Cast #7 is in place now! Today went well. Yes, it has been a long day, but we are through it. As I write this, Savanna is taking a much deserved nap. Not only did she skip her nap yesterday and the day before, she was up late last night, and we got her up at 4:00am today. What a little trooper we have! Before I talk more about casting day, let's check out some photos from Savanna's adventures over the last couple of months...
Savanna's Adventures
Halloween 2014 - Little Ice Cream Cone
Thanksgiving 2014 - Visit to Ohio
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School Photos are here!
Christmas Party - December 13. Savanna was up LATE that night, and boy oh boy, did mom and dad pay for it! She was tired for the next couple of days!
Opening some Christmas presents...
Trip to the beach for more Christmas celebrations and trip to the aquarium with family
Feeding the "bodie, bodie, bodies" (a.k.a. birdies) on the beach...
Cast break bath time fun! Her skin looked really good with only some minor heat rash.
Today started off at 3:30am for us! We arrived at Shriners before 6:00am. It's nice when we are "first case" of the day because we generally get out earlier, however, those early wake up calls are not fun. When the doctor/surgeon came in to see us, he looked at Savanna's back. He said he still sees "deformation", as he suspected. He wants us to do another xray before Cast #9 just to help track her progress. It's a little disheartening to hear him say her back still isn't looking that great, but hey, at least we are not being given false hope. He told us from the beginning that the casting process would likely take us at least two years, and we are only 11 months in at this point. Therefore, we have no idea how many more casts she'll have.
We met a little boy today that has already had about 18 casts and is likely looking at surgery in the future. I feel so awful for that little boy and his family (and for our other scoli friends that are facing surgery), and I also fear that might be in our future. However, Savanna's curve was not as severe as the little boy's, so we are still hoping that casting can cure her. She hasn't grown very much this year (only about 2 inches taller and 2 pounds heavier), and we need her to grow taller for the casting to help cure her. Her doctor mentioned that about 3/4 of the "scoli kids" tend to grow more slowly than others. There isn't a definite reason why, and the kids will catch up to others eventually, but it's maddening that this early growing is how she'll get cured, and it's not happening as quickly as we would like! Patience, grasshopper, patience...
In the Pre-Op room...
After the casting...
Savanna getting all trimmed up and "petalled"...
Our super fierce little pink tiger! You're gonna hear her ROAR!
We were able to leave the hospital by 12:00pm, so we made it home by 1:30. What a long day, but thankfully all went well!
Thank you to my girlfriends that provided us with dinner tonight. Your support and help makes days like today that much more bearable! :-) Also, I'm very thankful to my husband. He and I make a very good team for Team Savanna. I couldn't go through all of this without him!
In case you are interested, the Infantile Scoliosis Outreach Program has a new website. It includes an excerpt from Savanna's Story, and a link to this blog!
http://www.infantilescoliosis.org/
http://www.infantilescoliosis.org/savannahs-story/ (blog excerpt)
http://www.infantilescoliosis.org/resources/ (blog roll)
Our next casting date is March 5. I will probably not be in attendance next time, which will make me very sad. However, our family is expecting a little extra adventure over these next 6 weeks during which time Savanna's little brother will be born! Please continue to keep our family in your thoughts! Thanks for reading and Happy New Year! :-)
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