Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Female Hercules

So, I finally got to get out on my own Monday afternoon. Nothing super exciting, but did not have to take any of the kids with me! First, I went to The Medicine Shoppe, as they carry the gripe water that we wanted to get to give Piper. I bought the bottle, and headed to the grocery store. When I got home, Bud asked when we were supposed to go to Syracuse next. I said Thursday - he said, "well I think we need to go tomorrow. Piper slipped out of her cast!!" Of course, it was just after 5 by this time, and the MD office was on answering service. So, I only got to talk to the resident on call, and he said that we "could" leave the cast on, and just call Dr. Palomino's office in the morning. We decided that Piper was not uncomfortable from the cast, so we were going to leave it on unless she got unusually fussy (when the casts are left off, then the feet can lose some of their correction).

Right foot - did not slip out of cast:


Left foot slipped out of cast:


We gave Piper the gripe water before bed. It's an herbal type remedy for gassiness. We had given it to Macie when she was a baby, and it worked wonders! I was getting the dose ready, and Sam came out from nowhere, and I went to grab the bottle, and I knocked the stinkin' thing over!! About 1/2 the jar spilled all over the kitchen table. At $12.99/bottle, I did not want it to go to waste!! So, I passed Piper to Bud, and starting sucking up the gripe water off the table with the syringe! I was luckily able to salvage most of what had spilled!

So, it seemed to work well. Piper seemed a lot less fussy in the evening, and she settled for bed about 10pm. I put her in the bassinet, and hoped for the best. I fell asleep very shortly after laying her down, and I woke up on my own a little after 3am! I laid there thinking that she was going to wake up at any minute, so I did not attempt to go back to sleep. After 30 minutes, she still had not woken up, so I decided to pump. Then, I laid back down, and she slept until 440am!! More than 6 hours! It was wonderful. Just about when she was done eating, Samuel came downstairs. So, I carried him back upstairs to lay down with Bud.

I went to change Piper, and noticed that her cast had slipped quite a bit more, and now her knee was sticking out from the top of the cast. I decided it was time to get it off. I was going to soak it off in a mason jar, as had been suggested, but decided that was going to be a difficult feat on my own. I had to wake Bud up for assistance. Not too happy about that, was he!!


Instead of the mason jar, we decided that we would soak a tube sock in warm water and vinegar (also suggested), and put that over the cast. Then, we put her leg in a large ziploc bag, and Bud held her for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, she wriggled her leg enough, that with a gentle tug, I was able to pull the cast right off.


At 830am, when the MD office opened, I called up there. They said that she gets to go cast-free for the 2 days until her tenotomy! I was excited that we got to see her little leg, but bummed that I still did not get to give her a real bath! When I held onto her, she would go to relax her left leg, and as soon as it touched down on something, she would lift it right back up. I guess her foot is rather sensitive!


Piper turned 1 month old yesterday. I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone by!! Here are some shots that I took to commemorate 1 month...


1 comment:

Chikki said...

Your daughter is darling! My son Om has BCF and just recently got off the casts and is now on the brace. We HATE the brace and actually sort of miss the casting phase.

My blog is at www.refriedbeansandsalsa.blogspot.com.

Drop by when you get a chance!