Cast Off, Brace On

Savannah's now cast free, and she's wearing her new brace. I am so glad it is all over with, so now we can move forward. We are in for a long 6 months, and I wish it was over already because it is going to feel like forever to me. Here is how things went with getting her cast off today:

When we first arrived, they took an x-ray of her hip while she was still in her cast. I started to worry that something would be wrong, and she'd have to stay in her cast longer. I was nervous waiting for the doctor to come into the room to tell us. Imagine my relief and excitement when he told us she looked great and they were ready to remove the cast.

We took her into a bigger open area, and they laid her on this little bed. She didn't like this because she hates laying down these days. She would much rather sit up. Anyway, when they started the saw, she started crying. She was definately scared of the noise it made. Matt and I both stood there reassuring her that it was ok. I held her hand and caressed her face, and told her that she was getting that cast off and it was all going to be ok. She settled down quite a bit at that point, but fussed some on and off during the whole thing.

When they finally snapped the cast in half, I was kinda grossed out at what I saw. The cotton inside it was yellow and I couldn't understand why. I told the doctor how careful we were not to let it get wet, and that we made every effort possible to take care of it. He told me it was from her sweating, and that her cast looked a lot better than most of them he sees. He told me he took one off once and discovered maggets in it. OMG... I nearly threw up. I could have truely lived without knowing that!

The held her legs in place and cleaned her up, and then they immediately put her into the brace. Then we were sent to get another x-ray, so he could check the positioning of her hip. It showed the hip was not placed exactly like he wanted it, so they took off her brace and adjusted it (the brace) a little. While adjusting her brace, Matt got to hold her with nothing on at all. I wanted so badly to do this, and the doctor wouldn't let me. He thought Matt would be better to hold her legs apart and everything. To be honest, I was littled ticked that the doctor would deny a mother to hold her child out of all that crap like that. I could have easily held her just like he did, so I wasn't really happy about that. I guess he knows what is best for her, but it sure would have been nice to have held my baby without any of that gear on for a few minutes. Now I have to wait 6 more months!!! Once the brace was adjusted and back on her, we had to get another x-ray to make sure her hip was in the correct placement. Thankfully it was this time, and we were released to go home after talking to the doctor.

I thought not getting to hold her was going to be the only disappointment from this trip, but I was totally wrong. We also found out that we were still stuck with sponge bathing her for another 6 months. We were told we could take the brace off her and bathe her if one of us held her legs apart in the tub while the other bathed her, however, he recommended it would be better to just continue sponge bathing her. Matt and I both figured it would be easier to sponge her for now. I was extremely disappointed and sad because I was led to believe that we could take the brace off and bath her normally. Oh well, one of these days, this will all be over, and Savannah will be completely normal again. I look forward to that day more than I can possibly ever say.

I am glad we have that cast off now, and believe it or not, she's already figured out how to sit up in it. Time will tell what else she will learn to do.