Cheering for M

When people see my Angel Girl, they notice her gentle, strawberry-blonde curls. They see her teeny, tiny stature. They hear her soft, sweet voice.

They very possibly interpret those beautiful qualities as being small or slight.

Even weak.

But I get to be her Momma, so I know her better than anyone.

And I know that my Angel Girl – Maci Maree Montgomery – is one of the strongest, toughest, fiercest people you’ll ever be blessed to know.

Today, her fortitude, her resilience, and her determination will once again be tested.

This time with a surgery that ten days ago we had no inclination she needed.

Sadly, it’s “not her first rodeo.”

In fact, this will be surgery #4.

On April 2, 2002, Maci underwent strabismus surgery to reconstruct the outer muscles of her eyes. Basically, when her muscles were in alignment, her pupils were pointing upwards. At 19 months old, she gazed up at everyone through the most incredible eyelashes that resembled a practiced and playful flirt that some women never master. And while her look was unbelievably adorable, it was a condition that had to be corrected.

In the spring and summer of 2016, Maci had two surgeries to remove benign tumors, one within the skin of her eyelid and the other on her femur.

I hate to say, but this time around, the procedures are more complex, and although I love to talk, I am actually better at writing descriptions than I am at speaking them.

Her family and friends will want to know what it going on, and it’s not an easy explanation.

For that reason, and to hopefully be helpful to any other moms who find themselves walking this path, I’d like to share Maci’s story (with her full agreement and approval)…

Towards the end of July – just three months ago – Maci said that her back was consistently hurting when she tumbled. Two of SonShine’s best friends very highly recommended a chiropractor here in Tulsa. We made an appointment with Dr. Michael Peterson, and began working with him on August 5th.

The boys weren’t lying – he’s incredible!

I’ve always been a tad bit scared of chiropractors, but Dr. Peterson addressed her back pain with exercises that made perfect sense to my yogi mind. Within the first few visits, she was feeling great, so he asked to address the limited range of motion in her neck and shoulders.

Again, within a couple of visits, she was moving with freedom and fluidity for the first time in what I now realize was probably a few years.

Next, we focused on her hips and then got to her ankles and feet, which Dr. Peterson pointed out were flat and rigid.

That wasn’t news to us. We have always accepted it as the way she is made. And we certainly didn’t realize the implications of what flat and rigid feet can cause.

For years we’ve teased her (gently and lovingly) about her lack of arches and her love of Converse – she was the only girl with warm, comfy toes when the Oklahoma weather took a nosedive for the junior prom.

She’s always had very sensitive and very narrow feet. She dislikes the fit of most styles of shoes, especially struggling to find high heels that she can tolerate for more than a few hours.

In addition to that, she is not naturally flexible. And not just in her feet; she has fought flexibility – in a sport that requires it – her entire life.

Honestly, until I took my yoga teacher training course, her inability to stretch was a hard one for me. I was never as toned nor athletic as Maci, but even now, I can hit the splits almost as easily as when I was her age.

Over the years, I have felt her deep frustration; she can spend hours and hours per week working on flexibility and get almost no return on the investment.

When I say, “over the years,” it’s been a few…like 16 of them.

Her first venture into the world of velvet leotards and matching hair scrunchies was a “Creative Movement” class for 3 year olds. It was controlled chaos as her group of preschoolers ran and giggled and rolled and climbed in a huge building with colorful, squishy mats and “big” girls performing all kinds of amazing tricks on gymnastics apparatus while fun, upbeat music blared in the background.

She was hooked!

When she aged out of that class, she started beginner-level gymnastics, just a recreational class once a week. Within a few months, she asked if she could go the gym more.

In the spring of 2005, she asked to join the gym’s “show” team. Their competitive cheer program technically started at age 5, so she wasn’t allowed to perform until after her birthday, but she didn’t care one bit. Practice only was fine with her – she just loved being part of the team!

Since then, she has never looked back.

