Team Dallas - Our Canavan Disease Warrior, North Branch, MN (2025)

07/20/2025

Such a happy day today! Sunshine, smiles, snowmobiles, and hummingbirds!

We even took a ride to the neighbors to say hi to Elizabeth Estepp 🥰

Now Dallas is watching his buddies Bob and Pat for a special Saturday Live on Patrol broadcast
💙👮🏻‍♂️💙

07/19/2025

Summer time and.... Snowmobiles? 🤔

BRAAAAAAAP BRAP BRAP BRAAAAAP

07/18/2025

Somebody woke up very happy this morning!

07/16/2025

Deputy Dallas approves of mom's fancy new robot leg!! 🦿🦿🦿

It allows me to move around and greatly reduces the risk of my knee slipping! But it sure tries to!! So, I still have to be very careful and mindful of how I am moving.

I am just thankful I allowed to move around at all!! Of course It still hurts, but it could be so much worse. There is definitely a fine line between moving too much, and not moving enough.

Next week I start Physical Therapy and will learn what weight lifting exercises and stretches I need to do. The goal is to gain muscle that will provide support, and to regain full range of motion. That will all help speed up recovery when they have to go in and replace my ACL. It can't be repaired because it is a complete tear/rupture of the ligament. So they actually replace it with a graft for a cadaver tendon. Pretty wild!

Dallas is still a happy little dude!

07/15/2025

My appointment went well today with the Orthopedic Surgeon. Ryan and Dallas both came with. We discussed the importance of coming up with a recovery plan that not only works for me, but for the whole family. Dallas needs a caregiver 24/7. We need time to make sure that can be arranged when I have surgery. Ryan still needs to be able to work so we can pay the bills.

The plan for now is to start "PRE-HAB" and work on range of motion and quad strengthening physical therapy. She wants me to have full range of motion prior to surgery. I also have orders to get a custom fitted ACL Brace to help with knee stability. That is by FAR my biggest issue right now. I can barely walk without my current brace because my joints want to slip and it hurts like absolute hell. There is no longer a ligament holding them together. And that slipping can cause more damage to the torn meniscus. But the brace will help prevent (or reduce the risk of) the knee joints slipping.

I don't want to be stuck in a knee brace my whole life. And I can't risk hurting myself worse or (god forbid) hurting Dallas if my knee slips while I am carrying him. So I will need surgery, but we don't have to do it right away. And the harder I work at "prehab" to strengthen and regain my range of motion, the easier recovery will be.

This news today was literally the best case scenario considering the severity of my injury! And If I do really really good on my Pre-habilitation, I could maybe even make it to Fall or Winter!

07/14/2025

Well, we had a great weekend!

After flooding my house with a broken water softener, army crawling with the spiders, then having to replace our entire well pump/pressure system, a huge branch falling on my sister's camper and narrowly missing my mother in law, and rupturing my ACL and tearing my meniscus and spraining a bunch of other stuff in my left knee... I feel it was a well deserved uneventful weekend!!

We spent the entire day outside yesterday. Dallas LOVED it! He has been full of smiles and super duper happy which makes everything better.

Ryan is taking me to my appointment with the Orthopedic Surgeon tomorrow where we will learn more about my injuries, what surgery and recovery will look like, and how long I can put it off. Once I know what I am up against, I need to start making plans for Dallas to ensure that he is well cared for while I am recovering. That will likely mean hiring an additional PCA or even a nurse for him. At least while I am in the non-weight-bearing phase of my recovery.

So much to think about and plan for! Even when it comes to my dogs and work and literally everything. But we will figure it out! I will share another update tomorrow after we meet with the surgeon.

In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of happy little Dallas living his best life over the weekend 🥰

07/12/2025

DISASTER UPDATE 7/11/2025....

Yall... I have never felt soooo thankful and blessed..... and so ABSOLUTELY defeated and unlucky in the exact same moment 🥰😩
But here we are 🤷‍♀️

If you don't know what our family has gone through this week, I encourage you to read my last post from 7/9/2025 first...

Two days ago, I thought "There is no way this week could get any worse!"..... I was wrong. Very wrong. But lets talk about the good news first!

The good news is that we have the most incredible friends in our lives. And thanks to our friends Josh Anderson and Samuel Lundstrom, we have a new well pump with lines and piping, water pressure tank, pressure switch and our home has RUNNING WATER. Hallelujah 🙌🙌🙌

We still need to get a water softener because the one that flooded the house is junk. But that is the least of my worries.

As you know, Ryan and I had a massive tree that we had to cut half down in order to remove and replace our pump in our well. There were too many large branches that would have been in the way of the crane. So I was helping Ryan cut the branches into smaller pieces with the chain saw, then dragging them to the woods. We were JUST about done when suddenly one of the tree branches I was dragging snapped. And I went down. But my leg went in two different directions at the knee and something popped.

After the initial pain, I was able to walk around with a knee brace on. Sure it hurt, but I had stuff to do! As long as I kept the brace on, I was okay. If I took the brace off, my knee wanted to dislocate itself.

Well today was a little more uncomfortable. My knee is more swollen, I can't bend it, and I can't straighten it. So I rescheduled Dallas' GI appointment and had my sister-in-law Katelyn bring me to TRIA Urgent Care instead.

