It been about a year since we've used this thing, and we've got a LOT to share, so it's time to fire it up again.

We hope each and every one of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to Katia’s adoption day on December 8 [home for four years!!], Katia's birthday on December 11 [Eight years old!!], and Christmas.

Nora is scheduled for her major surgery on December 11th, the only available date before the end of the year, and unfortunately - Katia’s birthday. We have chosen the Colorectal Center for Children in Cincinnati for her procedure.

While planning for what we thought was a 'simple' procedure to correct a urogenital sinus with the medical team at Children's Hospital in St. Louis, we consulted with another surgeon for a second opinion who emailed a digital photograph of Nora's condition to a former colleague in Cincinnati. Hearing little else, we proceeded with the plans to correct her condition as planned. A few days before the scheduled surgery, we consulted with the surgeon who was suddenly going into more detail about his plans and aroused our suspicions.

We emailed Cincinnati that evening and received an immediate response from Dr. Levitt. He advised us that he immediately recognized Nora's condition [even from an e-mailed image!] as a rare posterior cloaca - a term NEVER used by the St. Louis surgeon. Dr. Levitt explained that his team has patients from all over the world, and they have treated 40+ posterior cloaca while St. Louis Children's has statistically treated 2-3, and probably not by anyone who would be on Nora's surgical team. He advised us that we were fortunate not to have gone through with the surgery in St. Louis. His team currently performs more corrective procedures than initial surgeries, and receive several frantic calls a year from inexperienced surgeons in the middle of operations seeking guidance. We are so lucky we found him. The misdiagnosis and the effects from the surgery in St. Louis could have affected Nora for the rest of her life.

Nora had a 3D scan in Cincinnati on November 30th that will allow the team to 'virtually' plan Nora's surgery. We will be leave December 9th and Nora will be admitted the next day. She will be heavily sedated on morphine and/or an epidural for several days and then in recovery, for a total of 14 days in the hospital. She may also have a colostomy bag for two months but we are hoping that is not the case.

Melyssa will stay in Ohio and Dave will travel back and forth, bringing Katia for the weekends. We are so happy to have our mothers and friends to help care for Katia while we are away from her and we know she will be spoiled rotten by the time we get back. The plan is for ALL of the Fredericks to be back in Ballwin before Christmas. Nora will then have to travel back within two months to go through anesthesia again and make sure everything is in working order and remove the colostomy bag if she has one. Then hopefully she will be completely finished with surgeries and Dr. Levitt reports that nobody will ever know from her body that there was ever a problem. We will be so glad to be finished and move on from Nora's weekly doctor visits.

We will keep everyone updated on her recovery and we thank you in advance for your thoughts and prayers!

Love, Dave, Melyssa, Katia and little Nora.