Tuesday 1 November 2011

Cast Change....27th October 2011

....Getting up at 4am is a little too early, but we have to be dressed for 5am for the Ambulance Transport to arrive to take us to The Royal London Hospital for Maisie's cast change. We woke Maisie at 5.45am so that she could have a drink of juice before her 6am cut off...

...The ambulance arrived at 6am. We arrived at the hospital at 7am, I was really surprise how busy the roads were into London that early in a morning. Arriving at 7am meant that we were half an hour early, as the ward didn't open until 7.30am. Once the ward was open we were shown to Maisie's bed where she loved playing with the buttons on the side & moving the bed up & down! The registrar came to see us & told us that she would be replacing Maisie's cast and x-raying her to check the position of the hip. Also if the hip seemed unstable she would try and do a closed reduction, but if she couldn't get it in or it seemed very unstable that she would just re-cast her and have our consultant ring us with an appointment to discuss further treatment as she would not open Maisie up without talking to him first. The registrar also informed us that Maisie was 3rd on the list. Next to see us was the anesthetist, talked through the same old stuff about how she will go to sleep, what they will do once Maisie is asleep etc. We have heard it that many times! Then the nurse came around to get her part of the paperwork out of the way...

...Maisie was eventually called to theatre at 11.45am, she was hungry, thirsty and very grumpy by this time. It doesn't take very long for Maisie to fall asleep with the gas now, yes she screams, but that is better because she takes deeper breaths in, with the mask over her face she gets more of the gas & goes to sleep after only 2 or 3 big deep breaths. Once that was over with, me & Alan went for something to eat, even though we didn't enjoy it. Just as we got back on the ward at 12.50pm, theatre rang to say Maisie was ready to be collected. We were back on the ward for around 1pm, Maisie was lying on Alan's chest on the bed & I was sat in the plastic chair, we all fell asleep until 2pm. At this time the registrar came to see us & told us that Maisie's hips looked very stable, though very stiff, which is to be expected, her wound has healed nicely. We had noticed some rough parts on Maisie's cast that were touching her skin, the registrar rang the cast technician to ask him to come and check over Maisie's cast. Maisie will next be seen in clinic in 6 weeks time to have the cast removed and x-rays taken, if the hip has dislocated in this time we will discuss further treatment, same for if it dislocates again after the cast has come off, we will discuss where to go next. When he came he cut some of Maisie's cast at the front and put some fleecy type stuff over the top of all the rough edges....

...That was it, we had seen everyone we needed to see, all that's left is for Maisie to eat something and keep it down so we can be discharged home. Maisie ate a slice of toast, half a sandwich & 3 bourbon's, we were definitely allowed to go home...

....It was 4 days ago that Maisie was put to sleep for the 5th time this year & you wouldn't think there was anything wrong with her to watch her play, find new ways to play. It's wonderful to be able to watch her grow and cope with her Hip Spica...

Steph xxxx

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