Monday, October 6th, 2008

My appointment this morning was at 8 am - first of the morning. Lucille and Mommy and I got right in to the cast removal room. I was the first of four getting casts off in the space of about 30 minutes. Mommy put me on her lap while the nurse got the cast cutting tools ready. First he turned on the vacuum that runs the saw. The he turned on the saw itself. Mommy had turned off my hearing aids and gave me my lovie to try to reduce the anxiety. The first few seconds I was more interested then upset but the tears started flowing soon enough! The nurse let me rest a few minutes after the cutting then Janice took out the cast stretcher tool and the purple shell was off. Underneath were lots of layers of cotton and gauze and I wasn't very happy about those being taken off. Finally, my hand was exposed - but not for long! The occupational therapist came in and gave me a cute little blue splint that I need to wear for the next few weeks unless I am playing and using my hand. Compared to the cast it's not too bad. Dr James came in to check out her handiwork and thought it looked great. Janice is looking in Dr James schedule to see if any OR time has opened up in the next few months. If not, then we will plan on surgery on my left hand the first or second week of January. My left hand will be a lot more complex. In addition to moving my current thumb over to the side, it needs to be pared down a little. Dr James would rather not do all of that at once because it puts the blood supply at risk. Getting better function is more important then how the thumb looks - so the first surgery will be the pollicization - basically the exact same thing I just got done. A three hour surgery followed by an overnight stay and a cast for 6 weeks. Mommy said if it ends up being done in November we will go with a red cast in honor of Christmas. If not and it is in January then maybe pink for Valentine's Day! Dr James also made a referral to the scoliosis clinic at Shriner's to check out my spine so we should be getting a call soon for an appointment there. After all the talk about another surgery I was ready to hit the road. I fell asleep a few miles from home and barely woke up long enough to be put in my crib for a 2 hour nap! Man was I wiped. When I woke up, Mommy helped me out of my splint so I could spend a little time playing. Mommy tried to clean up my hand and arm a little but after 6 weeks in a cast I want to play with my new hand - not spend time getting it cleaned! She did manage to snap a few pictures of it. Right now I am just starting to use it but as time goes on I should start using it more. I am not really moving my thumb just yet but that is pretty normal. I think Dr James did a great job, don't you!

Peyton Nicole Smith