Carly’s Surgery
Posted by Greg Steward | Filed under Carly
After a two-year process of establishing a problem and getting the proper diagnosis, Carly had surgery for “Tethered Cord Syndrome” on Wednesday, April 29. The surgery was performed at Emanuel Hospital by Dr. Wehby. We had to have her at the hospital at 6:00 AM and she went into surgery about 8:00 AM. The surgery consists of making a small incision (about one inch) in the lower back and going into the spinal column between two discs. A simple snip of a cord that is below the spinal cord and it is done. You can see a picture provided by the doctor that was taken during surgery. It was taken through a microscope and you can clearly see the cord that needed to be cut. I don’t know the scale, but remember the whole incision is only about an inch long.
The surgery was finished around 9:00 AM and she was in recovery until about 10:30 AM. My long-time friend, Mark Kingen, sat with us through the surgery, and later Kathy’s mom and step-father came to visit. Late afternoon, Siddharth, a student at PSU from India, also came to visit Carly. Siddharth and Carly became friends when he visited us for dinner earlier in the school year.
Apart from severe crankiness later in the afternoon/evening from missing a nap that day, she did great. The next day it was hard to tell that she had surgery and that has generally been the case since then. We have a follow-up appointment with the doctor on Thursday, May 7.
Emanuel hospital does a great job with children and she was actually looking forward to “having a sleep-over” at the hospital. However, when the time came, in her missed-nap crankiness after the surgery, she was requesting that the doctor be informed that she wanted to go home NOW.
She is to have “reduced” activity for about two weeks after the surgery, but apart from riding her bike and playing outside a lot, she does mostly what she normally does with occasional reminders from us to “take it easy.”
For some personal reflection by Greg, see “If God Should Take My Daughter.”
Update on Carly’s Back Problems
Posted by Greg Steward | Filed under Carly, Steward Family
The following is from Kathy:
Praise God we received some much anticipated answers to Carly’s back issues. She indeed has tethered cord syndrome and is scheduled for a surgical correction on Wed. April 29th at Emanuel Hospital. The pediatric neurologist that we met today described in detail (almost too much detail!) the findings from the MRI and the surgery to fix the problem. She will do the surgery and she seems very confident that everything will go well. Carly will have surgery which consists of going in between the lower vertebrae and clipping a non-essential cord that extends from the spinal cord but contains no spinal fluid and which is putting pressure on the nerves that extend from the base of the spinal cord into the lower back causing her bladder, bowel and scoliosis (the MRI shows 10%) issues. She will stay in the hospital one night for observation and to recover any lost spinal fluid while lying flat in bed. She will need to lay low for seven days and then take it easy for another seven. So two weeks recovery time, not bad for back surgery.
April is a huge month for us. Easter, a three day Focus retreat for Greg (April 15-17), both the girls’ birthdays (Carly turns 5 on the 14th, Sophie 7 on the 24th) and now a surgery at the end of the month. Pray that God would keep us calm, give us wisdom, creativity, energy and joy. Our month could be full of so much worse things! Hallelujah we can praise a risen Lord and celebrate his resurrection and the births of two beautiful girls and correct a long standing problem all in one month! Whew! But God is good all the time. He hears our prayers and answers them. Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement. It means the world to us.
Sophie and Carly’s Christmas Greeting
Posted by Greg Steward | Filed under Carly, Christmas, Photos, Sophie
Sophie and Carly would like to send you their Christmas Greeting.
Steward Family Photos in 2008
Posted by Greg Steward | Filed under Birthday, Carly, Christmas, Dylan, Kristin, Photos, Sophie, Steward Family
Here are some pictures of the Steward family during 2008. During 2008, Kristin turned 23, Dylan turned 21, Sophie turned 6, and Carly turned 4.
You can view this as a large screen slide show at http://picasaweb.google.com/gs777bs/2008StewardFamily/. More Steward family and Greg’s FOCUS photos are at http://picasaweb.google.com/gs777bs
Cool Carly
Posted by Greg Steward | Filed under Carly, Photos
Imagine the frustration of being a four-year old that just wants to go out and have a quite meal in a nice restaurant and find that, yet again, the paparazzi have tracked you down. At least she looks cool.
Sophie and Carly’s Birthday
Posted by gregsteward | Filed under Birthday, Carly, Sophie
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| From 2007-04-23 So… |
On Monday, April 23, 2007, we celebrated Carly’s third (April 14) and Sophie’s fifth (April 24) birthdays. We picked up Grandma Naomi Steward and drove down to Nana Jeannie and Grandpa Duke Riseling’s place in Colton, Oregon. Dylan was unable to join us as he had to work (at the Beaverton Infinity dealer).
For more pictures, see our online photo album at Picasa web.