Surgery Day

Today I went to Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children to watch a couple of surgeries. The two primary cases were both lower limb corrections, one tibial and one femoral. The first case, was the result of an infection the child had when he was still an infant (he's 10 now). One side of his growth plate was destroyed so his lower leg only grows on one side. The ring system that we are evaluating uses a stack of three rings that are pinned in place around the leg. The rings are rigidly attached to each other, mostly. The ring above and below the point where the bone is cut will be swiveled slowly over the next month allowing a wedge of new bone to fill in which straightens and lengthens the leg.

The second case was caused by a congenital condition where one leg grows half as fast as the other. This patient was 12 years old and had been through a number of these surgeries before. He needed straightening in two different planes and pure grown at both incisions. The two incisions will have to be done at least six weeks apart, even though the frame was pre-built to do the whole procedure. When he needs the second incision it will be a very short procedure to cut the bone.

The most amazing thing that we saw though was a young girl with a severe (180 degree) spine curvature. That is not a typo. In her before picture she looked like she was leaning against a pillow, but that was really her butt propping up her back. They modified the ring system and straightened her out pretty well. They were removing the frame today. She has 14 pin holes in her back and hips and hasn't been able to lay down for four months.

The ring system is like one that we already have, just scaled down for pediatric patients. But the software that they are bundling with the system is amazing. It allows them pre-build the frame which saves hours in the OR and makes for a much more precise correction.

We are developing a long term relation ship with this hospital and I think that it may be one of the best things that we've ever done. The hospital is one of the best teaching facilities in the world, it's all free but you have to be recommended for treatment. I hope to spend a lot of time out there over the next couple of years.

Summer soccer

We have only one remaining soccer game this Spring. Super Blue plays on Sunday then we are on a practice only schedule until June 10th. They will be playing indoors down in Addison for the Summer, which means we will be sitting in airconditioned luxury for the Summer.

Book Two

Sheela finished the first Harry Potter this morning (around 5 am) and has started in on the Chamber of Secrets. She's having a great time and pretty proud of herself.

She fell asleep last night at 6 PM, and woke up early. It made for a nice evening for me, Sid and Sunil. Sunil doesn't get enough time as the center of attention.

Relay-for-Life 2006

Our team, Lynn's Lances, raised nearly $600 in just three days. We came pretty late to the party. Pictured here are Cecile, Beckie, Pete, Laura and Lee. Victor came later, and Andrea was chasing down some free Jamba Juice.

After the survivor's dinner and the opening remarks, the survivors started the walk with a lap of their own. The survivors are all wearing purple.
Next came the caregiver's lap. Here Cecile is supposed to be supporting Andrea but its more like they are holding each other up.
Sheela, Sunil and Sid spent most of the evening with us. They contributed another $20 or so for face painting and bounce house use.

Our team thought we would break down and leave at midnight but we can honestly say that we stayed for the entire event. That was made possible, of course, because the event was shut down rather rapidly at 11PM. The expected storm cell turned out to be more violent than expected and the sponsor's weren't taking any chances. We were given one hour's notice to remove all traces of the event. I was home in bed (asleep)by 11:30PM.

Even better the amount of rain required that the soccer games be cancelled so I managed to sleep late too.

9 and Dine

Yesterday was the 17th semi-annual MIS Golf Classic. It was my third time at the event and my first time using my own clubs. (Thanks Mom!) Once again a good time was had by all, but not necessarily good golf. I am proud to say that some of my drives, chips and puts were all used by my team. Still we tied for last, so I wasn't that much of a help. We actually only had two bad holes, but they were really bad, and we only played nine to start with.

Lynn's Lances

I've signed up to join a group of Lynn's friends at the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life this Friday night. We've been given conflicting information about the event, but the fundraising piece and the start time are both pretty clear. The end time isn't nailed down as well. We are either walking from 7PM Friday night until midnight, or until 7 AM Saturday, or possibly midnight on Saturday night. I'm okay with either of the first two options. Soccer games start at 8AM on Saturday. I'll have to break away before then.

