Casting Take One

So here it is on sunday and i'm just getting a moment to write how it all went. it is by the grace of max that i have a few minutes at the computer and i think this may be how it will be for the next three months. blog posts may be few and far between as i opt for eating, sleeping, and showering instead.

anyway. on thursday morning we got up bright and early to drive up to UVA. the drive went better than expected because sabine slept the whole way even though she was officially fasting by that time. when we got there we dropped off aunt eva in the waiting room and were shown to the children's surgical unit. there we changed sabine into her cute hospital gown and socks that wouldn't stay on and her diaper. and still she held it together really well considering how hungry she must have been. she was pretty content to play with us and look at everyone. her only complaints happened when the room started to get full.
while we were on the surgical unit we met everyone on the team. anesthesiologist and resident, dr romness (his resident wasn't there but she was in on the procedure) nurses to be in the procedure and nurses to take vitals etc. plenty of people. and of course the one i remember is andy, the anesthesiology resident. probably because he was younger than me or maybe my age and he looked us in the eye and he told us she'd have a breathing tube during the procedure (UGH!) the other anesthesiologist was the head of pediatrics anesth. and he scared us. he said "well kids take a while to adjust to the SPICA cast... i'm not talking days" CRAP! but he followed that with "i'm talking hours" and on he went on his discussion....
so then it came time for them to take her away. this was the worst part of course because i had to just hand over my baby into andy's arms (who didn't really look like he knew how to hold a baby) and let her go on alone. there was a brief moment when the nurse asked me if i wanted to come back with sabine, but the dr. said i shouldn't. that babies don't remember and it's really hard on the parents. so i didn't. thinking back though i should have said i'd go because she would definitely know i was there and maybe that would make a difference, who cares if it's hard for me. i'm her mom i'm supposed to help her. anyways, i can only imagine what happened while she was away from us and maybe it's better that way. (i get sad just typing it though)
we were sent back downstairs to the waiting area for an hour. during that time the gist of what happened was that dr romness injected dye into her hip to see the bones properly, then because she was asleep all of her ligaments and tendons and muscles were soft so he just slid the bone into proper place. then they wrapped the cast to hold her in place. so the procedure part doesn't take very long it's just the casting. and he had been considering a prick in one of her tendons to create more space, but with her asleep he found he didn't need to do that, so it was ok.
after about an hour dr romness called to say all was well. she was waking up and we'd be called up soon. unfortunately they weren't able to get her to the CT while she was asleep because the CT was backed up or the appointment wasn't right or something. arg! so instead she had to wait.
a few minutes later we were shown upstairs to the wake-up from anesthesia area. there we found a VERY unhappy baby. she was crying her MAD cry and one of the nurses was holding her. so i took her right away and asked if i could nurse and they ALMOST let me but i couldn't because they were waiting on the CT. if anything was wrong in the CT they'd have to put her back under to fix it... so no nursing. instead, i held her and gave her the pacifier that she likes and the nurses brought the sugar water to dip her pacifier in and it didn't take too long with me holding her for her to come around. she just closed her eyes and sucked and rested back with my hand on her chest.
finally we went to CT and that took a few times because she was wiggly, but they eventually got it. then back upstairs to recovery and as soon as dr. romness OKd the CT i got to nurse her. as i was nursing her i got the nurse to take out the line for the IV and take off the heartrate monitor. the nurse really didn't want to do it just then but i convinced her because i knew it would bug sabine less to have those taken care of while she was nursing.
the OT department brought up the carseat for us to use and the nurse went over instructions. dr romness checked back in and went over instructions and we were sent on our way. we drove away from the hospital by 1030 am. she slept all the way back and really hasn't missed a beat in adjusting to being in a cast. i'm pretty amazed.
when we got home, sabine had a note on the door and when we read it we found out we had a big lunch waiting for us on the back porch, delivered by katie and shannon. it was absolutely the best thing at the best moment. we were all exhausted and not thinking well enough to feed ourselves and there was food provided. (and it was yummy healthy food too, but i wouldn't have complained about a chocolate sundae)
and now we're into adjusting. i'll write more about what the cast is like and diapering and our new life in the cast trimester. but at the moment my time is up. more later.