totally dumb and "earthly" of me but I just like my girls to be stylish and these boots are FAR from stylish..it has really bothered me. A lot. They pretty much lock her knees up to allow growth in her growth plates. Her tibia bone is shorter so basically this will allow room for the bone to grow like it should and straighten things out. She will have to wear these day and night...at all times (except for showers, etc.) The reasoning behind that is because a child grows at different times and there is no way of knowing when Sadie's legs will grow so for the braces to be effective she HAS to be wearing them when she grows..

We were also told that there is still the possibility that she will have to have surgery when she is 4 or so. She has a few things in her favor such as she is not African-American (evidently Blount's is more dominant in African-American children) and she is not overweight so that is good but there are a few things working against her too: She is a girl (boys have better success with the braces) and a few other things that I can't recall at the moment. BUT we know that God is able to do anything. So if it is His will that her legs straighten without surgery then He can and WILL do it! We are praying that her legs show significant improvement before her next 6 month check in May (we were told by the doctors we wouldn't see anything by then-would LOVE to prove them wrong! ha)

We've (me more than Brandon) have had a hard time with it because obviously we don't like the thought of Sadie having to go through all this. I have cried so much over it. Sometimes I can't stand to think about it! I know parents go through MUCH worse things than leg braces but it's still hard on us :( God will help us through though. He always has and always will. She wants to be like Laney so much and do everything that Laney does so it's hard because she wants to play soccer and do ballet, etc. but we will probably more than likely have to push that back a few years. So that's hard and it breaks my heart for her. But hopefully all will straighten quickly and correctly!

Please be praying with us for our sweet girl! That she can run and play and be normal in these braces and that they don't bother her at all. She hates wearing shoes as it is, so I can't imagine making her wear these ALL of the time! But we've gotta! So pray for us to be strong for her as well and most importantly please pray that her legs will straighten fast!

Love you all!

Sadie's legs

Well we finally have internet again! Yay! We switched internet companies and it has taken FOREVER to get the new company to do their thing!! Anyways..now I can finally update about Sadie's legs....

As most of you know, we were told by the orthopedic specialist in Springdale that she would need braces to correct her legs and he wanted to send us to a children's orthopedic specialist in Tulsa because if her legs did not straighten up after the braces then Tulsa would be the place where she would have surgery to correct them.

So on May 14th, we headed to our appointment with Dr. Capeheart. As you can imagine, we were pretty nervous. I had cried several times because I knew that it would be so hard on Sadie. We had read that the braces would have to be worn 23 out of 24 hours!!! Sadie is a very active 21 month old so we knew this would be very difficult and she would NOT be a happy girl with something on her legs all day long. Dr. Capeheart came in and looked her legs over and decided to do some more x-rays (for some reason our Dr. in Springdale sent no x-rays or information to Dr. Capeheart's office?!?!) So Brandon took her back to the x-ray room (I couldn't go cause I'm pregnant...boo!) and then we all waited for the results.

Finally, he brought the x-ray in to show us and to discuss what he thought. He said he was going to go through a couple of diseases that children usually have when they have these types of leg problems and show us what her legs (more specifically her knee caps) would be doing if she had any of these diseases. First, it was some REALLY long name that I can't remember (ha) and said if she had this disease, her knee caps would look a certain way (which they didn't) so he said it wasn't that disease. Next, he talked about Rickets disease (I'm sure some of you have heard about it). Rickets disease is caused from a Vitamin D deficiency (which breast fed babies usually are lacking vitamin d..) and said that it didn't appear that she had this. Then he moved on to Blount's disease which is what the Springdale orthopedic specialist told us she more than likely had. Dr. Capeheart said at this point it doesn't look like she really has Blount's. If it does turn out to be Blount's, leg braces should correct it (with no surgery!! YAY!) Blount's is usually worse in African-American children and they may have problems with it their whole life. White children usually outgrow theirs (sometimes on their own) pretty early and have no life-long problems with it. Great news!!

Also, we have always been worried about her hips because she tends to hold them and rub her back and hip area a lot (especially when she walks). We have asked 3 times for x-rays on her hips and 3 times they haven't done it and we've been told..."Oh nothing is wrong with her hips." (guess they had x-ray vision....grr..) So, thankfully, Dr. Capeheart got her hips in his x-ray and he told us that her hips looked great (we didn't even have to ask!)

So he wants to keep an eye on her legs. He was fairly certain that she wouldn't develop any of these diseases and that her legs would straighten out on their own (PLEASE God!) In children under 2, they have a harder time diagnosing these leg problems and diseases because their knee caps don't really start showing problems on the x-rays until age 2 and then they can be more easily identified. Sadie is right on that borderline. It should show on her x-rays but it may not because of her age..So it's just a waiting game.

We were extremely happy (ok, we both cried after hearing the news) because we fully expected to come home with Sadie in braces! It was odd, because the x-rays looked WAY better than they had a few weeks ago in Springdale. Brandon and I got to talking on the way home about the series of x-rays that she's had and thought..the first x-ray she had in back in October(ish), she was laying down. The second x-ray in April she was standing up. Then this last x-ray in Tulsa she was laying down..Her worst x-ray was in April (while standing). So we wonder if that has anything to do with things looking better or if it was a God thing? I would prefer to think God is healing her but we are still going to ask Dr. Capeheart when we go back in August. But PRAISE GOD that for now she doesn't have to have any treatment and no braces!

Please continue to pray with us for these specific things:

**NO pain for Sadie-she still complains when we walk and she still falls a lot.

**That when we go back in August that everything will be straight with no bowing!

**That we are at the right place (Doctor-wise) Anyone else ever worry they are taking their children to the right doctors? I do!

Thank you all so much for the thoughts and prayers you are sending up for us. It means so much to us and we really appreciate it!