update!

Elle's 2nd birthday
Elle turned 2 on Tuesday! She's filled our lives with so much joy and we are so blessed to have so many people love her too. We had a Mickey & Minnie/Tutus & Ties party on Saturday. We had some of the ballet girls perform to "The Hot Dog" song and the pinata was a huge success, even for the big kids. Here's a link to our shutterfly account and you can see more pics of her party in "march 2011". Click here.



I went for a consultation on my hip with an orthopedic specialist (not the one they wanted to send me to, but he still seems good). I have a piece of bone that sticks up on my hip joint, which when i make certain movements rubs on my hip socket and has torn the cartilage. If I don't have it repaired it will develop arthritis. So I'm going to have surgery as soon as the insurance gets everything authorized. They will do laparoscopic outpatient surgery (probably 3 incisions, but he won't know until he gets in there). Here's the scary part: There's no room in the hip so they are going to put me to sleep, paralyze me, and dislocate my hip! Then I'll be on crutches for 3 weeks and then have some therapy. Good part: I'll be able to do whatever I want after that!

hip momma

Some of you may know about my hip troubles, but this week more has been going on. And for those who don't know this will explain why Elle keeps randomly saying "momma's leg hurts." In 2004, right about the time Chris and I got married, I noticed my left hip hurting occasionally. Then it seemed to steadily get worse and it got to the point where I couldn't walk or stand for more than 30 minutes, and doing activities like swinging my leg into the car caused major pain. I eventually went to the doctor and they diagnosed me with a ganglion cyst on my hip joint. I got my first cortisone shot in 2005 {I vividly remember this because it was the day after Hurricane Katrina went through Memphis and half the hospital didn't have power.} and that helped for about a year. Then the pain came back so they tried another shot and this time it didn't work. They referred me to physical therapy. I had an outstanding physical therapist who relieved all of my pain. Well, then we moved to Waco and the pain would flare up and then go away based on how active I was. Lately though the pain has been pretty constant and for several weeks I couldn't get relief from pain meds or even sleeping. So I headed to the doctor again. Wednesday I had an arthrogram to put dye into my hip so that I could have an MRI to see what's going on. The worst part of that was getting stabbed in the hip, which has left me pretty sore, as if I needed help with that. Today I had my follow-up and they said I have a labrum tear. No word on the cyst, because I ended up having to see the physicians assistant who can't read a hip MRI. But, they're referring me to a specialist who will do a hip scope to repair the tear and the PA said they would be able to see a cyst if there is one.

No telling what the origin of the problem is. When I was born the same hip had problems and almost got me a full body cast at the age of 1. Thankfully, for my mother's sake, they didn't have to do that because my hip developed fine on its own. But, no one has really hinted that this could be related. I don't know if it's too many cheerleading kicks or what, but I just want to get it resolved so I can walk around the zoo with my daughter without being in pain.

I would like prayers for two things specifically:
1) the specialist doesn't take our insurance so there's going to be a fight to get me in--this may mean a lot of time could go by while the insurance drags their feet; and
2) they said I may be non-weight bearing for 4-12 weeks after the scope. This doesn't work for me trying to take care of a toddler.