Introduction

I am not a very creative person. Writing isn't really one of my strongest points. This blog is just an outlet for me to express my thoughts and things that are going on in my life. I have a very hectic life. And because of that, this post is going to be extremely long. Not all of my posts will be this long!

 My daughter was born with VACTERL Association. VACTERL is an acronym and the letters stand for: Vertabrae, Anus, Cardiac, Trachea, Esophagus, Renal (kindey), and Limb. Olivia has many congenital "defects". I HATE that word. I am going to steal another parent's word and call them "perfects". (Unfortunately, I don't know what parent originally said that, otherwise I would give them credit!) Olivia was born with underdeveloped sacral bones, an imperforate anus (meaning that there is no hole on the outside of her body for stool to pass through), a cloacal malformation (where the vagina, urethra, and anus are fused together and there is only one hole to the outside of her body), three holes in her heart, two of which closed on their own and the last one is minor and causes no murmur, hyronephrosis (fluid filled kidneys), kidney failure, right radial aplasia (missing the radius on the right), left thumb hypoplasia (floating thumb, there is no joint). Also, something that is associated with VACTERL but not included in the description, she had a cleft palate that was repaired on the 11th of January. Olivia has had a total of four surgeries: when she was a day old they had to make a colostomy, at three days old she had a vesicostomy put in, May 2009 she had her vesicostomy revised because her bladder prolapsed, and finally her cleft palate repair this month. She will also be having another surgery to repair the cloacal malformation, then three months after that surgery (if all goes well) she will have another surgery to take down the colostomy and vesicostomy. After she heals from that, she will have a surgery to straighten her arm. Once healed, she will have yet another surgery to remove her left hypoplastic thumb and have her index fingers moved down into the thumb position.

Olivia, despite of all of her medical problems and hospitalizations and surgeries, is a very happy 15 month old! She was diagnosed failure to thrive so she is very small, weighing 14.5 pounds. She makes up for her size with attitude! I just wanted to introduce all of you potential readers to Olivia so that down the road when I post about her you will have some background knowledge.

I look forward to meeting new people through our blogs.. If you have any questions at all, feel free to ask me anything.