Spica Free

We were blessed today with an amazing Cast Tech!! She was so sweet and nice.

Sophie Wei started crying even before I placed her on the table. After we got her on the table Rick was on one side and I on the other. Simone was sitting on the table behind Rick but could have a good view while holding her Babby Doll.

The saw they used was pretty cool and she told me that it would not cut Sophie Wei, it was just loud. It took her ten minutes to cut through the cast because of the extra plaster they had to put on after they had to cut the cast to get her epidural out in the hospital.

Simone sat on the table wiping her eys with her sleeves from her dress while silenty whimpering, looking like she was so concerned for her sister.

After she removed the cast, cotton and gortex liner we had to remove the bottom part of the cast. I started to tear up just as Sophie Wei's tummy was reviled. Here little belly button!

This is when things took a turn.

The the very nice cast tech told us she needed our help so Rick and I held up Sophie Wei from the top of her body while she grabbed her RIGHT left and lifted her up! Now I am sure this did not hurt her but both Rick and I cringed when we saw her do this. Rick immedietly walked nexted to Simone, sat down and turned white as a ghost. The cast tech left the room to get help as I try to stay calm while Sophie Wei is crying her eyes out. They had Rick lay down on the table while one nurse gave him a towel for his forhead and one under his neck. The cast tech continued to clean Sophie Wei up.
(Rick was fine. It was just very hard for both of us to see Sophie Wei being picked up by her leg that we had just babied for six weeks. On the ride home Rick told me that he started to black out that is why he sat down.) They also told us that they see this happen often because this journey is hard on the parents for various reasons.

Then I was able to hold Sophie Wei's tiny little body again. Some thing I will never take for granted. Her limp little legs just folded into my arms and our checks smooched against each other. I cried tears of happiness. It felt just like that day on June 10th in Chengdu China when I held her for the first time! Then I looked over at Rick while he was laying down and he had a smile on his face.

Sophie Wei and I then went in for an xray and Sophie Wei cried again. Rick and Simone stayed in the cast room until Rick felt better. They had to take two because the first one had her shield in the way. Our xray tech was so sweet and reminded me to kiss and sing to Sophie Wei while we were in there which I was glad!!

While we were waiting for our xray the sweet cast tech went down stairs to warm up a blanket for us to put around Sophie Wei which was great because she started to shiver while we were waiting for the xray and her blanket that we brought was not close by.

Then we went back into the cast room and the cast tech lathered up Sophie Wei with some special cream.

Then we waited for her Doctor to come in and see us.

Her Doctor tols us that Sophie Wei is freed from her Spica and she is cleared for weight baring!!!!!!!!!! We can just follow her lead. Her Doctor said that every child is different it and it hard to know how stiff she will be or put a number on when she will be walking again. Our next appointment is in five weeks. We have a hard time a head of us but we are hoping it will go much better than her time in the spica cast and we pray that she starts sleeping better.

We purchased three xrays today and it is so neat to see her femur head in place and see the difference of her pelvis!! So far so good.

The doctor said that in about a year from the surgery date she will have her plate and four screws taken out via another surgery with a one night stay in the hospital but that all depends because each child is different.

We will not know if she will need another hip surgery until a year or two from now. We will have to wait and see how things grow and form. That news gave my stomach a few flips but no need to worry about that now.

The doctor was also very sweet when he answered my question about her Club Feet treatment with her Dennis Brown bar......Knowing what a ruff time we have had he said with a caring look on his face just wait a day or two and then slowly start/work your way up to having it on again.

Our pediatrician also told us that we should come in to have her shots that she needed to get caught up on around day three after the cast is off. At that same time we will have her right ear checked out again to make sure her ear drum is moving now and that the ear infection is all cleared up.
Sophie Wei and Simone both slept on the way home. Sophie Wei slept for 1.5 hours which is the longest nap she has had since the surgery and she did not even wake up CRYING!! YES!!!

It was hard to try and get good pictures because I could not control my stubborn flash! Hope these give you an idea of what her legs look like. She has flaky skin, burnt like skin, scabbed skin, smelly body and two scars. I am only showing you the scar on her femur because the other one was hard to get to tonight.

There seems to still be a limb length difference which we expected because of the cut in the femur. But at the same time it is not even shorter than we started because they put the femur head back into it's position.

These photos below are before her bath and after the nurse smothered her legs with some special "Stuff" which helped so much!!Below is Sophie Wei after her bath!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our clean smelling little girl!

Sophie Wei's body feels like jello!

I had to do some things at school today so on the way home I stopped by and picked up Strawberry Slushys for us. Sophie Wei split hers on the carpet and she cried so hard that I did not know if it was because her whole body bent forward trying to catch her drink as it fell and she hurt her self doing that or because her drink was all over the floor :O) Simone immediately went into the kitchen drawer to get towels to help me clean it up.

We are on our way! We pray and hope by Christmas she will be walking in a new pair of shoes.