2017 meant surgery to remove spinal hardware and infection. We were on a cruise when we heard the words "infection-free" for the first time in more than a year. Celebration! We saw our Kennedy emerge again, after almost two years of watching her disappear on us. We saw her smile, we heard her laugh, we rolled our eyes at her sarcasm.
2017 meant many opportunities to make memories - scuba diving with sharks, a cruise with a good friend, a lake weekend with awesome people, our annual family beach trip, a long weekend in NYC, more scuba diving, a couple of days at Disney, a trip to Europe (at least for Kennedy and Katie) with grandparents, a Christmas cruise with grandparents, a new boat purchase, and several other weekends spent with family and friends. On a certain June day in 2007, in the WakeMed ICU, Ryan and I decided that making memories was worth more than money in the bank and we do our best to make this happen for our girls.
2017 meant moving Katie to Atlanta. We miss her and have hopes that someday she will be close again. But it just means more road trips until then! It also means Kennedy has her bathroom back to herself, which she is more than happy about.
2017 also meant more medical issues. Although removal of the spinal hardware meant no more infection, it was serving a function for her. We know that some of the fusion took, and other parts did not fuse at all. With this and the lack of hardware, everything is moving once again - her shoulders and blades, her rib cage (which is also twisting). Her "belly" is back as her organs are being pushed out once more because of the rib cage shifting. Her right eye, which was affected during brain surgery in 2015, got worse this year which means we won't lose the bangs in her face anytime soon. Between this and the constant new symptom of freezing cold hands, we will see neurosurgery in early 2018 to check brain pressures and syrinxes from her Chiari/Syringomyelia. At least we'll be able to see her spine in the MRI since there is no hardware blocking the view.
We don't know yet what 2018 will bring. We know that at some point, a very difficult, complex, and painful surgery will be required. Whether that happens in this new year, or whether we can postpone it as long as humanly possible, will be determined by lung function tests at the end of January. Before this decision is made, a scuba trip will happen and we're hoping that kicks off what turns out to be an amazing year.
No matter what happens, we will choose happiness. Because happiness is a choice. And it is the only choice that makes sense. We hope that you all agree and choose happiness for your new year too. We all deserve it.
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