We had a fun little playdate at our house to help celebrate Savanna's 2nd birthday. (Yes, we celebrated her birthday for a couple of weeks!)
Savanna got to hang out with her buddy Jolene at a cookout.
She also got to hang out with her buddy Eden at Shindig on the Green. Every time a song was done, Savanna cried for more. By the way, her favorite words right now are Bluegrass and Reggae! I guess we are doing something right!?? :-)
Hiking with Dada...
Trying on mama's shoes... great fit!
Bike Riding!
Hoopin' it up at River Music
Mountain Play Lodge
Book Club Olympics - yes, we are in our "tourist" costumes! (Savanna was wanting to play some tennis too, I guess.) We tied for second place at the Olympics!
Chilling at Biltmore
When we took her cast off on Aug. 19, it had been 9.5 weeks since she got the cast on! That was a looooooong time to have it on (especially in the hot summer), but I'm happy to report that her skin looked really good with just some minor heat rash and really dry skin, like usual. Thankfully, there was nothing worse. Needless to say, we made the most of her 5 cast-free days!
First real bath in two months... She loved it!
Hanging at the big kids pool! She had so much fun playing in the pool for about 2 hours, that she fell asleep within 5 minutes of being in the car on the way home!
Hanging out at our home pool
We had hoped for a lot more improvement, especially since she looks so much better to us! However, the doctor reminded us that this is a slow process and could take about 2 years. When he remembered that we were only 7 months in, he said, "Well, we are just at the beginning of this journey." So, there's that. It's not something we wanted to hear. However, the good news I took away from this was the following: He never said anything like, "I can't believe we haven't seen more improvement." Also, he did say that this was still the best course of action to take regardless of her improvement. Casting is what is the best and least invasive option for her at this time, so stay the course we will!
Cast Day #5 - We were first case, and we had to be there at 8:00am, which means we had to get up at 5:15am! She did great and was in a good mood the whole time before surgery, until they put the mask on her in the OR. I call that a success.
Waiting to go to the OR...
Playing with her new Minnie Mouse cards (Shriners always hooks her up! We also got a cute blanket and a new outfit (a soccer jersey) for her Build-a-Bear.)
After the cast was on, and she came back to us from recovery, she was not very happy. Thankfully, we had lots of grapes and cheddar bunnies to help cheer her up. The hose in the photo is a dryer for her cast.
Here she is being turned into a flower (petalled) in the cast trimming room.
All done! She choose green for this cast. I guess she wanted to match her mom and dad! We kept telling her she was our little turtle.
Also, as you consider contributing to charities, please consider donating to Shriners Hospitals for Children and the Infantile Scoliosis Outreach Program (http://www.infantilescoliosis.org/). We couldn't be working like we are to heal Savanna if it wasn't for these two entities!
Next casting date: October 30, 2014, so we've got about 8 weeks!
Next adventure: Traveling to the coast to visit family. Unfortunately, there won't be any beach time for this little one.
Thanks for reading and for keeping us in your thoughts! Also, thanks to my awesome friends for helping keep us fed on casting days!!
