Countdown to surgery--1 week away!

As we are packing and getting ready to leave on our trip, I figured I would restart up the blog so we could have a centralized place to post updates on how Alex is doing.  As many of you know, we thought long and hard about doing this surgery and had her evaluated at both St. Louis and Minneapolis.  While it would have been 100x easier to do it in St. Louis, we just felt so much more comfortable with the team of doctors in Minnesota and a pain in the butt though it may be, we feel really good about starting her recovery with a team of people who see rhizotomy patients every day.  The rhizotomy surgery that Alex is having next Wednesday will permanently reduce some of the spasticity she has, which is largely what limits her mobility.  It will hopefully help her be more comfortable because her muscles won't be as tight, should make some movements easier, and hopefully will help her muscles get stronger.  But it will take several months, *possibly* up to a year  to regain her pre-surgery mobility, so this is definitely a long haul ordeal.  We have talked to Alex about it quite a bit, and she is no stranger to lots of therapy and seems signed on and invested in the process.  Luckily for us, we found out that a girl we met in therapy last year who Alex really liked had this surgery done at the same place in the fall.  Her mom gave us a link to her blog, and we were able to show Alex her friend using all the same equipment and activities that Alex will be doing, and I think that helped her feel more at ease with the whole idea.