Stress Fracture

Rachel started complaining of some ankle pain around the 1st week of September. She complained a little, but after her 1st soccer game on the 10th she was in tears because of the pain. The following Monday, I tried to get her an appt. at Knoxville Orthopaedic Clinic (KOC), but they didn't have any openings that day, so I took her to the after hours clinic there. The physician's assistant had it x-rayed and seemed a little puzzled by the x-ray. He indicated there was an anomaly on her ankle bone and wanted her to stay off of it for 2-3 weeks and then see one of the doctors at KOC. After Robert & I discussed this more, we decided we didn't like the word "anomaly" so we scheduled an appt. with Dr. Crawford, who is the pediatric orthopaedic doctor at KOC who did both of Katelyn's knee surgeries. We saw him on the 16th. He too was a little puzzled by the x-ray. He said the x-ray looked like Rachel's ankle had been broken/fractured 4-6 weeks ago and that there was actually new bone growth there trying to heal itself. But since we could not remember any type of injury she might have had, Dr. Crawford wanted to get an MRI on her ankle just to get a better look. Rachel had the MRI on Thursday (22nd). We went back to see Dr. Crawford yesterday to get the MRI results. Official diagnosis is a stress fracture of her medial malleolus, which is the small ankle bone on the inside of her foot. The good news is it's not a weight bearing bone, so he didn't see any reason to put her in a cast or boot. It does appear to be trying to heal itself. However, he wants Rachel to limit activities where she is cutting/moving side to side. So soccer is out for three weeks! Rachel is pretty bummed about that. However, the funny part of the doctor's orders is that he said she could swim, but she doesn't need to do breast stroke because of the kick. Rachel hates the breast stroke, so she is more than willing to comply with this part of the doctor's orders!!! Hopefully, after 3 weeks she will no longer have any pain and can get back to her normal activities. However, if she is having any kind of pain at all, we have to take her back to the doctor.

Team Day & Wacky Day

This past week we had spirit week at school. Wednesday was favorite team day; Thursday was PJ day; and Friday was wacky day. Katelyn dressed up all three days; however, I didn't get pictures of her in her PJs on Thursday. For favorite team day she dressed up in support of the Lady Vols! She wore her t-shirt from basketball camp that was signed by Pat Summitt and most of the Lady Vols! She also took her basketball to school with her that was signed by Pat. We tore some of the streamers out of a shaker and put them in her pigtails. I must say - she was pretty cute!

For PJ day she wore a pair of her PJs and her robe. I tried to get her to wear sponge rollers in her hair, but she didn't want to.

For Wacky day we picked out an outfit the night before. It's actually pretty tough to come up with a wacky outfit! You want to make sure it's really wacky, and not just something that's a little wacky. You don't want people having to wonder if you're dressed up for wacky day or if that's just the way you normally dress!!!

Celebrating in Kingston

We celebrated Rachel's birthday last Sunday with Mamaw & Papaw and Lloyd & Wendy. We grilled burgers and Wendy made Rachel a strawberry cake (which is always Rachel's request!). Rachel had a wonderful time!!!

Rachel is 10

It's hard to believe, but Rachel is now in double digits! We started out the day with Rachel opening her gifts from the three of us, then we headed to soccer practice. Rachel had a good surprise later in the afternoon when Puddin & Papa met us at Mamaw & Papaw's house for some swimming and supper! We had a great visit with them. Too bad I forgot to take my camera!

Here are some pictures from her birthday morning at our house.

Rachel's 10th Birthday with Friends

I know I'm a little behind in posting on here, so I'm trying to catch up a little bit. Rachel turned 10 on Sept. 3rd. She had a backyard party with her friends on the 2nd. She just wanted to have all her friends over to hang out in the backyard, play some kickball, and eat pizza! It was a hot night (90+ degrees) but a fun night! We had a great turnout and played until it got dark. Instead of gifts, Rachel asked that her friends bring new or used books to donate to Bell Central School in KY. Our church partners with them through Mission of Hope and they use the books as part of their reading incentive program. Rachel collected books for them at her party last year, and Katelyn collected books at her party this year. Rachel's friends had an overwhelming response to the request for books and brought over 125 books!!! That's awesome!!!