Pray for Olivia...

After dozens of office visits, including many tests, scans, exams, etc…checking her inside and out…we have been gradually uncovering some of Olivia’s medical history. She was born with congenital scoliosis. We knew about this when we received her referral (file of information we were able to read before choosing to adopt her), but now we know a little bit more. Her first surgery is this week on May 6 at 9am. It is about a 4 hour procedure. This surgery is to fix her spinal cord. Her cord is tethered at the bottom of her spine--it isn't suppose to be, so they will be clipping it. There is also a fatty tumor called a Lipoma inside the cone at the bottom of her spine. It needs to be removed. She will need to recover flat for 3 days post-op in an attempt to keep the spinal fluid from continuing to leak. Our hospital stay will likely be 5 days. It will be at Gillette Children’s in St. Paul, MN.

This surgery doesn’t correct her scoliosis curve, but it needs to be done before they attempt any further correction. The next surgery has not been determined yet. We will meet with her Orthopedic Surgeon on May 26 for our second visit to follow up after the first surgery. We are picturing 1 or 2 or more spinal surgeries in the future.

I will continue to post updates here during our hospital stay. We would so much appreciate you surrounding us in prayer.