So I realize I've been slacking again on the post but our household has been far from normal in the past few weeks!!


As many of you know James has always had knee problems and for the past few months his knee was giving him a lot of trouble. He finally decided to go to the doctor and his doctor, Dr. Johnson said something was definitely up due to the pain and size and sent him to have an MRI. To make a long story short he said the MRI showed a tear and he needed to have surgery. On Friday February 11 we headed to Roanoke Ambulatory Surgical Center for James knee surgery. Smokey and my parents came to sit with me so I wouldn't be all alone and it turned out to be a very quick procedure because Dr. Johnson COULDN'T find anything wrong with his knee! We all were confused and after James went for his post opt appointment Dr. Johnson said that the reason he couldn't find anything was because there was a knee beginning to form and what the MRI had shown was that instead of a tear! Dr. Johnson is going to monitor James for a while to make sure the soft spot doesn't begin to tear and told James he needed to start working, which would help!

This past Thursday was our first fundraiser for the Addy Grace Foundation. We had it at Chick-fil-A and it was a HUGE success!! The place was packed FULL from 5:00-8:00 (even the drive thru was slammed the entire night). AGF ended up making a little over $400 after the 10% which we were definitely happy about! Chick-fil-A was so impressed with the amount of people we brought in that they have already signed us up for another night at the Hunting Hill Location (May 26). A BIG thank you to everyone who came out to support AGF!!

Last week James and Addy had a 3 night/4 day vacation at James parents’ house because lucky me was diagnosed with the FLU!!! I woke up Friday morning (after Chick-fil-A night) with a pretty high fever, sore throat, cough and body aches...needless to say I wasn’t too happy! I was literally in the bed for four days straight and it definitely took me a few days after to recover. The flu is NO JOKE!!! Addy’s pediatrician and James doctor both decided to put them on Tamiflu as well and luckily no one else has gotten it…knock on wood!!

Friday afternoon Addy and I went to the mall for a few hours. I was determined that I wasn’t going to sit around the house this Friday after being in the house all weekend long last weekend. We did a little shopping and found James a Duke T-Shirt to wear tomorrow night (see below). While we were shopping in Tailgaters United I stopped to show Addy the team mascot stuffed animals and began to show them to her and ask her which one she liked best. As I was showing them to her she kept choosing the West Virginia Mountaineer Man as her favorite (her daddy would have been so proud). Two by two I would hold them up and ask “which one do you like better” I definitely got a little nervous when it came down to the Mountaineer Man and the Hokie Bird….kept thinking to myself what would James do to her if she picked the Hokie Bird! HAHA She had a hard time deciding between Mountaineer Man and the Cav Man but ended up choosing WVU! I called james to tell him the story and he was so proud…he kept saying that’s my girl! Friday night we went to dinner at the Sinks and had a fun time just hanging out! Lindsay fixed a yummy dinner and we had a blast watching Aubrey and Addy play together (aka watch Finding Nemo and pull out ALL the toys). Today James and I are going to the Duke/Virginia Tech Basketball game and can I just tell you that James is SOOO excited! He has been counting down this day for months now and it’s finally here! He has been telling me for quite some time that we were going to paint our bodies blue…yes I know he is CRAZY!!

Addy had a BIG month ahead of her and we are so excited for the big things coming her way! A representative is coming this week to talk to us about the Dynavox Eye Gazing System! We were first introduced to this product right after Addy’s diagnosis when we went to the SMA conference in Cincinnati. This system is truly unbelievable! It is a communication device that allows people who cannot talk and operate an touch screen communication device to actually communicate using the eyes! I know very little about it other then it uses a laser and Addy tracks with her eyes by blinking. Definitely check out their website to read more about it (http://www.dynavoxtech.com/products/eyemax/) Addy’s Speech Therapist has always said that Addy is advanced with her communication and the things she knows at her age and feels it might be time to introduce this product. We aren’t sure that she’s 100% ready for it that’s why the Representative is coming to talk to us about it and see how advanced Addy truly is.

We are also in the process of going power and by power I mean POWER CHAIR!!! A representative from Permobil is coming to our house towards the end of March to discuss power chair options. We are definitely excited about this for Addy!! If Addy didn’t have SMA she would be up running around like a “normal” 2 year old…with Power she will FINALLY be able to go and come as she pleases. If she doesn’t want to be the living room she can go to her room, etc. and we are just so tickled for her! It will definitely take a while to get the chair and to teach her how to use it but if you remember it wont be the first time Addy has driven a power chair! If you remember when we went to Cincinnati for the SMA conference Addy actually test drove one of the chairs at ONLY 7 months old!! Everyone was so impressed that a 7 month old was actually driving a power chair and understanding that moving the toggle switch made her go and letting go made her stop. That was truly an unbelievable experience and YES I get to say MY KID did that!!! Am I a proud momma or what??

Sometime in March we will be heading back to Balitmore for a check up with Dr. Crawford! We were actually supposed to go yesterday but decided to wait since I was recovering from the flu and Addy had been away from home for 4 days. Plus with all the yucky stuff going around I didn’t want to risk taking her into the clinic and risking any of us picking up something!