Savanna

Savanna

Thursday, June 12, 2014

My Beee-youuu Super Star

Cast #4 is on!  It's hard to believe we are already 5 months into this casting gig, but here we are!  Before we get into Cast #4, let's talk about some adventures Savanna had in Cast #3...

Savanna's First Festival
We all camped out at the Lake Eden Arts Festival for two nights in early May!  We had lots of fun dancing to the good music, and she was wiped out each night!  (She loved the pack and play in the tent we had too.)  The weekend would have been even better if it hadn't rained...




Other Fun Times
We also had many park, library-story-time, and hanging-out-with-her-buddies adventures...



Traveling Princess
We went to a friend's wedding out of town last weekend.  She looks super cute in the dress her dad bought her!  (Just don't pay attention to her shoes...  These are the only shoes she's into these days, so we roll with it!)  :-)



Cast #3 Removal
We removed Cast #3 on Sunday, June 8 (4 days before Cast #4 was scheduled.)  If you recall, we had a terrible time taking off Cast #2 (It took us 1.5 hours!!  Insane!!).  Well, this one took only 15 MINUTES!  How in the world did we have such a dramatic improvement?  We owe it to some good old-fashioned advice and some good old water!!  I basically snipped the coban and mole skin using some nose hair trimming scissors, then I wet the plaster with some water.  After a few seconds, the plaster layers started to disintegrate, and I used some medical bandage scissors to cut through it easily...  Voila!  It was off so fast!  So, there is good and some bad here.  I learned how to take off the cast more easily, but I also learned how fragile the cast can be if water gets on it!  I have been really careful so far about not getting her wet, and this just underscores it.



Her skin looked really good with only a bit of heat rash.


She could not wait to get in the tub!  She is trying to pull her diaper off here!


Overall, her curve is looking better, but I still see that pesky rib hump...  It just lets me know that there is still more work (casting, growing, etc.) that she needs to do before we're done.




Savanna's Birthday and Visit to the Pool
My little Sunshine is two!!  Her birthday was yesterday (June 11), and because her cast was off temporarily, we headed to the pool with some friends.  She had a blast splashing in the water, and playing with her little airplane.


The birthday girl...



We sang Happy Birthday to her, and tried to get her to dig into her strawberry muffin, but she's wasn't having it.  It was more fun to play with!



Casting Day #4
Unfortunately, her cast-free days came to an end, and it was time to head back to the hospital.  We woke up this morning at 4:45 to get the day started.  We arrived at the hospital before her 7:30 appointment.  Thankfully, she was much happier at the beginning of the day this time, although she still doesn't really like the nurses "messing with her" (a.k.a doing their jobs).  Mickey Mouse on Disney Jr. and the iPad were very helpful in keeping her happy before surgery.


 I was able to go back with her to the OR while they anesthetized her.  


After surgery, she was not feeling very happy, so we were trying everything... berries, cheddar bunnies, water, Mickey Mouse, her lovey Spunky, etc., and they were only working somewhat.  So, we don't have any pictures from right after surgery.  However, in the cast trimming room, we were able to get a couple.




Her current favorite color to say is blue (or how she says it... beee-youuu), so that's what color cast we went for!  It's teal with beee-youuu stars!  Plus, she's my little super star, or rock star!  (She wasn't a happy star though, unfortunately...)


What finally made her happy was when we were done and leaving the place... not only because the IV port was out of her hand, and she was somewhat fed and able to move around on her own again, but also because of the visitors we saw on the way out!  Pet therapy to the rescue!!




Her next cast is scheduled for August 25th, 11 weeks away!!  Wish us luck on keeping the cast on that long...  9 weeks has been our max. so far.

By the way, our friends rock!!  They've been helping to keep us fed while we have been going through this process, and we are so grateful!



Thanks to everyone for all the love and support!