This & That

So, you might be wondering what this is. Unfortunately, this is Jasmine's foot. As you can see, some of the toes don't have all their bones. From the outside, you can see the large toe, which lays flat against her foot. The next two spots are empty, then there is sort of a double little toe. It was on the side of the foot. Most doctors just wanted to cut it off. I didn't let anyone touch it until I found a doctor who was willing to try and move the toe(s) to a more normal placement.



At the time she was a foster child and one doctor actually asked me, "What difference does it make (if we cut off the toes)? She's a black medicaid foster child." I seriously didn't know what to say to that. I couldn't believe he actually said it. I finally said, "So if this was your child you'd save the toes because she's worth more????" And then I grabbed all our junk and walked out. Never went back. Wouldn't have mattered. That doctor said he would have nothing more to do with our case. Wow. Showed me, huh? Like I'd ever let him near her with a scapel.

Thankfully we found a doctor who fixed her club foot, released the tendons on her fused toes on the left foot, split the fingers on her left hand and moved the toes on the right foot. He did not treat us any differently than any other patient. It was a different hospital, and there was a world of difference. The one who did the surgery was in Augusta, GA, and it's a wonderful hospital. Every child has a private room with a bed for the parent. No shoving four kids into one room with only chairs for the parents to sleep in like the other hospital (which is where she goes for cranio facial but it's a different doctor.)

This all happened when she was 18 months old, but I bring it up now because she's been having pain in her big toe. If you see the white band between the joints, that, unfortunately, is arthritis. So now we know. They may do something about it at a later time. For now, no more surgeries. She's had four in the past two years and many more earlier.

In other news, issues at school of course. Seems Kayla was eating her lunch on the bus, and then showing her teacher that she only had a bag of carrots for lunch! So she was given a hot lunch (which they expect us to pay for!). She did this again the next day. I wonder how long it would have gone on before someone checked with me if my neighbor, who works part time at the school, hadn't seen her in the lunch line and asked me if she was supposed to be getting hot lunch. Did the school REALLY think I'd only send carrots? And why would one twin have a full lunch box and the other not? And what happened to the no charge rule? Kids who don't have a lunch or lunch money are to be given a sandwhich and a piece of fruit not a full hot meal with dessert!

Rick and Jessica are at Fort Benning for Jeff's graduation tomorrow (Friday) morning.

Ty is learning hard lessons about the cost of college. He is living on poptarts, cereal and noodle cups. He seems to be adjusting well to campus life, though. He's gone to church at the Baptist Student Union, and has gone to some other activities. I am going to pick him up this weekend and take him to Destin where the others are going to meet us Monday for snorkeling. So he won't actually be coming home, but we'll all be together on Labor Day.

This is getting long so I'll update more on school later. And hopefully have some pictures from the weekend.