If you've read my blog for a while, you've probably read some posts about Ellie, our granddaughter with Cerebral Palsy.
Well, her parents got the news yesterday that she is to have surgery January 5, 2010. This is for a Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR). Put simply, the surgeon will make an incision over her lower spine, lift off the bone, test the nerves to see which ones are causing muscle spasms, then cut them.
The muscle spasticity is a problem connected with Cerebral Palsy, and makes it difficult for Ellie to walk. By cutting the nerves causing the spasticity, this helps eliminate the scissor gait (legs crossing in front of each other when walking), and should make it easier for Ellie to walk.
It should also help with the discomfort of having tight muscles all the time. Imagine yourself trying to walk and always having a perpetual charlie horse in your legs!
The surgeon believes Ellie is an excellent candidate for this surgery, and the results would be “possibly life-changing”.
Obviously, we want Ellie to have the best chance possible to be able to walk, even though it hurts our heart to think of her having surgery, and knowing she will have pain from that, and during therapy afterwards. (If you've ever had knee or hip or any kind of surgery and/or physical therapy, think about being 4-years-old and trying to understand what's happening and why it hurts!)
Of course, the costs of traveling to the far western side of Canada for Ellie to have her surgery and then to Florida for four months to have intensive physical therapy are huge. So calendar sales this year are more important than ever!
If you'd like to Help Ellie Walk, check out our calendars! These neat little trifold calendars perch real well on top of a computer monitor. . .
. .. Or any other place in your house! And they make great gifts too!
The calendars come in three different flavors this year. The first has pictures of Ellie on it:
And the page for it can be found on Helping Ellie Walk.
The next two are pictures from around the farm here. The first has flowers:
And the information about this calendar is on the Floral Calendar page.
The other calendar has critters:
And the information about this calendar is on the Critter Calendar page.
All the profit from sales of all three types of calendars will go into the fund to help pay for Ellie's surgery and therapy.
Hey, you get a handy-dandy calendar and get to help a really cute little girl at the same time!
I'd call that a win-win situation!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh! Sweet Ellie Boo! Surgery is no fun at all. But I hope the end result gives Ellie a better quality of life. Such a beautiful girl deserves to have a happy, active life. I will plan on buying at least one calendar, maybe two. I love the critter calendar you gave me after my surgery and it sits beside my bed, and I see it every day.
I also hope you don’t mind if I create a banner to place on my blog’s side-bar to send folks over here to purchase a calender, too.
~Lisa
Wow, Lisa, of course I don’t mind if you want to put a banner on your blog about Ellie’s calendar. That’s pretty cool! Thanks!!!
Good Morning,
How much are the calendars? I’d like to buy the farm animal one.
Also, are Guinee Fowl good mothers? we found a nest with about 30 eggs in it but no one sitting. I’ve put a bunch in the incubator and they are still laying but I am completely ignorant about them.
Cheers
Alys