Spica Cast Recovery

We took a day off - no appointments, no errands, no plans beyond a walk along the bayou with the boys. The only work today was catching up on a few long delayed blog entries and some preliminary packing. The first order of business was Alan's first bath since his surgery. To our surprise, he did not enjoy it. Since he has always loved splashing in the water, we were hoping this would be something that would perk him up. Unfortunately, he is still extremely skittish about being moved.

On the plus side, his right leg feels warmer and looks more pink and we've seen the toes wiggle a bit, while the left leg is moving all over the place. Alan's appetite is slowly coming back, and he had a fun evening in the toy room with blocks and Ultimate Pandas watching other kids play. He handled the change into PJs better than the previous two nights and even moved around a little in his sleep. Progress, through glacial, is still progress.

We wonder how much of Alan's anxiety and pain comes from loss of the support of a cast in general, loss of a spica cast specifically, recovery from the fasciotomies on his right leg, or recovery from the hemipelvectomy itself. That's quite a mix of medical issues to deal with, and we wonder if that's why none of the anecdotes on spica cast recovery from other parents we've read (links listed below) seem to mention the same level of anxiety in their kids that we've seen in Alan. We're impatient to see him better, but this will take some time.


Look who rotated himself 90 degrees in his sleep, leaving Mommy and Daddy to sleep diagonally

---

• Hip Spica Cast: Info for the Worried Parent, Moving in the Cast and After Cast Removal
• Mommy, Esq., Post-Spica Update
• Hip Spica Cast: Info for the Worried Parent, Taking Off the Hip Spica Cast: What to Expect
• Baby Center: Hip Displasia Kids, 3 weeks until spica cast is removed!! Need some advice...