The Cast at Last!

Havyn did so well! We arrived at the hospital at 9am and by 2pm we were on the road back home – after a “quick” stop at Ikea of course!

Havyn has been sedated 6-8 times for MRIs but this was our first time at Cincinnati Children’s. She did marvelously. Normally she gets a medicine called “versed” to make her loopy so she won’t fight the separation from us. But they wanted to try without it and she was amazing! She clutched tightly to her Peppa Pig toy and away she went!

About an hour later Dr. Sturm came to talk to us. The procedure was done and Havyn was in recovery. He told us that she did very well and that he was quite surprised at how flexible her spine was. He told us that the curve is now at 20°! It had been somewhere between 40° and 50° before so this is remarkable! I didn’t know what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t this level of correction so quickly. He reminded us that he still believes that this will not be curative. It’s more of a temporary fix until she’s old enough for surgery. But hey… we’re elated with how well it’s working!

About 30 minutes after that Havyn was awake and it was time to go see her. This was the hardest part of the whole trip and probably one of the more difficult moments of our her medical journey. She was mad. Furious. Irate. Hacked. Partly because we weren’t there when she woke up. Partly because she was coming off the anesthesia. Partly because of the new cast. The nurse said about patients who get their first Mehta cast, “This is what we refer to as Mehta hell.”

During her nuclear meltdown Tammy noticed that the cast was digging underneath her port and pushing on it pretty good. I’m guessing that was also contributing to the hysteria. The switch of positions from laying to sitting forced the cast up and right into her port. So they got out the whisper quiet (NOT AT ALL) cast saw and went to work. Poor Havyn had no idea what was going on. That took things straight to DEFCON 1.

But after a few more minutes of being consoled she started to settle down. A while back one of the doctors warned us that the first few days in a cast the kids will be mad as a hornet before they get used to it.

Can I tell you that they must be talking about other kids!? Since we rolled her out of that recovery room she’s been just about as happy as a clam. Within a few minutes we were eating her first meal of the day – pancakes at Cracker Barrel – and life has been great ever since.

She even slept through the night! That rarely happens anyway… what a blessing to happen on the first night with her new cast.

Thanks to all of our friends and family for your continued prayers and support. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

Okay… on to the photos!