Cast #3

Greetings and a Reminder:

I write this blog as we go through ET Mehta Casting with our daughter Olivia. The blog is intended to inform, possibly inspire, and raise awareness of Infantile Scoliosis and its treatment/cure. Please share our story. For more information please check out http://www.infantilescoliosis.org/ 

Well, cast 3 is on, and I must say that this experience was totally different from cast 2. I find that so interesting. The place doesn't change, we don't change, but yet the results did. In the end it all worked out, but man Brian and I were just a hot mess the whole day. 

It started with us hitting traffic and being 15 minutes late. That wasn't a big deal because we need to be there an hour and a half early anyway, AND they were behind. Usually, they're right on schedule, but they were 20 minutes behind today, which worked for us.

Olivia was in such a great mood! This was the best she's been since we've started this process. She didn't give them a hard time with anything. The best was when we went in for anesthesia. I've been prepping myself for the past week. It is the most stressful part for the both of us. I always feel terrible because she's normally terrified and I have to hold her down, and I get all worked up. This time she calmly sat there with the mask on and conked right out! I was absolutely amazed.

When we went to recovery to see her she was wide awake and ready for her second popsicle. This was also a first. She's usually out cold when we go to see her. They said she came out of casting awake and calm, and that she was a very good girl while they waited for us to get there. I should mention that when they put her under they do insert a breathing tube, so again, I'm shocked that her behavior is so good between the discomfort of the cast and the sore throat. We also have to add incoming molars this time, too. 

Anywho, I was not to thrilled with the way this cast came out. This was also a first. The mushroom cut out was not wide enough for her belly, and the cast rides low on the hip and high on the chest. The last one was short and fat looking and this one is tall and skinny. I don't know if it's because we complained that the last one was way to tight around her lower belly, and this is their way to compensate. We'll see. We did need to have this one cut. Unfortunately, the cast tech was in for another cast application so we had to wait in recovery for another hour until that was done. We entertained an irritable Miss O by riding her around in her stroller. She wasn't allowed to walk around, and she couldn't anyway because we've lost one of her shoes! Like I said, we were a hot mess.

The cast tech was initially reluctant to cut the cast, which I did not like. I mean I know how the cast is supposed to look and if we left it the way it was her tummy was going to break down rapidly. She very liberally cut the belly out a little bit more and trimmed down the top. I'm going to have to redo a lot of the moleskin, because it seemed haphazardly thrown on, and a lot of it was detaching due to particles of plaster getting into the sticky part. Again, not too thrilled. I'll have to research who the cast techs have been over the past couple of casts....

Diapering may be a challenge with this one because of how low it's riding. We'll see. We will definitely be scheduling this cast for 8 weeks and not 9. Fingers crossed she can hold out with this one. In the end we stayed at the hospital for lunch because it was past noon by the time we were done and she was famished. We spent a grand total of 6.5 hours at the hospital today and got home around 3. Long day. 

In conclusion, the positive of the day was how amazingly wonderful Olivia was. The con....I'm a bit skeptical about this cast. I will keep you posted. I will also post pictures of the cast after I've fixed it. These pictures are before the cast tech came to fix it. Good thing I had pictures of the previous cast, otherwise it would have been a challenge to get the cast tech to trim it. In the future I hope I do not have to do that. We are, of course, still very pleased with Olivia's treatment and all Children's has done for us. It was just a very different experience. Again, thanks for reading!