You guys .... I really REALLY messed myself up.

I completely tore my ACL in half 💔💔💔
A grade 3 full-thickness tear.
I also tore my meniscus, sprained my MCL, and sprained the fibular ligaments. There is a lot more so I just attached my MRI report in the pictures. Its bad. But at least nothing is fractured 😅😕

I have to consult with an Orthopedic Surgeon on Monday. And I am obviously most worried about how I am going to care for Dallas. I know I can still do everything. But I am not sure if I will be able to actually lift him after ACL reconstruction surgery. I am reading that recovery from this surgery can take 6-9 months or MORE 😭😭😭 I am going to have to get a Hoyer lift or something. I will figure it out, I always do! But this just sucks terribly. I am a good person, a smart person, a hard worker, a great mom... but I would be lying if I said I wasn't sick of having such s**t luck!

That said, I am kinda used to it by now and I am still in good spirits. I am thankful the tree didn't fall on me or paralyze me or something. It could always be worse and I still have so much to be thankful for. Like our amazing family and friends! And the fact that Deputy Dallas is happy as can be!!! And that we have water!! AND we get to watch Live on Patrol tonight!

I am over here just dealing with the punches life keeps throwing at me.

07/10/2025

DISASTER 7/9/2025

When it rains, it pours. Today my house flooded from my laundry room out into my kitchen. At least 2 inches deep continuously pouring out of my water softener. None of the valves behind the softener were working to shut off the water. So I had to army crawl through mud underneath my back deck to get to my tiny crawl space under the house. Then I had to go through a million spider webs to get to the main shutoff valve to cut water to the entire house.

Ryan was 8 hours away on his way home from North Dakota for work. So I called one of his best buddies Josh Anderson who owns Affordable Plumbing Solutions. He was here within 15 minutes and helped me bypass the water softener so we could at least have water while we wait for a new softwner to be installed.

A few hours later, I lost my water entirely. So I called Josh again and he came out right away again with his master plumber. They then discovered that the pressure switch to our water pump was fried. So they installed a switch right away and sadly, nothing happened. It kept tripping the breaker and we still had no water pressure.

Ryan finally got home and called his buddy Sam Lundstrom who does well work for Hugo Plumbing. It went down hill from there.

Our Water Pressure Tank, Pressure Switch, Water Softener, the valves to the water softener and kitchen, AND our water well pump alllll need to be replaced. So we currently have no water in our home. It won't pump up from the ground.

Thank god we have amazing friends. But this is still a really bad situation when you have a child like Dallas.

Tomorrow Ryan and I have to spend the day cutting down a huge chunk of one of my favorite trees in our yard, and we have to load up and move my sister's camper before Sam comes back in the afternoon with a crane and boom truck to pull and replace our well.

Praying everything goes smooth and we don't run into any additional issues. I will have to go stay at a hotel with Dallas if we can't get water restored within 2 days.

The good news is that aside from a fever, Dallas had a really good day today! Much better than the two previous days. We had to do his first at home bowel cleanout on Monday because the pain was coming back. That lead to vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration. But with the help of lots of BMs and Pedialite, we seem to have that under control and he is feeling better after his cleanout. It just took a few days. AND he got to meet our backseater friend Sandra today! She stopped by to drop off some adorable hand made pillow cases for his sisters! Such a sweet lady!

So yeah.... it has been quite a week 🥴 Thank god for this beautiful little smile that brightens even the darkest days.

07/03/2025

Dallas had a follow up EEG and appointment with his Neurologist today to make sure things are going well after going down on his seizure medicine. Great news!! No seizures were detected!

That said, most of his epileptic discharges happen while he is asleep. And today, little man refused to sleep. Instead, he just laid there in the dark. Grinding his teeth, smiling, and making all sorts of silly noises. We always hope to get a good sleeping EEG, but sometimes Dallas has other plans!

For now, we are not making any changes and he is still happy to be home. He handed out some citations too! He was looking VERRRY handsome and those nurses and doctors kept getting caught staring at how handsome he is!

I think we should have given Dallas a citation for Failure to Submit to a NAP and Resisting A REST! 😂😂😂

06/29/2025

Deputy Dallas was beyond excited to hear Bob and Pat tonight! Live on Patrol

06/29/2025

Pay attention.

06/28/2025

More pictures from our night at the races last night! We had the whole family! Me, Ryan, Dallas, Emma, Autumn, and Bre!! Uncle Dan came too! With Cole and Lucy! It was a very fun night full of laughs and smiles. Dallas was one happy dude!

I did struggle to keep his glasses on his face and his ear muffs were too small. He has such a large and awkward shaped head lol. I am thinking we need to get him some safety goggles and adult size ear protection for next time. And a little face mask for when the dust starts to fly because he just sits there with his mouth wiiiide open 😂

But we made it work, and we all had a blast!

Team Dallas - Our Canavan Disease Warrior

07/20/2025

07/19/2025

07/18/2025

07/16/2025

07/15/2025

07/14/2025

07/12/2025

07/10/2025

07/03/2025

06/29/2025

06/29/2025

06/28/2025

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