Big "Cast off" day!

Today Lucy, also known in our house as Lulu and or Goose, had her casts removed. Going in, smiles. During, not so much, and after, so happy to have leg movement again! We thought dad might miss the event as he refused to allow us to pick him up from work, instead he chose to walk to the hospital- we didn't have a wait. Arrived at 3:30 and were promptly called back at our appointment time of 3:45. That's the deal with Gillette- PROMPT! LOVE....IT.....
Fortunately for daddy the cast off lady was called back for a minute so we had a few more moments to spare so he could arrive to BLUE 7. Madeline was so happy that sister would be having her "owies gone" today. She said to me, "Mommy, Lucy have owies gone so she can take a bath with Meme." Yes, Madeline, she will not have her owies anymore and she can have a bath with you. A side note, when you ask Madeline her name, like, "what's your name?" You'll likely receive this as a response...."ME...Me". She's silly.

Back to Lucy Lu.

Nurse said she remember's Lucy from surgery, although Lucy was asleep then. She was sweet and gently and fast. Lucy screamed the whole time. Madeline, the big sister who was there for support to hold sister's hand was very traumatized by this experience and cried and asked to leave the room, and so we did. For a moment anyway. Then the nurse camae out with bubbles and that was a great distraction.
As with M, I asked John to hold the baby during this time so the babe wouldn't associate momma with this experience. But, I held the camera and I saw in her face the "why are you doing this to me mommy" and it broke me.
Her casts were removed, and tossed. We weren't able to keep them like we were with M. I wasn't about to pull them from the trash. Our immediate response to her toe was silent. Much different than M's. Lulu's toes were more dramatic than Madeline's. More bone work, more tissue, just more work..... I think after the swelling and the scabbing goes down we'll see positive results. I hope. In a phrase, I see lots of black dead tissue. Enough said.
Dr. Walker came in and had postitive comments. And he pulled one of her toe nails off as we sat there. I nearly lost my stomach. He advised me to continue to look away as he tried to pull as much residule tissue, scabbing, and stitches while he was there. OMG. NOTHING like Madeline's results. BUT, they will be. Madeline simply had less scabbing than Lucy.
We are to watch and bath as usual. I have her in a dressing of gauze and whatnot covered by a sock while she sleeps. She is SO HAPPY TO HAVE HER CASTS GONE. I just hope she doesn't hurt herself in the process. She's ready to move!
As a parent, be thankful when you count 10 toes. 10 fingers. 12 toes isn't a bad thing, but as parents who decide that keeping 12 toes would be a struggle, as kids are mean, and finding regular shoes to fit would be hard, feel blessed. It's definitely not a disability but it's a process. Not a pretty one, either.

Here's what- you can take 12 toes and get rid of twoand deal with the recovery. But you can't take my girls' BIG BLUE EYES and their perfect brows and trade them for nothin! Hmmmmm. be happy with what you get. I am.


Here's a link to Madeline's cast removal blog write up. http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2419684075079703205&postID=5503334598170733841

Spacing.

I seem to be having a technology and design issue with this blog. I can't get anything to space correctly when it's published. I'm trying, so just ignore the way things are spaced for now. Thanks.

Mini Monkey.

Bubba brought the girls two new monkeys from the mill...but they're MINI! Have to say, we have the prettiest babies around town!

Silly.

Nice weather means more outdoor time. Finally. Madeline was being particularly silly the other day making pig noses on the freshly cleaned glass door. Oh Madeline.

And Lucy had such a happy time sitting in the lawn on a blanket watching sister blow bubbles, and run around the yard with her friend, Cayla. Although I have no photos of that happening, I did get Lucy's happy face.

Life is good.

Lucy's Surgery. May 6th 2011

At 7 months old Lucy is such an independent and strong little person. She came through the surgery very well. Her recovery is going better than anyone would expect from someone this small. From what we can tell, she has no pain from the surgery itself, however, she isn't fond of her two casts- who would be?

