The Journey of The Hart's: What's going on at the moment...

There’s plenty to update but at the moment I’m just going to jump into the here & now. (I will go back and catch the blog up with what’s been going on later.)

We are at crunch time, Isabelle’s legs have looked like they are different lengths for several years and we’ve keep an eye on them with her pediatrician. Well during 2015 I noticed that there is now a significant difference between her leg lengths. Her doctor ordered a pelvic/hip x-ray & x-ray of her legs. Come to find out her legs are the same length; the difference is a hip dislocation. Isabelle’s right hip is constantly dislocated which over time will cause her severe arthritis & pain. If we don’t go ahead and get it repaired now it will get to a point of it not being able to be repaired. Her right hip needs surgery to repair the hip socket so that the knuckle of her leg bone will fit in to the socket like it is meant to; MAJOR surgery! Her leg bone will also have to be operated on in order to correct how it is currently twisted. We’ve gotten 2 different doctors to evaluate her and they both come up with the same diagnosis & treatment. So we have that to deal with this year, like in just a few weeks. It’s something we’ve know about for a couple of months and I scheduled it after some prior commitments we had made with Quincey because in our circus we take everyone in to consideration.

Not only is the hip/leg reconstruction surgery MAJOR surgery, Isabelle will be in a cast from her abdomen to her ankle on one leg & her knee on the other leg for 8-12 weeks. This whole thing has weighed on me heavily and I am not one to normally ask others for anything, however setting my pride and stubbornness aside I ask that you please keep Isabelle in your prayers as she has to undergo this surgery & recovery. We’ve been told her recovery can be smooth sailing or like living with a bear that’s constantly being poked with a hot poker. I’d personally be content with somewhere in the middle. But we will get through regardless because I know she is protected and watched over by God.

And being that it’s Isabelle and nothing in her life has been a straightforward, in December she went for her annual checkup with her neurosurgeon which includes a shunt series CT scan (just a CT scan of her head to show how everything is doing). Well the scan showed her ventricles are slightly enlarged from the scans she had 18 months prior. This means until we figure out what is going on with her brain or her shunt there is no going forward with her hip/leg surgery. We have a re-scan scheduled to check to see if her shunt setting maybe had just gotten off & verifying the right setting at the annual checkup could be the only thing that had to be done. However, without rushing into surgery her neurosurgeon made it clear that if her ventricles have increased in size anymore that he will not release her for surgery until he determines what is going on and if we need to do a shunt revision (replacement).

This again is why I am humbly asking for her prayers, positive thoughts, etc. as we move forward with Isabelle’s care. She had made SO MUCH Progress in the last 6 months that I don’t like to see her have these setbacks. However, to move forward we sometimes have to stop and wait for God to open the next doors. It’s all in his hands regardless!