2 days before the op/Before and after

It's 2 days before Ava's operation to have her bone broken and the frame fitted. We're feeling nervous and I'm sure Simon and I won't get much sleep over the next few nights. The good news is that Ava seems currently unphased by everything and I'm sure will sleep like a baby. It's amazing how resilient kids are, and its the parents who constantly worry.

We need to be at the hospital on Thursday at 6am, as due to Ava's age and the length of time the surgery takes, she will be one of the first procedures performed by the consultant that day. It will take about 6 hours so I'm sure I won't be updating you all with posts for a number of days, at least until Ava is recovered from the surgery and has acclimatised to the frame on her leg.

Ava should be in hospital for 2 weeks and during that time Simon and i will take turns to sleep on the ward.  The lengthening procedure won't begin for at least a week. We'll then be given our programme and shown how to turn the various screws and struts to open the broken bones, with the aim of new bone growing in between. The consultant hopes to achieve at least 1 cm a month.

I'm going to post images so Ava's progress can be tracked. The first on this post are 'before' shots. Let's hope we see huge improvement from these pictures as the weeks progress.