Wearing Bikinis and Drinking Beer

 Did I get your attention with the title of this post?
 The girl in the photo...you guessed it...me.
Wasn't I cute?
Definitely in need of a little discretion with the alcohol...and ALOT more modesty with the swimwear :)
Don't worry, there was no beer left in the bottle...but what in the world is with that bathing suit top?
Why even put it on me? Though very cute, it doesn't look very comfortable and doesn't really serve any purpose. I am sure my mom loved putting me in it.
My dad had a total knee replacement this morning, so I wanted to do a post that would make him smile and let him know we are praying for a speedy recovery. Get well soon dad! We love you!

Another Summer, Another Surgery

Yes, you read it right. Last Tuesday while tumbling at a pro tennis event in King of Prussia, Bill ruptured his achilles tendon. He had surgery on Friday and is recovering on the couch in a cast. We are praying for a speedy recovery. By God's grace, Bill will continue being the mascot but will have to from now on limit his tumbling & dunking. God continues to show us that He is our provider and that there is no thing he has not ordained or allowed for His great purposes. We know that we can only see the partial picture of His great plan for us, so that's where faith comes in. As I type I am reminded of the verse, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God". I am grateful for friends and family who pray (and bring meals)...That has been a tremendous blessing for our family.

Matthew's Surgery #2

Matthew's surgery was yesterday at 1:30 and completed at 2:15. He did very well. He did not once complain he was hungry and was the happiest little guy there. We arrived at duPont at 10am so the wait was a bit long. Since it is a children's hospital they have wagons to transport the kids...here is Matthew at the start of our day. The play area helped pass the time and so did the "giggle juice" and the TV. Here are some shots of our long day
Matthew enjoying the waiting room & daddy getting him ready

Watching TV & being silly after taking "giggle juice"

Even Bubba had his own ID tag! Thanks to everyone for the prayers, emails and calls... and a special thanks goes to Rachel for watching the girls...they had a great time baking cookies and playing dress-up!

The Latest on Hip-Hop

Press Release:

76ERS PLACE HIP-HOP ON INJURED RESERVE: POPULAR MASCOT TO BEGIN REHABILITATION EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

YOUNG FANS ENCOURAGE TO SEND CARDS AND WELL WISHES FOR SPEEDY RECOVERY

Philadelphia, Pa. – August 4, 2008 – The Philadelphia 76ers today placed their mascot Hip-Hop on the injured reserve list after the popular and entertaining mascot suffered an injury to his knee while attempting one of his sky-walking dunks for a group of children.

Effective immediately, Hip-Hop is beginning an extensive rehabilitation program.

"We expect Hip-Hop to make a full recovery," said Senior Vice President of Business Operations Lara Price. "We know how badly he wants to return and we know how much his fans are looking forward to him getting back on the court to perform the dunks that made him famous."

Hip-Hop, a 10-year veteran, has only missed one game since joining the club after attending college at John "Hop" Kins University. The only time he was forced to miss action was due to birth of his first bunny, during Game Five of the 2001 NBA Finals.

Hip-Hop is determined to return to form in time for the start of the regular season. The Sixers have created a dedicated space at SIXERS.COM where fans can monitor his progress every "hop" of the way.

Young fans are encouraged to send "Get Well" cards which can be dropped in a mailbox located in Hip-Hop’s Garden for Kids at the Wachovia Center, or via mail to:

Hip-Hop’s Health Watch
C/o Philadelphia 76ers
The Wachovia Center
3601 S. Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA, 19148

On The Mend

Here's a shot of Bill's "new" knee from a week ago. His quad and calf muscles are a bit smaller from being immobilized after the injury. The knee looks great...no swelling & the incisions are all healed...it looks a little like a road map now after three surgeries. Bill has been working real hard to rehab it and has made huge strides in his strength already. He can ride the bike now and is even doing single-leg squats against a wall. I am really proud of him and continue to marvel at his strength and focus in getting well. Keep up the good work honey.......I love you!!

Crazy Summer Update

I love this picture my dad took of the kids. It makes me think of how summer should be...happy, calm, relaxing and fun. Those are not the words I would describe this summer...though there have certainly been special memories made...Dutch Wonderland, birthdays, and Linvilla Orchards. Stressful, busy, scary, messy, chaotic...are words that seem to fit better. Even though the summer has been this way it does not mean God is not in control, loving & faithful. I know he sees the big picture..."He works ALL THINGS for the GOOD of those who love Him". I am holding on to that truth. So here's an update on all the Roths...

