2024 - In Her Era Loving the Swiftie Tour

For her 5th Birthday, she celebrated in Taylor Swift "Style." She wanted a Taylor Swift party at her house with all her friends so that's exactly what we did!

On March 23, 3024, the princess attended the annual Daddy Daughter Dance at her school. She looked 15!!

On April 26, 2024, we had Jovie's repeat evaluation with Dr. Flanagan. She looks good and we are looking forward to her leg lengthening surgery later in the year.

May 22, 2024 was the last day of school for this cutie!

Jovie's dance recital was on May 31, 2024. I was able to be the backstage mom and be with her throughout the whole recital. She had two dance routines: one for jazz and one for ballet. She had a little fall during the first dance, but with the help of the crowd cheering her on, she finished the dance! What a trooper!

She had full support from all her grandparents, too!

Summer break began, and she was busy in camps most weeks. She did a cheer camp, a Taylor Swift Era's Tour camp at her dance studio, a Barbie camp, a Princess camp, and her first Josh Powell outdoor camp, where she got to get on a school bus! She also spent some time in the mountains with family for the 4th of July!

We also took another trip back to Baha Mar, Bahamas with the whole family. The little girl was fearless, jumping off the cliff rock!

Summer ended and back to school we went on August 18, 2024. Even after three different antibiotics, she couldn’t get rid of an ear infection in August and September, so we went to see Dr. Sipp, the doctor who performed River's T&A surgery. I asked if he could just add tubes on October 17 since she’d already be having surgery. I was kidding, but he said he would’ve done it. However, ortho doctors are very peculiar about their operating rooms (as they should be) and probably wouldn't have allowed him in any way. We’re just going to watch her ears and recheck in three months.

On October 2, 2024, we had our preoperative appointment with Dr. Flanagan. We got new x-rays and measurements for the internal rod. We barely made it! She is scheduled for a left femur extramedullary lengthening nail; iliotibial band release; osteoplasty femur on October 17th. We are hoping to get at least 3 cm of length this surgery. Her current difference is about 7.3 cm.

She has a knock knee so Dr. Flanagan may eventually perform a hemiepiphysiodesis, also known as guided growth. It's a surgical procedure that gradually corrects angular limb deformities in children. It's a minimally invasive technique that temporarily stops or slows growth on one side of a growth plate while the other side continues to grow normally. We also found at at this visit that she doesn't have an ACL in her left knee. She seems ready for her leg to be longer and to be "the boss" while she's going through the lengthening. She currently has great hip, ankle and knee extension and flexion, but Dr. Flanagan said the most important part will be the physical therapy.

The big day, October 17, 2024, came and Jovie was such a brave girl. She had us laughing after getting her goo-goo juice. She named her unicorn Uni-poopy and thought it was the funniest thing. We heard her giggling all the way back to the operating room. When we told her good-bye, she just said good-bye back. Then the nurse went to take her and she said “So I’m not going to be alone?!” The brave girl thought she was going solo!

We received several text updates throughout the two-and-a-half-hour surgery. After the surgery was complete, Dr. Flangan came to speak with us. The procedures she had done were left femur osteoplasty with insertion of an externally placed internal lengthening nail, Iliotibial band release, and left medial distal femur hemiepiphysiodesis. The surgery was successful, but because she was so small, they were only able to place one screw on each end of the precise nail instead of the two it usually calls for. Hopefully, there will be no stability issues since she could only use the one screw. We waited on Jovie in her inpatient room while she was in recovery. We were told that she woke up pretty mad. She was in pain, disoriented, wanted us, and she was not happy. We quickly learned what they meant when she got to us and screamed for quite a while. It was hard for us to see her, our normal, happy, silly girl, going through so many negative emotions. She had catheter issues, which caused a lot of the tears. The resident on call was not answering because he was at the shiny new hospital so the nurse eneded up running into her hip doctor, Dr. Schrader, and he approved the removal of the catheter. Luckily, the tech was able to get it working again, and since that provided her relief, we kept it in so we didn't have to worry about getting her to the restroom during our stay. May things were bothering her. The big black knee immobilizer brace, the wrap around her leg, etc. We asked a nurse a question about the marks on her belly and a resident told the nurse that she wouldn't look because she was off the clock. Yeah, wow. We later found out from Dr. Flangan that they had to put the staple marks in her to hold the cover.

This was the most challenging recovery by far. Lots of "I'm so scared" and "I can't STAND this." Broke our hearts when she said "I want my old leg back." Dr. Flanagan warned us that the block would wear off after 24 hours so to make sure we kept the pain medicine in her. I guess the nurses didn't get the memo because around 7am the next day, she woke up screaming and we couldn't get her calmed down for three hours. She only finally chilled a little after the 2nd round of morphine.

After the chaotic morning, we went down to the hospital library and met with the therapy dogs. Made us sad when she told the dog handler that her dog didn’t like her. Tinka loves her, but she’s a little like Elmyra. Jovie was still in a lot of pain, but in order to be discharged, we had to stay off morphine and physical therapy had to make sure she could get around with a walker. PT came by and we were able to get her up and had her take a few steps. This was no easy feat, but she passed. Then we had to wait around hours until PT could finally bring her bedside potty, walker and wheelchair. They delivered those around 4:30, and then we were free to head home. Jovie screamed as we put her in the car, but the moment we got her out of the car, she passed out on the couch for hours.

After the first night, we were slightly regretting pushing to be discharged because we needed that morphine drip for her pain! Getting her to use the potty was really tough because she was terrified to move. Every day got a little better with her pain management and encouraging her to use her walker. She was showered with love with friends dropping off sweet cards, toys, activities, dinner, desserts, and other treats.

We went for Jovie's post-operative appointment on October 22, 2024. While there for her wound check, we received the device that will lengthen her leg at home. We got to meet the medical device sales rep who showed us how to use it. The magnet in her leg talks to the magnet in the device, and she doesn't feel a thing. The entire process takes 40 seconds. Her first lengthening, she got .25mm. The doctor and rep set the amount of length each session and we just have to push the button to begin the process. Read more about the Precise Nail here and here, but the way it is used on Jovie is off-label and cutting edge. The nail is supposed to be placed inside the bone, but for smaller patients, they are putting them on the outside of the bone so that lengthening can begin at a younger age. Before we went to bed, she started to cry and said, "I miss my friends."

Jovie had her first physical therapy appointment with Jill Cannoy on October 25, 2024. We were nervous because she barely moved her leg at home, but she did great at therapy! The therapist made it so fun that Jovie was giggling and didn’t even realize she had straightened her leg and bent it further than she had before. Therapy isn't too tough for her, but she is definitely sore and hurting afterward. She will go to physical therapy two to three times a week because if she isn't able to straighten her leg then Dr. Flanagan will stop the lengthening.

Nighttime seems to be the worst, but it's also painful during the day. She screams and says her knee feels like it's stinging. I sent a video of her in pain to her PT and Doctor because I wanted them to see how much she was hurting and it didn't seem normal.

After several days of screaming, they did an x-ray at her follow-up appointment on October 30, 2024. The nail has moved, and it is poking out the side, and that is what is causing her excruciating pain. She has to have another surgery to correct the alignment. Since she has lengthened for a few days, Dr. Flanagan can now use a thinner nail and two screws instead of one to increase nail security. It was a matter of millimeters on why she couldn't originally use the thinner lengthening nail. It's not the news we wanted, but at least now we have answers and a game plan.