Surviving the Spica: Halfway There

Oh the spica cast. . . we're four weeks and five days into the spica cast.  I have to admit, it hasn't been as hard as I thought it would.  Please do not misinterpret that to read that it hasn't been hard.  It has been.  Very, very hard.  But not as bad as we were expecting.  And the things that have been hard have been things that I didn't think about.

The hardest part has been Katie's frustration.  Why is she frustrated?  Um, hello.  She can't move.  Her ability to tell us if something hurts, is itchy, she's hungry, she wet her diaper, etc. is limited.  She has a cast from chest to ankle.  There's only so much Spongebob one person can watch. . . pick a reason.  More than the frustration though, it's been the accompanying behavior that's been difficult.  You can take the girl out of the orphanage, but you can't take the orphanage out of the girl.  She's back to hitting herself (a lot), slapping herself, spitting, banging her head, and just closing her eyes and sucking on her tongue when she's upset and frustrated.  This is like 100 steps backward in the emotional health department, and I'm hoping will quickly resolve when the cast is removed.

We aren't, however, letting the cast keep us down!  Katie's been front and center at Jack's ball games, cheering on every.single.person who is up to bat, giving them a, "Go boy!" or a thumbs up, and some loud clapping and "Good job!"  

We went to our sweet friend Winnie's yard sale to tell her see you later as she got ready to move to Austin.  We will miss her and her fabulous family!

Last weekend we went to Gatlinburg for Henry's birthday.  It's about three and a half hours from our house, and Katie did great on the trip.  We stayed in a great cabin in the woods, and we loved every second of it.

Jack drew this picture.  He's been very protective of Katie.  The kids were at my parents' house and Katie was in her wheelchair on the deck.  My parents went into the yard and Jack said, "GIGI!  Katie MUST have adult supervision at all times!"  Today they were outside with my sister at our house, and it started to rain a little.  Jack quickly flipped the brakes on her chair up, wheeled her around and hauled it back to the house yelling, "Katie's cast cannot get wet!  Katie, you have to get inside!"  Apparently our crazy protection of the cast has rubbed off.  :)

Girlfriend loves a sponge bath on the counter.  We thought she would hate it, but she's really enjoyed it.  Her favorite part is when we're done and she gets to roll over and splash in the water in the sink.  She's the cutest little mermaid I've ever known.

She's out of school until next year.  She's receiving her therapies (PT, OT, and ST) at home, as well as three hours of educational instruction.  So far, so good.  We're starting with a speech app with her speech therapist to help her be able to better communicate.  She really likes it so far, and she's done well with it.  PT has really helped her to be more confident and less fearful in her cast.  And we're continuing to work with OT on strengthening her arms and hands, improving her grasp, and working on her writing.

She had her four week post-op visit to Dr. S. on Thursday.  He was very happy with her bone placement and hardware, so we've scheduled our cast removal.  WOOHOO!!!!!!  We're set for May 29th, and we.will.be.ready.  Her skin on her ankle and foot at the end of the cast is so dry.  Seriously like lizard skin.  I cannot imagine what it will be like under that cast.  I think we need to pack our swimsuits and stop at the pool on the way home from that appointment!

As hard as it's been, our girl has been such a trooper.  She's had, for the vast majority of the time, a fabulous attitude.  She's handled this experience SO much better than I would, and we're very proud of our girl!