Trauma

Lauren got her cast off yesterday and the only word I can use to describe the event was traumatic. I had talked with her all week hoping to lessen the shock, but it apparently didn't work. Here's how the whole thing went down:

We got to the doctor's office and waited for a while to get in. They took us to a room that was obviously just used to take off casts. There was a vacuum to suck all the dust, towels, and other such things that let you know you were in the right place. When the technician came in to cut off the cast, Lauren was on the table giggling. When he left we were all sweating and exhausted. Lauren took one look at the little saw and screamed bloody murder. It got to the point where I was holding Lauren's hands and arms while Ty had to keep her other leg from kicking the technician in the head. At one point she just looked up at Ty and started screaming, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" while looking at him like she couldn't understand why he was letting this happen to her. Ty is still recovering from that. The doctor came in to check her foot after the shock of the event wore off.

He said the foot looks good. I even got to take her foot and bend it back and forth. Something I haven't been able to do before. To give you an idea of what her foot was like before you will have to play along. Take your right foot and point it like a ballerina as hard as you can. Without loosening the tightness, try to bend your foot back. That's how tight her foot was all the time. Now I can bend it back and forth with no effort at all. Lauren will have to wear her regular brace during the day and her night brace when she goes to bed. In two months the doctor will check her foot again and let us know our next step. I am hoping it's that we can just wear the night brace at bedtime and wear regular shoes in the daytime. Her foot is still a little sore and has some trouble walking on it without the cast. Slowly but surely she will get back to her normal energetic self. I am just happy she can now take a bath. A foot in a cast for a month is not a great aroma.

Today!

The cast comes off today! Thank goodness! The cast looks like it has been through a war zone. The pink is wearing off the bottom. The white fabric around the top where the leg comes out and the bottom where the toes come out have reached a nice shade of dirty gray. I want to bring her home and throw her right into the tub for a whole day.

I am a little worried about what we will find when it comes off. Will it have worked? Our goal was to loosen the foot enough for her to walk with it flat on the ground. The worst thing that could happen is that she went through all of this and we didn't accomplish what we set out to do.

I want her to be a little girl and wear little girl shoes with little girl dresses. This week, I got a glimpse of what it would be like if she were able to wear "regular shoes". Since her foot was in a cast (and not in her AFO), Lauren got to wear a pink jelly shoe on her left foot. For the first time in her life, she got her shoe on each day all by herself. She was so proud and I was so happy for her. That's what I want for her every day. This surgery gave me hope that she will continue to find ways to feel good about herself. I think that's why I am hoping it turns out to be a great decision. We'll see today at 2:30 if we made the right choice!

Career Choice?

This is what I found when I peaked in on her during nap time today. She either really likes to clean or she is getting ready for a career in the janitorial field.

Sympathy

I have so much sympathy for Lauren being in a cast all summer, that I thought that I would help her feel better by getting one of my own.

I was playing softball last night when I decided that I would try to catch a softball with my middle finger and not with my glove. Turns out that it wasn't a great idea. I actually tried to catch it with the glove but lost sight of the ball in the lights. The ball came straight down on the tip of my finger and ripped a small section of my nail away from the finger. I ended up breaking the top knuckle. Oh wait, it gets better. As my finger bent to the side, the tendon was stretched. When the tendon snapped back into place, it chipped a piece of my bone off on my bottom knuckle. I was walking off the field bleeding all over the place and wondering if I would be able to drive myself to the hospital.

When I got to the hospital it was around 10:30 at night. There were 400 billion people there and no signs of anyone getting helped. That was because there was an accident a little while earlier that caused the whole ER to shut down until all the critical people were helped. It was 1:30 a.m. before I was called back to the actual treatment area. There were so many people there that I was asked to sit on a gurney in the hall since I wasn't in need of a bed. Turns out that it worked to my advantage. It only took 40 minutes to get an x-ray, have the doctor show me where the problems were on the x-ray, bandage me up, and discharge me. I guess it was hard to forget I was there when I was right next to the nurses station watching all the hustle and bustle going on.

I go tomorrow to a specialist that will look at my hand and decide if they need to remove the chip and tell me how long I will wear my splint. Right now I need to go take a Percocet and lie down.

Texting Fool

Lauren has learned how to send picture messages from Tyler's phone. We didn't teach her, just figured it out. Here's how we know:

Lauren sent a picture of a fan that we use around the house to our good friend Allison. It wasn't the whole fan, just the buttons on the front. Somehow she learned how to take a picture, find a contact to send it to, and send it.

I don't even know how to send a picture message.

Either our daughter is a girl genius or really lucky.

I vote for girl genius.

Seriously

Ok, this post is not about my daughter Lauren, but I need to let you know something that has made me laugh on several occasions. It will be short and sweet.

My 129 pound lab will not go in the backyard to do his business at night unless the light is on.

You heard me right. He will stand at the back door and look at me until I flip the light on. Then I guess he feels safe enough to roam the backyard with his beacon guiding him back to the house. Maybe he's worried he will get lost.

My dog is afraid of the dark.

Rip-off

We got the bill in the mail for Lauren's surgery. Well, I guess it wasn't a bill since the insurance will cover it. Either way, my jaw dropped when I opened it. Before I tell you the cost, do you have a guess? Don't look at the bottom of this post yet. I'll wait a minute..go ahead. Give it your best shot.

Here's a little background of the day so you can have all the information first. Lauren was in out-patient surgery for about four hours total. That included the time it took to put her to sleep, do the surgery, and for her to wake up and leave. The surgery itself took about five minutes and didn't even require a stitch. She had happy juice to make her sleepy before the general anesthetic, a spinal block, and regular sleepy gas. Ty also took (stole) her little blue hospital gown, but I don't think they charged us for that.

Are you ready?



The total cost after four hours is....$6,687.91.

I am in the wrong profession.