The Case of the Crazy Long Big Toes

So.....I was born with REALLY long big toes.  Now this wouldn't be so weird except for the fact that the other toes are super short.  I HATED my toes growing up.  It was really embarrassing to me.  I have NEVER in my life met anyone that had toes like me.  So when I was 15 years old I had to have ankle reconstruction surgery (another long story for another day) and my orthopedic surgeon asked if he could shorten my big toes.  My response was, "YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
After surgery I went from a size 13 to a size 11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
Wooo Hoooo!!!! 
 Even though I have pain and problems with my toes from the surgery, I am really grateful to this doctor for helping me with something that made me feel like a freak of nature.  Trust me I already had enough on my plate in the feeling like a freak of nature department - I was 6'1" by age 12.

So here is what my toes looked like 

BEFORE surgery

So the REAL reason for this post is to talk about my daughter.  UNFORTUNATELY,  she inherited my toes......SERIOUSLY??!!??!!??!!  NOT cool.  

 So here is a picture of her right big toe (the left side toes look the same).  Weird, right??  Anyways, my husband and I took her to a pediatric orthopedic surgeon about 6 months ago to see what our options were.  I wanted them to fix the toes, but I was hoping they had a better way to do it than what they did to my toes back in 1986.  We decided the least evasive option was to have minor surgery and fuse the growth plate in her toe that was EXCESSIVELY long.  The doctor is hopeful that big toe will stop growing and the little toes will catch up some.  If this doesn't work then when she is a teen and done growing we can look at shortening the toe.  FYI: She already wears a size 8 1/2 women's shoe at age 7!!!!

So we scheduled her surgery for the 1st week in April during her spring break.  She did NOT want to miss any school - she LOVES school.

We had to be at Doernbecher Children's Hospital at 6 am...yikes!!  So we decided to get a hotel room in downtown Portland and have some fun the day before.   We went to G6 Air park in Vancouver with Aunty Kim and left Berkeley with her.  We then checked into the Hilton downtown.  They gave us a corner room with windows lining two walls.  It was an AMAZING view.

 We then got all pretty and we went out to dinner at a yummy Italian restaurant. 

 While we were eating we spotted Wolf Man

 Carlie LOVED having one on one time with her mommy and daddy.  After dinner we got some junk food, went swimming,and then tried to go to bed early. We had to be up at 5 am!!!

 Presenting Carlie Aldridge

 having fun with the revolving door

waiting at for the valet at 5:45 am

 cuddling with her pillow pet from grandma

 got the gown on....time to rock this surgery

 Popsicle time in recovery - still pretty groggy

 bloody toes - but super cute pink and purple bandages!!

 waiting for the pain meds at the hospital pharmacy

 another shot of the toes. 

Here is what Berkeley was doing while we were at the hospital before the crack of dawn.  Snuggle time with cousin Adan!!!!  So cute!!!

Carlie was such a great patient.  She was very brave and didn't need any pain meds after the 1st day.  She was told to walk on her heels for the next 5 days and then she could go to school.  She spent a few days on the couch being spoiled rotten and playing with the surgery care package my mom had sent her.  She was afraid to walk so she crawled around for a few days.  Wish I had taken a picture of that.  Anyways, Corey's family was having an Easter weekend get together in The Dalles the weekend after her surgery.  We told Carlie we wouldn't be able to go unless she started walking - guess what?... 5 minutes later after crying about it she was walking around.  I guess she really wanted to go :)