In the meantime feel free to make a contribution to the cause. Apparently I can't get the link to work so please take it upon yourself to go to www.acsevents.org/faf/home and search for my name under the donations page. Thank you!

House Sparrows

Our flock of house sparrows continues to grow, thrive and generally take over.  We have the obligatory nest inside each of the bathroom vents and one in the bluebird box.  But new this year is the one that keeps trying to nest inside the barbeque grill.  We cleared it out twice then resorted to leaving the lid open... maybe for the rest of the Spring. 

Welcome home, Grandma and Grandpa!

They've been off visiting Ravi and family for the last three weeks. The kids are thrilled. I've been informed (by Sunil) that I'm no longer needed to drive him around. Grandpa will take care of all of that again.

What size was that?

The time has come to survey the kids bathing suits and summer clothes. They will swim at least twice a week all summer. Sunil finally did outgrow both of MY favorite suits. He's had them for nearly three years. That leaves him only the bright orange one. It is HIS favorite because it looks like Dad's. It fits better than ever... it is a size 12 Months. The child is about to turn five. That's just wrong.

Date Night

It has been a busy few days.  Friday we passed our transfer audit at work.  I got to step up and assist with the process.  I wasn't intending to be "in the room" but our Regualtory Manager had a family emergency and is still out of town.  The audit was quick and painless and we were very well prepared.

 

Late Friday afternoon Sid and I agreed to accept a placement of two girls, one eight and one seven.  Luckily for us that fell apart at the last minute.  We really don't need to have two more children to deal with.

 

Sheela took the screening exam for the talented and gifted program at school.  All she can say about the test was that it was easy and involved drawing pictures and applying captions.  One of her pictures depicted what life would be like if you had an egg for a head.  Test result will be mailed the week of June 5th.

 

While she was being tested, the Panthers were losing a soccer game.  The team started off three players short, and a fourth got sick on the field and had to be benched.  The girls played okay, not great, but not bad.  They just ran out of steam.

 

Sunil's team played later and was another of the high scoring variety more on the opponent's side than on ours.  But they played well and had fun.  They were only short one player.

 

Both kids spent the night with friend on Saturday.  Sid took me to Fogo de Chao for dinner, it's another Brazilian chop house.  Yummy!  We followed it up with a few hours at Pete's Dueling Piano Bar and dessert at IHOP.

 

We collected the kids at Sheela's soccer game today.  Super Blue finally won a game (against an older team).  Woohoo!  They played pretty well but a number of the girls were all at the same slumber party and a little bit tired.

 

On our way home we swung by the Natatorium for swimming.  The plan was to wear the kids out so that they'd take a nap.  That didn't work so well, but as I fell asleep as soon as we got home it was okay by me.  My understanding is that they went to play with a neighbor.

Tot-kwon-do

We attempted to sign up Sunil for a martial arts class at school.  Actually we tried back in Septemeber and he wasn't interested, now he has asked to join.  We signed him up, they gave him his uniform and let him come to class one time.  The next two weeks they told him not to come.  It may have been more polite when they said it, but translated through the mouth of a disappointed four-year old it sounded rather rude.  After the first time the school said they were investigating the difficulty and I failed to follow up.  It happened again this week.  The school did follow up.  It turns out that we never paid for the class.  We wrote down our credit card information and checked the box requesting that they bill the card but they didn't do it.  Apparently this was true for both the kids that tried to pay by credit card.  I'm still waiting for a call back to work out the details.  There are only four more classes before the end of the school year.  It may just not be worth it.  We've promised Sunil that we will find him a local class as soon as soccer wraps up anyway.

Belo Horizonte

It looks like Brazil might actually happen.  The discussion now is who really needs to go and who just wants to tag along.  The Latin American VP will be there the third week in May.  He'd like me to come while he is there.  The Director of R&D (I think he's going just so I don't have to travel alone) has another trip already planned for that week.  The VP of Finance wants to go and he's available that week too.  So it comes down to whether the R&D guy is neccessary or just my babysitter.  If he's neccessary it may be a month or two before we can reschedule, if he's not I'll be gone the 14-19th of May.

