Thursday 16th June.......Cast removal day....

.....Today is the day that our 12 week wait has finally come around. Maisie's cast is being removed today, among the emotions of happiness are feelings of nervousness, anxious & terrified of the outcome. The appointment was not until 2.55pm, which made it a pretty long wait, with little to be able to do at home, we found ourselves pottering around, waiting to be taken to hospital. When we arrived there was a 45 minute delay as the surgeons were held up in theatre, but that was fine. We sat in the waiting area for around 5 minutes & then were called through by the plaster technicians. Maisie was asleep & had been for around 1/2 an hour, but we had to wake her up so they could start the process. I woke Maisie by lifting her out of the pushchair - which she wasn't too impressed with at all. The technician then explained that because of the vibration, she will cry, could hold her breath, turn blue and vomit. He said "to be prepared" I replied with "what to cry myself!"...

....There was two cast technicians in the room with us, the male marked Maisie's cast for where it needed to be cut as the female had never cut off a Hip Spica before & was unsure on where to cut. The female cut along the lines that had been drawn on, Maisie screamed at first then she settled into a gentle whimper every so often. The whole time I was holding Maisie's hands up and out of the way, constantly kissing her head, reassuring her that she was a "Good Girl", which she did repeat after me. Once they had got all the front of the cast cut the back needed to be cut as well, for this I held Maisie, so she was upright against me, I could feel the vibration through her body onto mine, but she stayed clinging onto me whilst the cast was being cut off, then he went on to use some scissor type things to prize the cast open & then some round ended scissors to cut through the bandage under the cast. The male technician then took her off me from under her arms and asked if I would remove her cast...which I did cautiously, I didn't want to hurt Maisie by taking it off, but he just reassured me that as long as I pull it apart before taking it of her legs she would be fine. I have to say the smell that came out of the cast was horrendous. Once the cast was fully away from her body I put her a nappy on "normally"....

....From there we were given a sheet of paper & told to go to the x-ray department. When we found it there was a little wait, but nothing too bad as far as waiting times go at hospitals. While we were waiting I took some closer photo's of Maisie's legs....

 .....This is Maisie's left leg, her skin is so hard and tender...

....This is Maisie's right leg, as it was only half casted there is only some slight irritation to the top part of her thigh...

....Eventually they called us for the x-ray, Maisie's nappy has to be completely removed for this, then once she was laid in a good position, a thick black board was placed in a drawer like thing under the bed and an ovary protector was placed over the pubic bone area to protect her ovaries. A second x-ray was required with a more straight leg approach, as we fiddled with her legs to straighten them we could not get them ideal, but the x-ray was taken, all the while Maisie was crying as she quite obviously did not want her legs to be like this. The man came back from checking the x-ray and said "it's not a perfect x-ray, but I'm not willing to put her under anymore stress" which I replied with "well, if they want another, they can arrange one for a later date at our local hospital!" He agreed, handed me the piece of paper back and told me to go back to Brian Roper Unit and wait to be called by the surgeon...

....We had to wait a while for our surgeon to call us through, but there was a few other patients there seeing her as well. She called us through, and asked how Maisie was etc. She then examined her & looked at her x-ray. She said that everything was looking good! Then she explained that Maisie would now go in to a Hip Abduction Splint for 3 months for bedtime only. I asked how to fit it, so we took it out of the packaging & I was allowed to "try it out" so that I knew how to use it, which it is pretty simple to do, however the cast technician said that if we needed any help with it, we can ring them and they will talk us through it over the phone. After he had left I asked the surgeon, what her personal opinion of what Maisie's outcome would be, she said that it was too early to tell, but she did show me the comparison of x-rays from the very 1st to this last one, she explained about the Accetabular Index and how its measured, Maisie's first x-ray showed an A.I of 50.2% - compared to this new x-ray which showed her A.I is now 32.6% the surgeon is very pleased with this result after just 12 weeks in the Spica, ideally her A.I should be no more than around 27% for her age. I also asked about the ball at the top of the Femur, this is still extremely small compared to her right (good) leg, the surgeon explained that this ball can do a few things, it might stay small, it might grow to size as the right, and sometimes they grow bigger. Each direction has its own path! The surgeon wants to review Maisie again in 3 weeks time, which is to be arranged....

.....Maisie of course had a bath when we got home. I put lots of bubbles in it for her, got everything prepared then stripped her and carried her through to the bathroom. As I started to place her lying down in the bath she started to cry, I got her in the bath but still holing onto her in comfort, Hailie was there too and she started to get hand fulls of the bubbles and put them onto Maisie's head, cheeks, nose, chin - this was making Maisie laugh a little, and it distracted her long enough for me to clean her body, as I was washing her hair she started to shake, which I did not like at all, so quickly finished off her hair then got her out of the bath and gave her a cuddle to cam her down....

....Maisie is now very fragile, she does not like her left leg to be touched at all. She tries to move about but it hurts her and she cries and sometimes screams. I can only describe this part of the journey as like having a top half 18 month old baby with a newborn baby for the bottom half.....

Steph xxxx