Category: Medical

The day after Amelie’s birthday party our friends who live around the corner had their 4th birthday party and it was “Frozen” themed. Nadia and Amelie had a great time and the birthday girls’ mother, Hannah, did the most awesome job on the decorations and food – I loved everything about it! I think my two favorite things were “Kristoff’s Ice Blocks” which was blue jello cut in rectangles and “Anna’s Frozen Hearts” that were white chocolate dipped strawberries cut in heart shapes.

The party was at My Gym, for little kids. Mike got Dani settled on a railing so that she could see all the kids and the stuff they were playing. I think her favorite part of the party was the food because she had two pieces of pizza, grapes (“Frozen Trolls”) and a cupcake!

For Father’s Day we decided to try and go to Cotton Patch because we had some gift cards. Mike and I were trying to figure out how we could take Dani and have her sit upright because it would be a long meal trying to hold her with the heavy and very hot cast. Mike asked if we still had the black booster seat from when Nadia was little and I said yes. It’s made out of a strong foam material and once we were at the restaurant we asked them for a booth because they have wooden backs. We flipped the booster over and propped Dani up and it worked perfectly! I had to keep one hand on her throughout the meal (because I was afraid she would tip forward in her excitement), but it was worth it to get to eat out!

The biggest change this week was that Dani wanted to be out of her TARDIS chair more and more to get on the floor and explore. It is a major workout for her to get around, but she is so determined! Her upper body was getting stronger and stronger and she started to eat more again from all the sudden activity. The doctors at Scottish Rite had told us to expect this around week 5, so it was good to see her doing the things they expected. We had made it more than halfway with no major spills or diaper leaks so I was feeling good.

Dani does NOT like to sit still for the cast cooler so we started to give her conversation hearts or smarties to keep her from crying or moaning in misery. The cooler doesn’t hurt her and it works great to get the stinky sweat out, but she is like any other 2 year old – she wants to be free!

One last photo just for fun because it makes me laugh.

Amelie had Dance Camp this week and she was so excited! We didn’t want to let the cast control everything about our life especially since Dani wasn’t so miserable now. It was good to get out of the house and for the big girls to be back in some activities. One of my friends told me they wished they could stay home more often and I told her I was glad we had something to do every single day of this week. It’s all your perspective.

Nadia and Amelie started swim school again and now they are over at the Wesleyan pool which they thought was neat.

We were happy to make it through this week because we were more than half way through this adventure.

The exciting thing about week 4 with Dani’s cast was that we were in a better routine. She was back to sleeping in her room and SLEEPING ALL NIGHT!!! She went 4 nights in a row without crying out and I felt like a new person. We had several things planned to get us out of the house and most days Dani was content playing in her chair and watching TV.  Nadia and Amelie were also enjoying how much TV they got to watch as a result.

All in all we had a great week! Nadia and Amelie did a great job trying to help entertain Dani and play with her while she is in the chair. Amelie can make her laugh out loud which is super cute. I was glad we were nearing the half way point with many things planned for the rest of June hoping it would help us pass the time.

Dani’s two week check up at Texas Scottish Rite was May 22, 2014. Once we were checked in they sent us over to radiology for an x-ray and the best thing was that Dani didn’t cry or scream or anything. PROGRESS! After the x-ray we were shown to our room to meet with the doctors and they ended up telling us that everything looked great! Dr. Birch spoke with us again about how everything went as well as it could have and what it would be like when the cast came off. He also told us that unless anything drastic happened they wouldn’t need to see us until the day surgery to remove the cast.

The funny part of the day was when Dr. Miller asked us if the radiology person put a crescent shaped shield on Dani for the x-ray and then they showed us the x-ray. Mike reached down the back of the cast and pulled out this:

It was a hair bow from a magnetic doll set. HA!

I wanted to get a photo of Dani with Dr. Birch and she was happy while he was talking to her, but she turned suspicious when he took her from Mike. The look on her face here makes me laugh. After the doctors left, one of the nurses came back in to let us know that we were scheduled for a day surgery on 7/7 to have the cast removed. They have to put her under anesthesia to remove the cast and check to see that the hip has set properly. If everything is good, then she wakes up and we are done for now. If not, they will put her in a new cast for 4 more weeks. We are praying that it will be over with and looking great on the first attempt. The entire visit was encouraging and that continues to make us love going to Scottish Rite.