Hailey's MRI results and surgery update

Hailey had an MRI on July 21st at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. The purpose was to check her shoulder and make sure that the joint was healthy and not dislocating, causing her to be unable to raise her arm above 90 degrees. So after about five or six weeks, I finally got an answer from the surgeon (well his nurse), and they said the MRI results were normal, which means she is a candidate for the 'muscle transfer' surgery. It has a long, complicated medical name but I can't even begin to tell you what it is, and if I could say it, I sure wouldn't be able to spell it! Anyway, they will take a muscle from the back, underneath of her right arm and reattach it to the top of the shoulder to give her, hopefully 30 degrees or so, more range of motion in moving her arm up above her head and out to the side. She has healed well over the last two years in terms of her Brachial Plexus injury as a whole- she averted nerve grafting surgery due to the nerves regenerating and healing on their own (we all know God healed her) and so we dodged that bullet. This surgery I have expected for at least the last year. With all the therapy, and all the exercises, and all we have tried, she just has not been able to build up the strength to bring that arm up past her shoulder. I know it is because her body is physically unable, she wills it to move allot, compensates for it allot, and if it was a matter of determination and work, she would have been raising her hands high above her head praising Jesus a long time ago... oh yeah, that's one of her newest adorable, heart melting 'Haileyisms'- at church during worship she will just lift her hands up and sing and praise him and it just melts my heart every time! So, we have a 'tentative' date for the first part of November for surgery and an appointment to talk to the surgeon face to face and get all the facts and information we need before going ahead and setting the date in stone. And that apt is scheduled for the 16th of October. After the surgery I believe he said he would probably have her stay in the hospital in KC for a couple of days, and then her recovery time with a brace/cast will be six LONG weeks!! All that being said, please pray for her and us through this... I have known it would probably happen, but as we get closer I am dreading it more and more, the thought of them cutting my baby open, and the pain she will be in, and the fear and confusion she will experience, it makes me wish I could go in her place. But she is strong, and so am I, and where we are weak our Lord will pick up the slack. I will give more updates after the October apt when we have some more definant answers.

Love and Blessings,
Teresa

Hailey pic: 2006 (7 months old)