Maggie Will Be Up in Arm(s)

For those of you still checking in on us... we have been busy with the kids schedules... and maybe someday will share with you the craziness that 2013 has handed us. Ha! Lucky 13...  But for now, we will give you a slight update on Maggie and her brachial plexus injury. She is doing great. She is thriving at preschool and is looking forward to summer camp (which is pretty much summer school - but with more playground time). The one thing that stands between finishing up school and getting to camp is turning 4 in May! And what are we doing for her birthday? We are sending her to surgery to get tendon surgery on her arm and put her in a full upper body cast for a month! AWESOME! We win parents of the year. But seriously, Maggie has been going to weekly PT appointments and her right arm is still loose and she has movement in it - but still not great abduction and can only lift it to shoulder level. So, when you hit the plateau of range from extensive PT, the next step is tendon surgery, (which is taking the lesser used tendons that help pull her arm in and reversing them to help her arm pull out). It will (hopefully!!) give her more abduction motion - and with that, help her lift her arm higher. The surgery needs to happen before she is 5 and they don't do it in the summer, so we opted for her to enjoy her birthday cast-free, then enjoy her last month of school...in a cast. And yes, the cast will be around her stomach up to her chest and over to her right arm, where her arm will be in a touchdown pose. It will be awesome on so many levels... like how to sleep, how to buckle in the car, what to wear, how to do anything. But she is starting to get ready for it, as we want her very aware when the time comes and she wants her arm stronger. And she wants an orange cast. Not sure if her anti-Syracuse father will be on board for that, but there is still plenty of time for her to change her mind. ;) We will keep you in the loop with any further developments, and of course pictures, when the time comes.