The day went like this- check in at Gillette at 6:15am on Friday, May 6th. We were promptly escorted back to the pre-op area where they took some vitals and asked lots of repetative questions. The doctor was ON TIME. When Madeline had her surgery the doctor was late! Not nice when you're dealing with babies. Oh, I should tell you we used the same doctor. We really do think he's a wonderful surgeon and has very good bedside manner which I feel is extremely important when dealing with children, or anyone for that matter. He came in, made a few purple dots on her feet, explained what he was going to do and made references to Madeline's procedure as well, put his initials on her feet and made sure we had all our questions or concerns answered. Then she was quickly taken back for surgery and John went into work for a few hours (we were just a few blocks from his office) and I grabbed a coffee and my book and there I sat. I found myself a blubbering mess of tears for the first hour. Just imagining our little baby so sad wondering what all these people dressed in blue were doing to her. But, I knew she was in the best possible care and so I pulled it together. Eventually I struck up some conversations with other parents waiting for their little ones. And speaking of which, if you ever thing you have a rough life, I would encourage you to sit in the surgery waiting room at Gillette- seeing some of the children come through that door really puts things in perspective and I have a new respect for parents with disabled children and frankly feel so fortunate and even lucky that my children had a few extra digits. They really are special.

Surgery lasted just about 4 hours from start to casting. We chose a red cast- not sure why now, but what's done is done. I think in my head I was remembering how dirty Madeline's was by the end and it was white. But now I think she looks like she's wearing Ronald McDonald pants!

In recovery we just had to make sure she was waking up, taking fluids without vomiting and just showing that she was generally coming out of it okay. And she did. She was VERY tired, but eventually we got her home and it was back to life as usual...getting used to her added weight from the cast would take some getting used to. We were sent home with a prescription pain medication, which we used religiously for the first 24 hours and now it's just not necessary.

Roughly two weeks in, we're doing fine. Lucy doesn't seem to mind the casts during the day, but at night she has a difficult time getting comfortable and so there are a lot of tears from both her and mom as I try to make her comfortable, but just can't. June 1st they come off. I have a check mark on each day that passes by!

Having gone through this before, it made it easy in some respects, but it's never an easy thing to see your baby go into surgery. I'm SO glad its over.

Here are the photos from her day, from top to bottom. She was covered with a "surgery blanket" which has tiny holes and when it's turned on, blows warm air. It is said to aide in the success of persons undergoing anestesia or surgery. I think it's a crock, but why not give it a shot. She didn't seem to mind it. Then of course we have the toe shots. And recovery. She had a few drips of morphine which helped her to sleep. And in the end, big sister Madeline knows her sister Lucy has owies on her feet but says, "Look Lucy, look at my pretty pink toes". Soon she will have the same 10 pretty pink toes.

Here is a link to the entry done when Madeline had her surgery. You'll see that time is precious these days having two under the age of 3. My writing is certainly not as descript as it once was. I hope as they get older I'll have more time. Anyway, same story of Madeline's toe applies to Lucy.
http://themaslows.blogspot.com/2009/05/story-of-madelines-toe.html

Gramma Shirley and her Great and Grand Babies.

Sunday we ventured south to Austin where I am from and where my extended family resides. It was Gramma Shirley's birthday. I won't reveal her age, but I think there's a 7 and a 2, or a 7 and a 4? I can't remember. Seems like she doesn't age at all! I hope I have her genes.

It was the first time in many years all the cousins were together, meaning, Kellie, Lucas and myself. It was a treat to be together again and with our kids. And how wonderful it must have been for Gramma to have her grandchilden, and great-grandchildren all together! I only hope another few years doesn't pass before it happens again.

Happy Birthday, again, to Gramma Shirley. I hope it was a special one!

(Madeline didn't seem to want to look at the camera in those pictures.....)

A morning stroll to the park.

For the Minnesotan's out there, you know that Friday was a gorgeous day! Saturday, rain, cold, wind....turned into late afternoon sunshine and Sunday. Burr. Snow flakes fell.

Back to Friday, highs in the upper 50's begged for a walk to the park with my girls. The park was crawling with 2-3 year old "friends" as we like to call them. Madeline quickly found fun chasing around with the other boys and girls. Lucy was content sitting on a step with her chew toy laughing at all the kids running around. I captured this photo after Madeline insisted "baby Lucy" go down the slide too. We got home just in time for meltdowns and naptime.