Part 2: Delaney's 1st cast

Shriner's is the most amazing hospital I have ever been to. Of course I have been to other children's hospitals and they are great, but Shriner's really goes above and beyond. They took such good care of us. They completely made us comfortable. Every single person there acted like Delaney was the only child in the world. They know how stressful and heart wrenching it is to have your child go through something like this. I just can not say enough about that place.
And the fact that it is free...free so that no child is left behind, no matter their family's circumstance.


So back to Miss Delaney...as we walked through the Recovery Room doors, there she was, the most beautiful baby in the world...screaming her tiny head off. There were 4 nurses around her. Two monitoring her vitals and 2 just trying to comfort her. And covering her body was the horrible cast. The horrible cast that was also the most wonderful thing in the world to us, as it would fix our baby. She still had her IV in and she looked very disoriented. They said crying is good for them right after anesthesia, it gets all the gunk out of their lungs. So I just held her and let her cry. She also received a "surgery present" which was a Raggedy Ann Doll. Of course at that moment she could not care less. The doctor came in at that point and he told us the most wonderful news! He got her spinal curve down from 23 degrees to 10 degrees in the cast! Best of all, she may only need 1 more cast! WOW how far we have come in these 6 weeks.

Delaney was doing so well they sent us up to our room, where I was allowed to breast feed her. As soon as she ate, she was her old self...laughing at Daddy and

watching Dora on T.V. Since she didn't get sick, they came in and removed her I.V., took her temp etc.. She was doing amazingly well. It truly could not have gone better. On a side note, nurses are aloud to give out "treasure chest passes" to kids so they can go to the playroom and take a toy out of the treasure chest. We had 3 nurses each give her separate passes, telling us how brave and strong she was. They were always so encouraging and absolutely wonderful with the children.

Unfortunately, it wasn't over though. A nurse still had to come in and trim and petal the cast. The bottom of the cast comes down to her pubic bone in the front and her tail bone in the back, so they have to cut out sections around the legs so she can sit up right. Also, under the arms was to tight so they trimmed that as well. So we had to hold her down while they trimmed. I have never seen her so mad. I am sure it scared her as it was vibrating the whole cast and it was loud. We also had to hold a blanket in front of her face so the shavings wouldn't get in her eyes. So I am sure she was terrified! Then they do something called "petaling". It's small pieces of flower petal shaped moleskin with adhesive on the back that the nurse put all around the edges of the cast. It helps keep the cast from rubbing her skin raw. We were shown how to change the petals and how to keep the cast clean and dry.

By this time, our dear little Delaney was exhausted! Luckily she had done well enough that they thought we could go home. It was only 1:45 but felt like 8:00 at night. What a long day! We signed all the paperwork, got our next casting date and headed home with our sleeping beauty in the backseat.