It’s been awhile since I’ve done an update – mostly because I’ve been doing pretty well! That is, until Sunday when the cellulitis came back around my right implant. I took the full 6-week course of antibiotics and had been off of them for two weeks when the infection flared back up. I was able to talk to Dr. Storm’s nurse and get my fourth(!) round of Augmentin started right away and decided it’s time to take care of this infection once and for all. My options were to take out the implant, clean up the capsule, and replace it with a new one right away, or take it out, leave it out and put it back 6-8 weeks later. With just a 50-50 chance that the infection would actually be resolved with the first option, I’ve decided to remove it for the 6-8 week time period so that my body has a chance to truly heal. The results should be much more effective. Surgery is scheduled for first thing Tuesday morning, and should take about 30 minutes. The not-so-fun part is that I’ll have to deal with drains again (and I’ll be a bit lop-sided!), but I know this is the right decision and fully trust God to heal me in this process.

I do have good news about my frozen shoulder – it’s already almost back to normal range of motion! I’ve been doing my exercises faithfully, and it’s just been the last couple of days that I’ve backed off a little bit. There’s just a little bit of tightness under my arm now.

That’s all the health updates! The photo is from last Saturday when I spent a couple hours with Kylie, helping paint their tarp for winter guard. She ended up staying until 10pm to help finish the job! We just painted over the design that was already on this one – it was from a show they did at least 5 years ago. The dark purple became black, the light purple became gray, and the neon green became white. I’m really looking forward to seeing this year’s show – I heard that parents will get to see a preview soon! Competitions will be via video submitted to the judges this year, so it will be quite different from the norm, but at least they get to perform. The other good news is that Kylie received news that she has been offered a $4000 scholarship to do color guard at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri this fall based on her video audition! It’s renewable each year she continues to participate. This is on top of the academic scholarship she’s already qualified for based on her GPA and ACT scores. She’s hoping to attend and major in Math, but we’re still waiting on the complete financial aid package to make it official.

Tara has been home on winter break since Thanksgiving and will be heading back to school this weekend. It’s been so nice to have her around, and she will definitely be missed! But I know she also misses her friends and classmates, and is ready to get back to school.

I appreciate your prayers for my surgery on Tuesday and will keep you updated on my progress!