My aunt Paula showed up early in the morning to keep the big girls while we went to the hospital. As we were driving to Scottish Rite I kept thinking, “Please let her be great. Please let her be healed. Please let this be the end.” We signed in at the hospital and headed for the Day Surgery unit where we had been 3 times before with Amelie. They showed us to our waiting area and then we waited for all the various people to come by and talk to us. Dani was having fun during the wait and being her usual happy self. First came the anesthesiologist, then the resident for Dr. Birch and then someone from the research department. They had hoped that Dani could take part in a genetic study but then realized that she was adopted and that wouldn’t work. I told her that if we could have done it, we would have been glad to. The nurse for Dani’s surgery came to ask what color we wanted for the new cast. I said, “Purple, but I hope we don’t need it.”
Once all the documents had been signed the nurse gave Dani the “goofy juice” to keep her calm as they took her back and we changed her into the surgical gown. The nurse gave her some stickers to play with while we waited for her turn and then they rolled her back. I asked God one more time to please let her be healed and for this to be the end. Mike and I took a beeper and headed down to the cafeteria to have a quick breakfast since they thought this would take less than an hour. When they rolled her back in I couldn’t tell if there was a new cast or not and so I said to Dr. Birch, “No cast?” and he said, “No cast.” I immediately said an unexpected, “Halleluiah!” and started to cry from all the pent-up stress. Dr. Birch told us that everything looked perfect and she couldn’t have done better. He showed us her x-ray (I forgot to ask for a photo this time) and said we would need to return for a 1 month, 3 month and 6 month follow up. He said that at 6 months they usually remove all the hardware and that will require an overnight stay. He told us again that it could take up to 6 months for her to reach full mobility, but to let her go at her own pace.
The nurse told Mike he could go down to the pharmacy and get Dani’s pain medicine and that I could get her changed so we could go home. When I took the gown off of her she looked down, smacked her belly two times and said, “Belllleeee Belllleeee!” Then she wiggled her toes and moved her right leg up and down with such an ecstatic look on her face. A few minutes after Mike came back upstairs they let us leave and we went to the car and headed home. WOO HOO! When Mike put her in the car seat she seemed so surprised and almost the entire way home she was pointing out the window and saying, “Mom! Mom! Mom!” for every fun thing she saw. We could tell she was so happy to be sitting up and able to see out the window again for the first time in 8.5 weeks.
Once we were home she just wanted to eat and then lay on me for quite a while and watch TV which we were happy let her do. We found that she couldn’t sit up on her own yet, so we had to get her in position to lean against something or for her to be laying down.
After her nap she wanted to get down on the floor, be free and go after some toys.
The best part for her was the BATH!!!! Because she couldn’t sit up Mike thought we should try to prop her up on a booster chair and that worked perfectly for her to soak for a nice long time. The skin on her lower back and legs was very dry and her left leg had a lot of scabs, plus her scars were a little raw. Our family was so very happy that the cast was off!