2023 - And We've Got Places To Be

On January 14, 2023 our princess turned FOUR! And with everything she had going on this year, we made sure we celebrated BIG!

We had a party at Tiny Towne, where everything is tiny, including Jovie and the cars, and we invited all of her friends!

We celebrated with her friends (again) at school; in chapel and in her classroom.

We celebrated at home, too!

Her sweet teachers made sure she felt so loved before her big surgery day. They made her a gift basket of goodies and the class made her cards to help her be so brave! Just look at that smile! ☺️

On January 25, 2023, Jovie had an osteotomy iliac acetabular / innominate surgery with hip spica cast on one and one-half legs. The after surgery was a little more tough than her last surgery that also involved a spica cast. She had a catheter in place after surgery so she didn't want to move. I had to bribe her by saying she had to let us move her around, and use the potty, in order to go home. We stayed one night and then she got moving, letting us walk her around and finally using the potty which was much harder figuring out this time around since she's no longer in diapers.

We had to bathe her in the tub laying down on a lawn chair. And we had to use a kidney shaped emesis basin to put in front of her when she tee-teed or it would spray all over her cast and out of the toilet. Her sweet brother even helped hold it sometimes.

On January 28, 2023, I emailed the following to her doctor.

Is Jovie going to mess up anything by standing on her cast leg occasionally? I'm not sure we can keep this determined girl down.

Then I sent a follow-up.

I retract my original question. There is no way she's going to let us hold her down. Should we purchase her a walker to help her get around and not put so much pressure on her left leg?

Dr. Flanagan wrote back.

Just let her walk

It’s okay.

Glad she’s doing well

The cast will prevent her from moving her hip.

She was unstoppable this go 'round. She went back to school, walked/ran around, played, went to the aquarium, drove her Elsa jeep, and just didn't really have any issues (praise God).

And, finally, on March 8, 2023, she got her cast removed. It was the cleanest cast! Much different from the last time. 🤢

Her cast was removed during Spring Break. Since we had a few days left before we had to go back to school, we took a quick trip to Great Wolf Lodge.

On March 25, 2023, Jovie got to attend her first Daddy Daughter Dance. She was so beautiful!

Because we couldn't go anywhere for Spring Break, and summer wasn't looking promising with her first lengthening, we took a trip to Baha Mar, Bahamas, for Easter Break.

On May 20, 2024, the sassy little girl had her gymnastics showcase and her ballet recital.

On May 19, 2023, I received a call from Dr. Flanagan. She had been reviewing Jovie's case and noted that her bone length wasn't quite long enough for the smallest screw. We had the option to move forward with the surgery, but it would be a very risky surgery. Or, we could opt for the external fixature, but Dr. Flanagan said knowing Jovie, she would hate it. So, the decision was made to postpone surgery until next year when she's a little bigger and can handle the internal nail/screw. With that news, our summer opened back up and I scrambled trying to get Jovie enrolled in multiple camps!

The last day of school for these kiddos was on May 24, 2023 and then summer camps, such as cheer camp, began!

On July 7, 2023, we closed on our new home closer to school, ballet, gymnastics, dance, baseball, football, basketball, Jovie's doctors, and the hospitals.

After camp on July 10, 2023, Jovie cried in my arms and asked "when will my leg get longer." Broke my heart, but I told her that God created her perfectly.

School started back in August and Jovie decided to try something new, acrobatics! To be honest, she was beginning to not love gymnastics so much so we wanted to find something else that she could do with ballet/tap. And seeing her jump off the balance beam with a screw in her hip probably wasn't the best idea so acro will eventually take the place of gymnastics.

On October 3, 2023, I was packing for an out of town work trip. I told Jovie that in a couple of weeks we were going to see Dr. Flanagan. She asked me who that was and I told her that it is the doctor that has performed her past surgeries and the one that will make her leg longer. She gasped and said, "she's going to make it the same size as the other one? So people won't be worried about me anymore!" I asked what she meant and she said that people were always asking her why she bends one leg.

On October 18, 2023, we went for Jovie's check-up with Dr. Flanagan to see when she could have her first leg lengthening surgery. We were wondering what the curveball was going to be since the plan seems to change every day. After she got her x-rays, Dr. Flanagan came in to show us an x-ray of another patient and how well she did with the internal nail.

Jovie was very proud of her x-ray and took it to school and showed all of her friends. She answered their questions and told her all about her leg. During parent/teacher conferences the same week, the teacher had great things to share about Jovie and told us she is inclusive, speaks her mind, she's brave, a friend to all, no-nonsense and smart.

Trick or treating was so fun this year in our new neighborhood. Jovie, aka Ariel, hung with the boys; sprinting to every house for candy. One family told me she was a "pistol."

This little warrior competed in her first Fun Run on November 11, 2023! It was a charity event for our school and the Fun Run was one mile. Jovie ran/walked the whole route!

The superstar sang sweet songs to her grandparents for her school's Grandparents Day on November 17, 2024!

Jovie had her annual cardiologist visit with Dr. Meg McKane on December 11, 2023. Dr. McKane could still hear her murmur so we knew it was still there, but she still had a full echocardiogram and EKG anyway. The imaging showed a continued trivial to small PDA (which is why it is so loud) that is restrictive with now mild left-sided dilation, but no evidence of pulmonary hypertension and preserved biventricular systolic function. The atrial level communication is also now consistent with a PFO. She has had stable growth on her curve and remains asymptomatic from a cardiac standpoint.  Dr. McKane is hopeful that both the PFO and PDA will become smaller, if not spontaneously close over time, but given their continued patency, she does require intermittent outpatient cardiology follow-up at this time. There is no current indication for intervention at this time, but we discussed this may be indicated in the future. She doesn't have to go back for 2 years unless new concerns arise. Should the PDA continue to be hemodynamically significant at her follow-up visit in approximately 2 years, we discussed we may consider catheter-based closure of the PDA at that time. In the interim, there were not any physical activity restrictions for her.

After many months of trying, on December 15, 2024, we finally said goodbye to the home we brought Jovie home from the hospital. The rest of the year was uneventful. We spent the holidays with family, went to a Falcons game, went ice skating in both Alpharetta, GA and Highlands, NC, Santa visited the cool kids, and spent New Year's Eve in the mountains.