I'm so happy.... and proud.....

my little girl has started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  I figured it would be a few more years before she would be ready for it.  I tried to get her to read it out loud to me but we only had an hour before bedtime and apparently reading out loud slows her down too much.  I went back to my own book which wasn't nearly as good.

Choclate Daddy

I placed Mom's picture of the Chocolate Daddy iris to my desk top at work. The picture is so rich that I can smell the chocolate, or so it seems to the general public. I know that there is a bag of Hersey miniatures underneath the scanner. Even without the smell of the chocolate I would still love the picture.

Job Perk

Maybe not a perk but definitely a reward.... Our marketing department runs a contest each year for all off our patients.  They have the opportunity to write up their experiences with our products and win a prize.  It gives us a way to see the difference that we make in our patient's lives.  Here is an excerpt from this year's winner (not from her entry but from the thank you note she sent after receiving her prize)..."I hope that your use of my photos and my story of recovery will help to spread the word about the benefits of external fixation.  I am fortunate to have the use of my foot after what could have been a career ending injury.  I thank Orthofix and my doctor for a second chance."  Its always good to know that we helped.

Midnight finances

Okay, its closer to 3 AM. Sid just remembered that we set up an automatic payment that we need to cancel before it gets paid this month. Most of the payments go out tomorrow so here we are checking on it. This is sort of a good news bad news type thing. The good news is that we did already take care of this (nearly a month ago) and just forgot. The bad news is its 3:00 AM and I'm not asleep and I don't fell like going back to sleep. This isn't so bad for me but I feel sorry for everybody that will have to deal with me while I'm cranky tomorrow.

Fondue

It took us three meals to eat all of the fondue that was supposed to have been Easter dinner. There was just too much food and it takes too long to prep AND cook AND eat. So we had the cheese course for dinner on Tuesday, the chocolate course for desert on Wednesday and the oil course on Thursday (with some left over chocolate course to round out the night). I now have both Sid and Sheela hooked on the shloss sauce that I use to jazz up the steak and mushrooms.

Mom I'm still using the same recipies that we used in Canton 20+ years ago, except I did try a new cheese recipe. It has finely chopped shrimp, American cheese and cream cheese. Definitely a winner.

Play-off Tickets

I almost bought a pair of Stars vs. Avalanche tickets for tomorrow night. They were excellent seats right on the glass behind our goal. A guy at work was trying to unload them for half price. As we were working out the finer details, he realized that they were for a 2PM game and not a 7PM game. I had to back out. Oh well, its not like I had my heart set on them or anything.

Spring Fling

Anderson Elementary celebrated the end of the TAKS testing with their annual Spring Fling tonight. All four of us went this year. Nothing like a 150 kids dancing in the gym surrounded by 150 parents. As TAKS isn't administered until the 3rd grade I didn't really feel the need to celebrate its conclusion, but I definitely celebrated the end of the Spring Fling with a margarita or two after the kids went to bed.

Open House

Sunil's school had their annual Open House last night. Sunil and I went. He selected two works to demonstrate for me. The first is called Color Block II. There are two sets of colored tiles. Each set contains 12 colors. First he has to lay out the twelve tiles in a straight line, then he matched the colors from the second set to the first set and lays them along side. Then he takes the names of the colors and places them next to the proper colors. As a class work he would then color in a picture of the twelve tiles and write the correct names next to the colors. Then everything gets put neatly back away.

The second work was the 100s board. There is a wooden plaque with the numbers 10, 20...100 printed on it which is placed on the floor. Then he opens a box of ten-strands (wires each strung with 10 beads). He places one strand next to the number 10, two next to the number 20 and so on. As he places the strands he has to count the number of beads by 10s. Then he puts it all neatly back away.

I like watching the kids work, but it was more fun to go to the old school when the watching was done during a normal school day with only one or two parents there at a time. The open house was much too loud and too crowded and you don't get to see as much or the true work. I was pleased in any case.