Cheerleading, tumbling, gym time, stunt classes, extra lessons, camps, competitions, and performances have been her thing. It’s been her passion and her sport and the place she loves to be.

Tension in her ligaments and joints was always a challenge, but not a deterrent. Then, around middle school she began to have more than tension, she began feeling ligament and joint discomfort.

She’s experienced achey joints and pain in her wrists and ankles on and off. But, every gymnast, tumbler, and cheerleader – myself included – has fought through those bumps and bruises on more than one occasion.

And, although looking back I can see where those challenges might have slowed her progression through new skills, she never gave up. She never quit working, so she never stopped advancing.

On top of that, my girl is T-U-F-F-TOUGH.

Other than asking for wrist braces, she’s never said much about it.

Then, over the last 2-3 months, she confessed to feeling pain, pain that was more than the normal aches or discomfort, and much more often. On top of that, the pain was escalating.

She was especially bothered by her back and her ankles. One was an easy fix with exercises, but when active release techniques on her right ankle brought tears to her eyes, Dr. Peterson said it was time to see what was going on inside.

Bless him for seeing those signs! For making the call that this momma had not.

He ordered an x-ray and MRI which were done 12 days ago.

We couldn’t get in to see him again until the following week, so in the meantime, I took the imaging disk to some of the orthopedic specialists we know.

They could see something on the MRI, but referred us to their in-house foot and ankle specialist, Dr. Robert Marsh, for a better look.

Unfortunately, he saw a lot of somethings.

He will be performing surgery today to repair the following problems which all stem from the natural formation and genetic disposition of her feet, particularly the flatness of her right arch:

1. Arthroscopy for Osteochondral Defect of the Talus (OCD) and Talar Neck Exostectomy – because of how Maci’s foot (tarsal) and leg (tibia) bones are formed, the two collide (we call this compression in yoga because the bones are what is restricting a movement rather than tension or flexibility in the soft tissues), and after years of this trauma she has bone spurs and floating tissue/cartilage/stuff that needs to be cleaned out; Dr. Marsh will also reshape (dig out) the top of the tarsal bone to allow dorsiflexion without impact (she will be able to land a back flip without pain for the first time in years).
2. Tarsal Coalition – in layman’s terms, Maci is missing a joint in the back of her foot, and the space where it should be is filling with fibers and tissue that cause incredible pain and could eventually cripple her. Dr. Marsh will open the space to recreate the joint, thus allowing natural movement of the foot. This is one of the most important things he will fix, and I am very grateful that it was discovered before it became too late to repair it.
3. Calcanea Osteotomy – this one makes me a little queasy…when Maci stands with her weight balanced evenly on her foot, her leg is not in line with her foot; to correct this, Dr. Marsh will break/cut her heal, move it into alignment, and then insert screws to hold it together while her heel heals.
4. Gastrocnemius Lengthening – once the ankle is reshaped, smoothed down, scooped out, and repositioned she will have the ability but not the space to flex her foot correctly; to account for this, Dr. Marsh will make an incision on the back of her leg to lengthen her calf muscle.

These last three steps are done during open surgery.

As you can see, I’ve done extensive research since hearing these terms the very first time ten days ago.

I am 100% positive that if you are an orthopedic surgeon specializing in ankles, you will find mistakes in my summary. Dr. Marsh and all of our friends at EOOC have been beyond patient and kind, willing to answer every one of our questions. All the inaccuracies are totally my own.

Furthermore, the surgeon we trust more than any other doctor in the whole wide world told Coach that if it was his child, he’d want Dr. Marsh.

Our Angel Girl is in great hands.

All the same, I hope you’ll be cheering for M today.

And if you are the thinking kind, please think about her with kind thoughts in your heart. If you are the wishing kind, please send your very best wishes her way. And if you are the praying kind, please – please – say a prayer for my baby.

She has a long road ahead of her.

But she’s braver than you know and more determined than you can imagine!

With love and hugs,

Ashli