Surgery....:)

Life has been a little crazy the last few months. Jar has been busy with work and his Primerica. He sells life insurance and RRSP's...that kind of stuff. That has him working when he's not working, so he seems to be always working. It's good, but it's getting old real fast :) The girls are getting huge. Mackinley just turned 5!
We had a Pinkalicious birthday party for her. It was pretty cute. EVERYTHING was pink. I made the cupcakes to look like the ones that were in the book. I'm not really a cake/cupcake fan. I'd take a chocolate brownie over cake any day. These ones though were soooooo good! Seriously, I ate a lot of them and I was a little sad when the last 2 got eaten by my little monsters. Maybe I should make some more on this yucky rainy day!
Mackinley starts kindergarten this September! I am so not ready for this to happen. Mentally, emotionally, or just plain ready. She's grown up so fast and I do not like it! They do full days out here. She'll go every Monday and Wednesday and then every other Thursday. It will be good and I know she will love it. Macey on the other hand is going to go bananas without her here. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to sign her up for multiple different things just to keep her happy. It will be nice to have her all to myself though :)
I probably won't be blogging much in the near future either. I am having surgery in a month and I will be at my parents' house for a couple of weeks after. I'm so lucky to have them close enough and so willing to help us. That has been a huge factor in my decision to have this surgery. I am getting my right leg lengthened. If you think this sounds horrible, it probably will be. I'm going to try and stay positive and think it's not going to be as bad as I think it's going to be. Why am I having this done? Well, when I was 12 I broke my femur in a dirt bike accident and the growth plate stopped growing. I still had some growing to do, so I had surgery the following year to make my left leg stop growing as well. I have worn a lift in my right shoe ever since. I have bad knees now and I have scoliosis. My hips are sore and my sciatic acts up. A lot has to do with the fact that we were in a car accident 5 1/2 years ago and I sprained my SI joint. I was pregnant at the time as well, so the further along I got in the pregnancy the worse my pain. So between the leg difference, the injury, and being pregnant, I had the perfect pain trifecta! I have bad days and good days, but I am always in some form of discomfort. Mostly my hips, back, and neck. Not necessarily painful, but just uncomfortable because something is out and I can't crack it. It is getting worse though. I've spent a lot of time the last few months in bed just because my hips hurt so bad. I can get around fine, but it was worth looking into the surgery. A girl I know had the same surgery done about 4 weeks ago. That's what got me going with the whole idea. I didn't even know this surgery existed until I heard she was having it done. I asked her about it and who she was seeing and once I had the info I contacted my doctor to get a referral in. My doctor was away, but I had the choice to see the resident if I wanted. I had been waiting for this surgery for 18 years. I didn't want to wait any longer :) I booked with the resident and I'm sooooo glad I did! The wait time just to get in to see Dr. Buckley is about 6 months. That's just to see him. I don't know how long it takes after that to get surgery. I kind of skipped all of that. I was looking at around a year though to get in and have surgery and be better again. I heard about this surgery at Easter time, I have surgery July 8th and it will be 2-3 months to heal. So a grand total of 5 months from start to finish!
When the receptionist called me to set my first appointment up, she said they had a surgery date open on July 8th and if I could come up on June 6th to see him I could have that day if he thought I could use the surgery. I instantly said yes. I couldn't pass on such a great opportunity. It is scary though. I haven't had a lot of time to completely think about it. I have thought about it, but I was expecting a lot more time.I keep thinking if I would have waited to see my regular doctor the receptionist wouldn't have had my referral that day and I wouldn't have gotten in so fast.
Anyways, June 6th was yesterday. I took my xrays up with me and I met with 2 surgeons and 2 med students. I read up on my doctor and all I read was he was mean, abrasive, made people cry, so on and so on. He was supposed to be a brilliant orthopedic surgeon though. I was okay with this. I LOVED him. He was funny, to the point, concerned.....I knew he wouldn't mess around and I knew he wouldn't do something he wasn't comfortable with. He said normally he would turn me away. The leg length discrepancy was not quite large enough for them to normally operate. Mine is just under 1.5 cm and he said they like it to be at least 1.5 cm difference. But, because I was having such problems and I was determined to have it done he let me. What can I say, I'm really good at being persuasive :) He was concerned that normally someone with my problem wouldn't see much of a difference because their problems wouldn't be so bad. He didn't know if it was necessary to put me through the pain and the risk and have nothing change. I get that. I'm not going into this light heartedly. It will suck. There are risks. There could be complications. My leg could hurt for a long time after....it might not help the pain.....I could lose a leg......my life.......it could work and I could be pain free.
It's only been the last 5 years that it has gotten worse. I am 30. What am I going to be like in another 5 years? 10 years? 30 years? I am young and have a lot of life left in me. I want to enjoy it. I want to be able to run a marathon. I would like to be able to just walk around for the day with out my hip locking up or my back hurting so bad it takes a good 15 minutes to relax after I lay down because the pain is so bad. It is worth it to me.
I let him know how I feel ^ and I also told him that him telling me he won't do it is going to be harder for me to deal with than to actually have the surgery. I also told him that if I don't have it July 8th......he did try to get me to think about for a couple of months and then come back in.....that I most likely won't ever have it done. It was just too perfect this way. He consented, filled out my papers, and told me I owe him a bottle of wine :) He totally made my week, month, year!
So, I have a month until surgery. A month to get prepared. I have 17 days from the day of my surgery until I will be at home with girls all by myself. We are really good at taking it easy, so that is what we will do. I will be getting freezer meals ready, cleaning, and laundering so that I don't have to worry about it. Jar is good at helping out as well, so we will be good. I'm just thankful it worked out that we could stay at my mom's and have my sisters around to help watch the girls during the day. If this surgery wasn't in the summer and I had to do it at home by myself I don't know if I would be so gung ho about it. And if the surgery doesn't help with the pain like I'm hoping, at least my jeans won't wear out on the right side anymore :)