The One With Pictures, The Last One

The last one for now anyways....

Yesterday was Friday.  It was 2 days after her surgery.  The casting day.  Once they took her off the epidural we switched to oral meds and they began to wake her every 4 hours to check vitals and give the meds.  We were up and down through the night Thursday evening and on Friday morning she woke at 6am happy and perky.  It made my heart warm with joy to see her feeling better.  We knew that she was getting her cast that day and they had already begun prepping us for the experience.  I didn't think casting was really that big of a deal but taking the cues from the staff it seemed they were making a big deal of it. First the Child Life counselor came in with a book of pictures to explain how the process would go and then she asked us what diversions worked well with Katelyn.  Does she like music? What kind of toys hold her attention? etc...  Following her brief interview came the nurse who talked to us about the drugs and how casting can be "uncomfortable" (that stupid word) and do we sedate or just heavily medicate etc...  She also mentioned that the parents should come along for support.  Of course I already knew from that picture book that you see everything (and for us means 3 incisions and two metal rods sticking out of her little leg) so thoughts of "Joey you got this one I'll just stay back and sit this one out" went running through my head; however, in the next moment I thought "no I can't not go, I have to be there with her, I'm the Mom".  Time passed and it was finally our turn. The casting tech ended up bringing a cart to our room and doing the procedure on our bed.  The interesting thing was that the sedation meds actually had the opposite effect on Katelyn.  Once administered she actually got loopy and hyper at the same time.  It was comical rather.  In the pic you can see Joey holding her, the child life specialist using her diversions, the nurse doing her thing and the casting tech doing her business.  Takes a lot of people to give a baby a cast I guess.  Turns out she did feel pain but it wasn't extreme and the wounds weren't completely exposed so both she and I survived the ordeal. :)

A few hours after the casting we needed to go for final x-rays.  We requested a copy so that our Ortho doc in Ohio can have some for her follow up in May.  I thought it would be interesting for you to see a little bit of what's going on inside her body.  Image number one is the day before during our pre-op visit.  It's a side profile image of her left leg.  All you see present is the tibia bone and you can see that it's curved and not straight like most regular shin bones.  That's what makes that little bump with the scar/dimple that she had on her shin. You can also kind of make out that her foot points downward and not at a 90 degree angle also.  That's where the tendon release/lengthening came into play.


This next one is taken the day we did casting which was Friday 2 days post surgery.  You can see the cast which is surrounding her leg.  You can also see the pins and where her bone is broken into three segments because he did a double osteotomy. Yes those pins come through the bone, muscle and skin to the outside of her body.  Hard to believe. Also even harder to believe that in 30 days they just pull them out and it stings for a bit and yes, I have to be present during that procedure.  Great.... Anyways, her foot is also finally closer to 90 degrees as well (which remember is the whole other half of the surgery) and we're hoping with some physical therapy that we'll get it almost there.


And here we are today, Saturday.  Sometimes you go stir crazy as the parent with a child in the hospital just staring at the same walls for hours on end and trying not to stress about your children.  We try to kill time and make her feel better with things like new toys, visiting the fishies in the playroom, sitting in the sunshine, visiting the Ronald McDonald family room and wagon rides.

We're due to return home tomorrow.  We've had a few unexpected delays (she keeps throwing up) but provided that's better tomorrow we should be all set to come home.  It's been a really long week, we're all missing our beds and of course we miss the 2 big sisters and big brother waiting for us back home.  We've been through a lot this week and we've swam hard through that river of uncertainty.  But you know what? I did find the strength to get through each day like my friend said I would, and those waters of uncertainty, they didn't wash over us.  I'm so thankful that I have great friends who prayed for us, visited us and are ready to support us at home.  We also are thankful for a family that took care of and spoiled our other children while we were away, and a creator in heaven who ALWAYS keeps his promises.  So long Minnesota, we'll be back again in 30 days.