Yesterday Kadence went in to get her 3rd cast. She was having a hard time deciding which color she was going to do. I think I heard every color combination. I didn't care what color she picked as long as it wasn't pink. After two casts with the florescent pink, I am done for a while. We had to be in Salt Lake by 7 am which is not my idea of a good morning. I feel so blessed that we live so close to one of the only hospitals that does the castings. Some people drive for hours or have to fly. We are so lucky to have the best right around the corner.
Kadence and I tried to pass the time by taking pictures. David was so tuckered out that he fell asleep. (Kadence took the picture below, with a little help.) We were told to be there by 7, but she didn't end up going back into surgery until 11:30. It is a little hard to coup up such an energetic little girl. I think I heard "Mommy, I'm hungry." about ten times. I had to keep telling her that we had to wait for the Dr before we could eat. It bought me a little time before she would ask again.
I of course packed a bag full of items to entertain. This trip she decided she wanted to color. Every casting she gets attached to something and won't let it go....this time it was daddys pen and her notebook.
They come and give her a dose of medicine to help her relax. It makes her so loopy. She just started rambling and had David and I laughing so hard. Even the nurses were laughing this time. She kept insisting that she sit up which made me very nervous. She fell back once before we decided daddy should help her sit up.
Kadence was such a brave little girl. She just waved goodbye this time and went off with the nurses. Not a single tear! After she left the Dr doing the cast talked with David and I. He said that the MRI she had done a year ago concerned him a little. He thinks it would be a good idea to do another MRI in the future to check a few things. In the last MRI it showed that she had some fluid in front of some of her vertebrae which isn't good. He also said that it looked like she had a split cord. If she does have a split cord it would complicate things quite a bit. He said that after looking at her he doesn't know if she really does because she looks fairly normal. He wants to follow up with an MRI so we know what we are up against. Hopefully it's nothing.
The casting went well and when the nurses brought her back to us they told us what a chatter box she was. She had made them so visibly happy. It is incredible to me that she can bring smiles to just about anybody. The cast was put on too high and was digging in under her chin. We had the Dr look at it and he was able to cut off a little bit. Since then she has been a lot more happy. In the picture above I hadn't finished putting on the 'petals'. (The white things that go around the edges of the cast to make it a little more comfortable...and happen to look like petals of a flower.) I still haven't put the all petals on yet, but will post a picture when I do. The Dr that helped her yesterday wasn't her usual Dr, Dr. Roach. His name was Mike and Kadence was very comfortable with him which was nice. I liked how helpful he was. He gave us some neoprene to put around the bottom of the cast to help keep it waterproof. I had no idea what neoprene was, but it is the stuff they make wetsuits out of. He also gave me an extra shirt and told me how to change it. It will be a BIG project, but she gets so stinky that it will be necessary to change the shirt.
The nurse gave us the ok to feed Kadence something small. I picked out an apple, two kinds of crackers and a roll figuring she might take a bite of something. She started shoveling it into her mouth. I was afraid she was going to choke on it. The nurse laughed and hoped her stomach would be able to handle it.
After Kadence's x-ray and talking with Dr. Mike, we determined that Kadence would go 3 months in her cast instead of 6 weeks. He wants to try and use her growth to help correct the curve which means he needs her in it long enough to grow. He also doesn't like bringing kids into the operating room so often. He likes to bring them in 4 times a year at the most. It is going to be interesting since we won't be able to bath her for 3 months, but it also has it's advantages. If we cast every 3 months that would mean that there would only be 2 more castings during the school year...meaning David would only need to take 2 more days off. We have been stressing about applying for catastrophic leave and this would mean that we wouldn't need to. (As long as there aren't any complications and nobody gets hospitalized.) We are very excited that he has 6 days of leave left for the year and only 2 more castings. It has taken a huge stress off us.
Her curve before the cast was 61 degrees and he was able to get the curve down to 45 degrees in cast. (The curve will not stay that good out of cast, but it is a huge difference.) The lowest her curve has been was in her 2nd cast and she had a 37 degree curve in cast. Hopefully we will be able to keep her down around the 40's. That is about where we are aiming.