Bill's doctor apt was this morning. He called praising God...happy & upbeat. The doctor could not believe how good Bill's knee looked. Usually the surgeons need to drain the knee the first post-op visit but Bill had "no swelling" in his knee! (Answered prayer #1). He can now bend the knee to 90 degrees and walk on it in the brace. He begins Physical Therapy today as well.

Matthew is doing well. We saw the doctor yesterday & she thought the ear would heal normally and the swelling on his head went down. (Answered prayer #2).

They begin putting up drywall in the garage, bedroom and bathroom today. We also hired a painter who will paint within our budget. We were going to paint ourselves but with Bill's knee we figured it would be better to hire someone. (Answered prayer #3).

Madison is doing well wearing her new orthotics. It is hard to keep sneakers on her in the summer. Adrienne is happy & healthy and really growing tall & lean. We are all looking forward to our vacation down the shore in August. So that's all for now. I hope everyone reading this is enjoying summer.

Another Crazy Day

Most of you heard about my son Matthew and the incident at Home Depot. Here is a picture of my baby's ear...poor guy. He is doing fine today so I thought I'd share the whole story here.The AC was going to be off at our house most of the day as we were getting a whole new unit put in that would heat & cool the addition as well as the existing house. Of course it was going to be in the low 90's and humid...so we planned to try to be out of the house & in AC most of the day. We went to breakfast at Tom Jones (Bill & Madison are big Blue Ribbon Special fans) and then headed over to Home Depot to look at ceiling fans for our new bedroom. While walking through the store I made a quick left turn to look at some vanity samples & Matthew must have followed me. A second later I heard him screaming and all I saw was this vanity & sink lying on my son with the sink pressed into his head. I pulled it off him and noticed a bleeding ear & a bruise across his head. It was so scary...I started praying right away & so did Madison. Matthew & I took the ambulance to the ER where he quickly perked up (after some Motrin)...he seemed fine. There was some swelling on his head but no "step down" as they call it which can be a sign of a fracture. The doctors observed him for an hour and he was released. We arrived home at 3:30 to an air conditioned home...thank God. It was certainly a scary day. All I can say is that I believe God protected my son from a serious injury. The vanity had one of those sinks that juts forward, making the vanity...which was just standing in one of the isles...extremely unsteady. As for me...I'm just about done seeing doctors, surgeons and ER's. I'm ready for vacation!!!!

Bill's Surgery

Well I thought everyone would enjoy the before & after pictures of Bill today. We went in at 9:30, surgery started at 1pm & we were home by 5:30. Dr. Marchetto explained how it all went. He was happy at the overall condition of the knee. He shaved a little of the meniscus that was torn, removed the old screw from Bill's first ACL repair, and placed a cadaver achilles tendon into the knee as the new ACL. He was able to leave in a few old staples (they would have been difficult to remove) and also noticed that a small portion of Bill's PCL was actually still attatched...praise God!! Bill was a little loopy after surgery & asked me the same question 3 times...(hehe, poor guy)...I was so happy to see him, I didn't mind.

Bill is now resting in his CPM (continuous passive motion) machine which bends & straightens his leg and under his dressing is an ice pack which I have hooked up to a cooler to pump cold water to his knee. His knee is still numb from the femoral block (nerve block to numb the leg), but I'm sure he'll need the percocet tomorrow.

So all is well. Thank you for your prayers & a big thanks to Emily for watching the kids all day & for the wonderful meal from Whitney. We'll keep you posted on my man's knee so keep checkin in!

Surgery Update

Bill saw the Philadelphia Eagle's Orthopedic Surgeon this morning and they scheduled surgery for July 16th. The good news is that because of Bill's "normal" joint laxity (loose knee joints) the Dr feels he does not need to repair the PCL and will be giving Bill a new ACL that is reinforced, most likely a cadaver tendon. He feels that because Bill's knees normally hyperextend (like many gymnasts) the PCL would be useless and only make for a longer recovery. In the mean time Bill will be rehabing the knee and allowing time to heal the large bone bruise he has in his femur (caused by the jump off the trampoline). So thanks for all your prayers...we still need them...this road has just begun.
In this picture of Bill's knee, if you look real close you can see his shin sag a bit. This is the sign you see in someone who has no ACL/PCL. Pretty cool huh...I love this ortho stuff.

