....This is the week that Maisie got her cast changed. The week started on a Bank Holiday Monday, and we had to take her to a&e because the smell from her wound area was so vile me and Alan were almost sick with it. Taking her to a&e resulted in her being admitted overnight to be monitored, with the smell getting so bad in such a short space of time. By Tuesday morning the smell had no changed at all, but Maisie's surgeon was in clinic that morning, so the nurses rang down to inform her that Maisie has been in all night and could she come up and see her. The surgeon came up around 1pm-ish, she said that she was OK for Maisie to go home and was happy for her to attend on Thursday as planned. The surgeon did say that she may need to do a surgical clean of the wound, but that would depend on what it was like once the cast was taken off and examined! If she needed a surgical clean then that would require an overnight stay, just to be observed.....
.....Thursday 5th May 2011.....
Cast Change day is here, I was up in good timing to make sure I'd packed everything needed and not missed anything, had left myself jobs to do to keep me awake, once I had got ready, checked the bags, they were put by the front door ready to go. I didn't dare sit down in case I fell back to sleep. We left for London at 6am - which would give us enough time to get there - the journey wasn't too bad, and neither was the traffic. We arrived at the hospital for 7.20am, which wasn't too bad at all. Once we had booked in and filled in all necessary paperwork with the surgeons registrar and the anesthetist, Maisie was given a hospital gown to change into, ready for theatre. Maisie was on the first list to go down, but there was a 5 month old baby who would go down before her. Theatre called around 9.30am to say they were ready for Maisie, so we took her down to theatre with a nurse from the ward. Maisie wasn't half as bad to put to sleep as last time, she hardly wriggled or resisted, and was gone in no time. Once she was laid on the bed, we headed back to the ward, the nurse said to go for a cuppa, but to come back in around 20 mins...Sainsbury's awaits....with cheap food and cheap cuppa's, but still really nice for being cheap! Once we were back on the ward, it wasn't long before the nurse came over again to say that theatre had called and Maisie was ready to collect!!! 10.30am-ish we took the walk back to theatre to collect Maisie, when we were close we passed a nurse, who asked if we were going to collect a little girl, so yes was the answer, and the nurse said that she seems very happy. Once we walked into theatre, Maisie was there in one of the theatre staff's arms, all awake and alert, with a BRIGHT PINK cast!!!!
Once we were back on the ward, they let Maisie settle in for around half an hour, in that time she drank two cups of juice, so they offered her some toast. Maisie ate two slices of toast, had more juice and fell asleep. The surgeon came to see us and explained that, she pressed and squeezed on Maisie's wound and nothing came out of it, so there is no infection and there was no need to do a surgical clean, and that the smell was on the cast itself, urine was one of the main causes of the smell, (which can happen & is hard to prevent) the redness on the wound is Granulation Tissue, which can sometimes happen, but she cant treat it while in the Spica, but once its been removed she will treat it, even though it is only cosmetic. Maisie's hip socket hasn't grown yet, and although the ball was not fully inside the socket, it had still remained in position! We now have to use Jelonet & gauze on her wound to prevent further infection. Also the surgeon has changed Maisie's hip position, her legs are now wider apart, this is to try and force the socket to deepen on its own, if it doesn't deepen on its own then it would be another operation to scrape the socket deeper. Once the cast is off in 6 weeks time, Maisie will be going into a night-time splint only, but will be free of it throughout the daytime to learn everything again....
...We have now been home two days, Maisie's is drinking more juice than she was before, the nappy that's needed to insert into the cast is now a size 4, with a size 6 still for the outside to hold it all together. Alan is going to have to make some adjustments to her Spica Chair too, as she doesn't sit in it properly with the new cast, but we have some ideas that were going to try and do. Maisie's not too keen on moving around with the new cast, it looks like she's got a baby bump, so when she's on her tummy she rocks with the curve. I have managed to get a picture of Maisie's wound too....
....the dark redness is the Granulation Tissue, that will be treated once the cast is off! This new cast is heavier than the last, and is more awkward to pick her up and hold her, but we will get used to it!....
Steph xxxx
