Super Nash: Trip to Florida in February

Our latest trip to Florida was at the end of February. We went to see Dr. Paley for Nash's 6 month Superhip post-op X-rays. My sister, Annie, Nash and I went and we had a BLAST!! Chris stayed home with our little Hattie. She came down with RSV right before we left so he gave her lots of love and snuggle time. She was all better by the time we got home!

We landed in Florida on Saturday afternoon and it was sunny and beautiful. We were on the way to the hotel and Nash had been SO EXCITED to go swimming and he hadn't stopped talking about it for days!! He tried so hard to stay awake, but by the time we finally got to the hotel, he was zonked out. We let him nap for a little bit but as soon as he got up, we went to the pool. It was getting kind of late and the sun had started to go down. We were the only ones in the pool but by golly, he went swimming :) While we were at the pool, we got to meet a little girl named Kaylee. She had just finished her Superhip surgery a few days before so she was at the pool in her cast. I got to meet her grandma, Sandra, and her mom, Ashley. They were such a wonderful family and it was so nice to talk to them. It felt good to talk to them because I could finally return the favor of giving advice to someone going through something we had already endured. Kaylee was such a sweet little girl, I hope we get to see them again sometime!

Sitting with Annie on the Airplane

All ready to go!

Finally got to go SWIMMING!!!

The next day we had the whole day to goof off. We decided to go to the Zoo first and then the beach. He was BEYOND excited to go see all the animals. He wanted to see "lions, monkeys, elephants, and a polar bear"! We didn't see any of those, but we DID see turtles, all kinds of birds, alligators, a jaguar, snakes, lizards, a peacock, an owl, deer, and a few other animals. He was thrilled :) He still talks about it!

Next was the beach. It was PACKED!! It was a beautiful, hot, sunny day. It was absolutely perfect. Nash had such a blast and so did we. It was fun just watching him enjoy the beach so much. He even buried our feet in the sand. It was a little hard for him to walk around in the sand so he fell down a lot. He didn't care though...we just went to the water and washed off and kept on playing!

After the beach we went to meet our friend, Sarah. (Nash's girlfriend) She works at a restaurant near the beach. It was AMAZING food, a fun visit and Nash got to see his girlfriend :) It was a perfect way to end the day.

Looking at some pretty cool birds at the Zoo

The Owl

My sweetie

Having so much fun!!

Burying Annie's feet

At the beach getting dirty

The Polar Bear we found at the Zoo!

Eating dinner with Sarah :)

Monday was the big day for the appointment. We were up pretty early so we went to the pool. Then we played some mini golf and spent the rest of the morning 'looking for lizards'. Nash had a new obsession. Those little lizards are everywhere and he was just tickled when he saw them :)

We went to Nash's appointment at 1:30pm. From our past experience at the office, we were prepared to be there for a while. After playing in the waiting room for about 30 minutes, they called his name to go get x-rays. We all went into the x-ray room and took a couple pictures. When we went to go sit back in the waiting room, we could hardly sit down and they called us back. We sat in a room for about 10 minutes. A woman named Jennifer Scott came and introduced herself as the "Family Care Coordinator". The funny thing was, I recognized her because she was one of the VERY first people to reach out to me after I joined the PFFD.org page. It was a "support group" for other PFFD families. Her daughter is a couple years older than Nash and she just finished her first lengthening. Jennifer said she just decided to move to Florida so she could help Dr. Paley and other families like hers. She was very helpful and super nice! She will be a wonderful person to contact in the future for planning and support.

Shortly after we were talking, Dr Paley walked in! He had 2 other doctors following him that day and a PA. They were looking at the x-rays and talking to each other. I couldn't hear what they were saying but what I did catch was "Amazing Recovery"!! Dr. Paley was extremely happy with how Nash had healed and his Range of motion was really good. The doctors were even joking because one of the positions he compared to Nash's other leg, and his "superhip" side had better ROM! It seemed like he was pretty proud of that :) He let me ask a lot of questions and he answered them all. He is a man of few words so you have to have your questions ready. The main question was "Is he ready for lengthening"? The answer is, yes. He will be ready in August, 2013. He also said it is our decision when we begin the process. He said it would be best to do it between his 3rd and 4th birthday. All of this was wonderful news!! We couldn't have gotten a better report. We left the appointment and I gave a sigh of relief. We got the news that we were hoping for and Nash can just be a kid for another year.

The rest of the trip went fast. I was so thankful my sister could come and share this time with Nash and me. She got to see where we go in Florida and meet Dr. Paley. I really loved having her there for support and for fun!!

Chris and I are pretty sure we are going to wait until the beginning of 2014 to begin Nash's lengthening process. That gives us a better part of a year to save and prepare for our big 4 month stay in Florida. Its going to be tough but we are so thankful for the support we have now and the new friends we've made through out this journey so far!!