Oops!

So I'm getting Maddie dressed this morning, and as I raised her leg to get her underwear on, her cast came off in my hand. I just stood there, holding the cast in place, my stomach in my throat, and then I did the only thing I could think of. I hollered for Richard.

He came running, and we debated for a few seconds what we should do. Our conclusion was to try and gently place the cast back on Maddie's leg. So we attempted that and then Maddie started saying, "Owwww. Owwwww." Considering she has not once complained about pain in her leg since the surgery, we thought this was significant, so we stopped operation cast replacement immediately. "What now?" we thought. Our next decision was to take the cast completely off and see if we could rewrap it. We weren't really prepared to see the stump but found ourselves pleasantly surprised when we finally did get a look. It looks fantastic. It's healing well, and her surgeon did a wonderful job of shaping and stitching. Okay, so. We replaced the cast, rewrapped it, and then realized it was about two inches lower than it had been previously. Not good. Next thing, I'm on the phone with Shriner's, and they say, Come on over."

To make a long story short, Maddie's surgeon happened to be in clinic today, so he was able to look at her leg and decided that since it looks so good, he was not going to replace the cast. Now Maddie just has to wear these snug stockings for two weeks, called stump shrinkers, to make sure that all the swelling (of which there is not much) goes down before she is casted for her prosthesis. We have an appointment for them to do the cast of her leg next Friday. Two weeks after that, we will be able to go back, and Maddie will be fit with her brand new leg, a couple weeks earlier than we expected.

The girls were supposed to have a Halloween party at school today, and I felt horrible that they were going to miss it. They were excited because we'd been talking it up. Well, I shouldn't have worried. Shriner's had a full blown Halloween party of their own going on complete with dee jays, music, dancing, face painting, craft activities, and everyone, staff and patients, dressed up in costumes. After our appointment, the girls and I hung out for about an hour and had loads of fun. I'll post some pictures later.

Little did I know what this day had in store, but sometimes, events that are unplanned can have the greatest outcomes.