And now onto my daughter Madison. She has flat feet as you can see. They look alot like her daddy's feet but unfortunately she is starting to pronate (or roll inward) which is causing her some pain. I need to find a good foot doc because I think she will need some sort of shoe insert.
And lastly my boy. He saw the doctor today & the bandage is off. His sutures are absorbable so he didn't need to have them removed. It looks good. It straightens all the way now so he's happy...and so are we.

Here We Go Again

Well, it was an exciting Thursday at the Roth home. The builders began excavation, 2 ladies came to paint my kitchen cabinets because they were turning yellow (warranties are wonderful things), and in the middle of all the chaos that comes with that and having 3 kids, Bill calls to tell me "I just blew out my knee".

He was performing at a Sixers camp and while jumping off the tramp, felt his knee go out. This is the same knee that he had injured in his gymnastics days. He had his patellar tendon repaired & and ACL repair as well. It looks like something is torn but until we get the MRI & see the doc on Monday, it's hard to say which one(s). We are pretty sure this will require some extensive surgery. We'll keep you updated.

I know I promised pictures of Madison's parties...& I will get to them, but I wanted to show a picture of my poor honey & Adrienne, and here's a shot of our driveway...soon-to-be garage.

Matthew's Surgery

Well today Matthew had surgery for his thumb. (It was moved up from July 8th to today). It went very well! We were worried because he could not eat or drink anything this morning and surgery didn't begin until 12. He doesn't usually do well if he is hungry, but today he was great. We went to a surgery center in Chalfont, PA and the doctors & nurses were so wonderful. They gave him "giggle juice" which basically made him laugh & smile and roll his head around and be really silly. Bill & I were laughing so hard I was crying (& so were all the nurses). He kept trying to sit up but kept hitting his head on the side of the bed...poor guy. They took him in and about 10 minutes later the doctor appeared telling us it was a success. They simply cut the pulley that the flexor tendon runs through (because apparently we really don't need it), and now the thumb can straighten & bend without getting caught.

I cried a little seeing my baby lie on the big surgical bed so little and all hooked up. He woke up happy to see "Bubba" and "Bippy" and rested in my lap while he enjoyed an orange slushie. We got him dressed, popped him in the car and he ate 3 bags of teddy grahams. He got a little grumpy when he realized he was having trouble using his right hand but other than that, he did great. We are glad it's over & thankful for the Lord's protection. Now we just have to make sure he keeps the soft cast on for a week. He already tried to do a handstand with it on today so I'm sure it will be a challenge to say the least. I have some pictures of Madison's birthday weekend to post so watch for them & have a good week!

Doctor Visit

Happy Monday everyone!

Well we took the family into Philly to CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) to see Dr. Cornwall. He is one of a handful of Pediatric hand surgeons. Funny thing we found out...he was a gymnast at Stanford the same time Bill & I competed at Temple. He knew alot of the guys Bill competed against...what a small world. Anyway, Matthew appears to have a small nodule in each thumb on the inside which is causing his right thumb to get stuck in flexion. The left thumb is not "triggering" so that thumb will not require surgery. He is scheduled for surgery on July 8th. We'll need a sitter for the girls that day because the surgery center is about 50 minutes away...any takers??? The "trigger thumb release" literally takes 4 minutes and requires a small incision and 3 absorbable sutures. He will need general anesthesia because he needs to be perfectly still...obviously. He'll have a padded bandage on for a week and be good to go after that.

HOME ADDITION UPDATE: Well we got the construction loan & will be closing soon. We are waiting on permits but as soon as we have them we are good to go. This is quite exciting! The thought of having my own sink and a closet that fits both my summer & winter clothes makes me giddy!

Trigger Thumb

Also known as Acquired Thumb Flexion Contracture. As you can see by the picture Matthew has a thumb stuck in about 30 degrees of flexion. No wonder the poor boy started holding his fork & spoon in an under grip instead of the normal way...poor thing cannot straighten out his thumb! I noticed it last Saturday at breakfast with my parents. The strange thing is ever since he was born I would notice him always moving his thumbs in weird ways. Almost like he was trying to stretch the thing out.(I guess that's why he never became a thumb sucker like his sisters...probably could not get it in his mouth). When they are little their hands are always clenched & then as they grow their hands are so chubby, parents usually don't catch it until around 18months or so. The basic problem is the tendon that allows the thumb to bend gets stuck (in simplest terms). We will be going to CHOP (Children's Hospital in Philadelphia) in June to see a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. Matthew will most likely need surgery to correct the problem. We'll keep you posted after we see the doc. Happy friday & thumbs up!!