The day before Lauren was scheduled for her cast change, we received a phone call from the Day Surgery Unit at Children's advising us that her OR time was booked for Friday Oct. 28th at 1:30pm. WHAT? OR time in the middle of the afternoon? The problem with late OR times is that we are also given clear instructions that Lauren is to receive anything but water or apple juice after 12am the day of her cast change. So, we basically have to starve our child for 13hrs! This is apparently a basic hospital rule for anyone going under - it doesn't matter if the child is going in at 7am or 1pm. Well, I am a firm believer that if you don't advocate for your own child, no one is going to do it for you! There was no way I was going to be able to do this to Lauren - how, we can't explain anything to her, she is so used to her routine and that just isn't fair! All I needed to do was give her a couple bottles to hold her over, maybe one during the night and one first thing in the morning. I explained myself to the booking clerk on the other end of the phone and she promptly told me to contact my Surgeon's office and advise of my concerns and she would try and contact the Anesthesiologist to see if he would make an exception for us. I called our Surgeon's office and all the lines were busy; however I did leave a message just incase. But, instead I received a call back from the booking office a few mins later saying that actually, it wasn't going to be a problem and Lauren could have milk up until 7:30am the day of her cast change. Ok, good, I could work with that! Next hurdle, pray that the OR wasn't running behind!
The moment we arrived at the hospital, Lauren was on to us, she knew exactly where we were and what was going on and she made it known that she was not impressed. We kept her out in the common play area for as long as we could, but it then came time to take her into the patient area so that she could change into a gown and have all of her vitals checked. Lauren didn't hold back at all, she had no problem letting everyone know she was not happy and she didn't want to be there! Thank goodness the nurses and Dr's are awesome and totally understood! :)
We actually got called to walk Lauren into the OR 15mins early (yes, my prayers were answered!). Much to my surprise a nurse was able to engage Lauren by blowing bubbles in the cold, sterile OR. While L and I tried to pop the bubbles before they fell to the floor, a big smile appeared appeared on little L's face!
The cast change was only scheduled to take up about 35mins of OR time and included would be a quick bath. We knew we didn't have long to wait which was nice and there wasn't really anything to worry about - we were all excited for this change, we had made it 6 weeks, this was a great milestone!
While waiting for Lauren to come out of the OR, Garry bumped into Nurse Sue (if you remember in my first or second post it was Nurse Sue that actually suggested that Lauren be looked at as she was displaying signs of Hip Displaysia). We had a wonderful conversation with her and it just so happened that she was still there when our Surgeon came out to tell us how everything went. It was wonderful to finally introduce her to our Surgeon; specially after telling him when we first met that it was because of her we ended up in his clinic. His words to her were "We have already told this story many times, you are now famous in our clinic Sue!". This was another full circle moment for us!
Our Surgeon then went on to advise us that he was very happy with the positioning of Lauren's hip and that he wasn't nervous about the hip popping out and that he thinks he might possibly already see some bone growth in her pelvic area, but only time will tell for sure. We were incredibly happy to hear that everything is still looking good and we are on track-what a relief to know that everything done so far is working!
By about 3pm Lauren was drinking water, talking away and kicking her legs! YAY, her legs were finally free! The nurse then came over with a bunch of paperwork and went over post surgery details with us and then said "you are free to go". It didn't take long for us to load Lauren up in her stroller along with all of her stuff, we were ready to get home!
While driving home Garry and I both noted that one would have never know that Lauren had been in the OR that day, she was happy as could be! In between dancing to her favorite songs while watching Rainbow Bright, she talked and laughed the whole drive home.
Apparently, Lauren was just as excited about the cast change as we were, that night we had a hard time getting her to bed. If you know Lauren, bedtime is like clock work. She is ready for a diaper change, PJ's and a bottle at 7pm. Well, not this night, she was ready to read stories, talk and laugh - all while moving her legs non stop. Garry and I didn't stop laughing, she was on cloud nine - it was so nice to see!!
The next day I decided to see if Lauren would fit back into our double stroller. I had bought this stroller for the kids over a year ago and once Lauren had her first cast put on we were unable to use it for her as her legs were just too far apart - this meant that I could never take the kids out together for a walk, unless I used our Ergo while pushing Lauren in her own stroller. I couldn't believe it, Lauren fit in the bottom seat!!! What a feeling, I could finally take my kids out together by myself! To some of you this may sound silly, but until you have the most simple things taken away from you - you probably wouldn't understand the frustration I had - always having to rely on someone to help me.
It is amazing how quickly kids adapt. Lauren is now able to roll herself over in the new cast onto her tummy, she can turn herself around in circles while on her tummy, she can now hold herself up and sit on the floor, she can sit on her "ladybug" and scoot all over the house, but with all those pro's there is one that stands out from the rest - she can now have baths again!!!
Lauren loves Brayden and can't hug and kiss him enough ~ it's really cute ~ however we found out that although Brayden loves his sister - he likes to be a safe distance away from her. This past week marked Mr. Brayden's 3 month birthday as well as a milestone ~ he can roll over!!
Here are a few pictures ~ Enjoy!
Lauren barely awake - this was the last day in the full body cast!
Lauren the evening of her cast change ~ this photo was taken at about 9pm!!!
Some blogs said to introduce your child back to bath time slowly, well, this is not required for Lauren ~ she dove right in there soaking everything around her including herself! She couldn't pour enough water on her head and down her cast! It was too funny!
This is Lauren on her ladybug being pushed back and forth between Grandma and myself. It took L about 5mins to figure out how to use her legs/feet again to get around - AMAZING!
