Pre-op Day

Savanna's pre-operation (pre-op) appointment was at 10:00am, so we left home around 8:00am.  After we arrived at Shriners Greenville and checked in, we hung in the main lobby until we were called.  In the lobby, I found the hospital's magazine, Leaders in Care.  Page 2 had an article on casting...  Check it out!

The full article can be found >>here<<.

Once our name was called, we went back to the clinic to meet with a nurse.  Savanna's vitals and family medical history were taken, and then she was sent for x-rays. After her first set of x-rays were done, we met with the doctor.  He is a very nice man who is OBVIOUSLY extremely smart.  We gave him Savanna's history starting from before she was even born!  (See >>my first post<< if you want a refresher...)  After her history, his exam of her, and his review of the x-rays, he says, "Yes, I think she is a great candidate for casting.  We should get her started in this process."  I say to him while laughing, "Well, that's a good thing because we are coming for casting tomorrow!"  He then says, "Well, I guess I do a good job of filling out my schedule!" :-)  It was funny and brought a little bit of levity to the situation at hand.

After that, he recommends a couple more x-rays, so back we go to the x-ray folks.  Her first x-rays that day were taken with her sitting facing forward and sitting facing sideways.  Nothing looked out of the ordinary, except for the obvious scoliosis.  Her second set of x-rays were of her standing, one of her pelvis (he wanted to make sure her hips looked okay since she had been breech), and finally a bending x-ray.  The bending x-ray is basically where the doc holds a crutch-like apparatus to her side while he attempts to somewhat straighten her.  The standing x-ray showed a curve of approximately 52 degrees (worse than the 43 degrees from 2 months prior) with an RVAD of around 35 degrees.  Her pelvis looked fine.  Her bending x-ray, however, didn't look too promising as it appeared her spine may not be too flexible.  I was really surprised by that, because she is so flexible everywhere else in her body!

The doc then says that she will likely have to be casted for two years, not the one year we had hoped for.  He isn't that big of fan of bracing, so casting it will be.  Also, she will likely not have more than a 1 or 2 day break between casts.  Not good news to our ears either.  However, if this is what we need to do to get her spine all fixed up, then that's what we'll do!  He mentioned that she had less than a 1/3 chance of being "cured," but I've heard from other folks that "cured" to him a is zero degree curve (no curve period).  I think we will be really happy if we can even just get her under 10 degrees, which likely won't progress anymore.  I have high hopes for her!

Here's a photo of Savanna playing on the hospital's interactive play screen.  It's really neat and reacts wherever you touch.

Here's a photo of Savanna's last bath for 6 weeks!

Casting day is next!!!