Casting Day is here!

Wow... what a long day!  We started bright and early by waking up at 4:00am so we could arrive at the hospital before 7:00.  Once we got to the hospital, we were sent up to our room where Savanna's vitals were taken, and her family medical history was reviewed.  Photos from the hospital room...

About 30 minutes later, we were sent up to the pre-op area.  While up there, Savanna was given a "Knit Rite" shirt to put on.  We were calling it her muscle shirt!

 
Then, we put another mesh sock tube top shirt on her that had arm holes cut out of it.  These shirts are put on her to help protect her skin from the cast.

Next, the anesthesiologist talked to us for a bit.  We also talked to the doctor's scheduler who set up Savanna's next casting appointment for Feb. 27 (wow, it seems so soon already!).  Then, the doctor checked in with us.  Savanna got to pick out a new toy in the pre-op room (they really get spoiled there!).  I got dressed in scrubs to go into the OR with Savanna while she was sedated with gas.

After she was sedated, we were sent to the surgical waiting area.  During our wait we got to meet some other families whose children were also being casted that day.  It was nice to swap stories and to get advice from those more experienced with casting life.  Finally, after about an hour, we were told to come speak with the doctor.

The doctor said that Savanna did great.  She did so much better than he had expected too!  He took an x-ray after he got her in the cast, and guess what??  Her curve appeared to be nearly straight!  I asked him to ballpark a curve number at this point, and he said he would guess UNDER 7!!!!   That is amazing to get that kind of correction in a first cast!!  See, I knew her spine was more flexible than she was showing while she was awake!  Mama knows!  Now, this correction is not permanent at this point of course, but it is a great start and bodes really well for the future.  :-)

After meeting with the doc, we were sent back down to our hospital room where Savanna would arrive soon, after she got out of recovery.  Once they brought her to us, she was definitely groggy but okay.  They set her on my lap on the bed and gave me a cast dryer to hold under the covers to help start drying out her cast.

After about 30-45 minutes, we headed downstairs to the cast trimming room.  Before we got to the cast trimming room, we had to make a stop at the Bear Den.  What's that, you ask?  Only the coolest room in the whole hospital!  It is a room full of "Build a Bears" and hundreds of different outfits for them!  Here's the one we picked.  Also, here's the other fun stuff Savanna was given (see? spoiled! :-) ).  Every time Savanna has to go back for a new cast, she gets to pick a new outfit for her bear!

By the time we made it down to the cast trimming room I think it was around 11:30am?  Let me just say that by this point, Savanna had not drunk anything since 5:15am, had not eaten since dinner the night before, and had been awake since early that morning.  However, she was just an amazing, amazing tolerant little lady.  She let multiple people pull and cut at her cast, which included trying three different types of shoulder straps and the addition of and removal of extra plaster, and she didn't cry but once or twice.  (Her doctor said she was a "superstar patient"!)  The casting trimming lady then added Moleskin to the edges of her cast to help protect her skin from the rough edges of the plaster.  Some people call it "petaling."  (My little flower!)

Next, we got to choose a color of Coban to wrap around her cast to help keep the moleskin in place and help with the roughness of the plaster.  We choose purple!

Then, we went back to our room where Savanna finally got to eat and drink.  Finally, it was time for us to go home.  She did great on the ride home and slept a bit.  She only cried at the end of the trip because she got too hot in the carseat.  We made it back home around 2:30pm.  What a day!

She ate dinner around 6:00 that night, was in bed by 7:30, and was out cold until 7:30 the next morning!