Good News

We received a terrific letter yesterday related to a recent doctor appointment for Maddie's jaw.

To back up a little, in May, 2006, my Maddie leaned against her bedroom window screen and fell from the second floor to the driveway below, miraculously breaking only her jaw. She had jaw surgery performed by a man who's become a true hero of ours, Dr. Donald Mackay, and she's been seeing him yearly along with a team of doctors including orthodontists, prosthodontists, and dentists to watch her growth. At her December '08 visit, he thought he saw something that concerned him on the x-ray our regular dentist took, and he asked us to come back in the summer, with Maddie having a CT-scan before the visit.

At that appointment he talked about a lot of things, but I left remembering only that she may need more surgery, perhaps borrowing bone from her hip to put into her jaw. Dave remembers a lot more, and thought I was dwelling on the negative, but since I am a person who dwells on the negative, that's what I came away with, and I was dreading this appointment.

However, the CT-scan showed excellent growth. It showed that her jaw had deviated from its correct position by only a few degrees, and that there were living cells and blood in the patched-up area of the jaw (he was concerned that there weren't in December).

And he told us at the appointment, and again more formally in the letter we received, "At this time we recommend Madeline be dismissed from team evaluations."

Oh, sweet music to my ears!

There may be bumps ahead in the road, but she's passed a major roadblock, and now she's zooming happily toward braces (she's soooo excited for those) which have only to do with crooked and crowded teeth...not with a broken jaw.

I just can't express my happiness. We are so lucky.