Day 1 - St Jude

Well Day One wasn't as easy as we had thought it would be. Avery went in at 7:30 this am for Dental Surgery to get her front teeth fixed (cavities). Instead, the dental surgeon called us after getting in there and told us he was going to have to pull at least 4 of the teeth - 2 top and 2 bottom as her jaw was not sitting right due to the way the teeth had grown in. This was concerning and could lead to huge issues with her jaw down the road. Since the teeth were decayed anyway, he decided taking them was the best course of action for the future. After taking the 4, the jaw still wasn't resting correctly so he had to take 2 more on the bottom. All in all she had 6 teeth removed and 4 crowns put on the back molars.

How in the world did it get so bad? That is what we keep asking ourselves. I know she eats a lot of sweets but we brush her teeth at least twice a day. I can't imagine any of you others are doing any different...if even that. The old people milk she drinks doesn't help, but that is how we keep weight on her so she can fight this monster. It's a lose lose situation for us and one we really can't do much about. But needless to say - we feel like we have failed her. In the long run, this will help her jaw and bite and when she hits 5 she will start to regrow her adult teeth so this isn't permanent. Still, it's one more thing to add to her long list of "this sucks".

Our drive to Memphis was uneventful. We arrived about 7:15pm last night and went right to the hospital for labs. It felt great to walk in to smiles and "how are you guys?!" coming from the nurses and staff that we hadn't seen since October. Just one more reassurance that we are in the right place to make our baby better. The highlight of the drive was a chip in my brand new windshield (literally we replaced this last Monday) and a stop in Po Dunk AR for McDonalds... Tomorrow we have a long day of rehab check ups, labs, an eye appt and meeting with our NeuroOncology team. We are hoping she will be feeling just a little bit better by then so she can WOW her therapists with her talking, strength and all around amazingness. Right now she has crashed for the afternoon - gotta love those pain meds.

Jenn