Brace Yourself

We are home! Victoria likes to party when she travels! She especially likes using the barf bag as a hat. 

I was so glad that we had Sunday to relax and spend time with my friend Catherine and her family before our big "cast off" appointment. 

We dined on official Philadelphia food.

There is nothing better than a Whoopie pie for breakfast (or lunch and dinner!)

Catherine even took me to get a special mango gelati! This is Julianna, Andrii (who is also from Ukraine) and Zack.

Victoria was pretty darn perky for our early morning at Shriners. She had a great nights sleep, even though she insisted on sleeping with me in a single bed the night before. My face was flat from being pressed up against the wall all night. Those casts really take up a lot of space.

Then they brought out the saw......

The saw was really loud and it vibrated. I think she was shocked to see the casts come off. She probably thought they were going to be on forever.

Poor baby!

I was surprised at how swollen her legs were. I thought they would be really skinny and pale. I wasn't sure what to do after the casts were off. I was afraid it would pop her hips back out if I picked her up, so we just wiped her off (there was still quite a bit of cheese in there!) and waited for instructions about what to do.

She will have the medal plates in her femur bone for about a year. They put the plates in since they had to cut her femur bone to get the ball of the femur into the hip.

Here are her hips now on the left, and before the surgery, on the right.

She actually seems to be in more pain than she was when she was in the casts. I can't tell if she is just really scared or where it is actually hurting her. Being in the car seat seems to particularly hurt her. She screams in a panic if we move her. I thought we wouldn't need the wheelchair anymore, but her legs actually seemed to be spread wider now.

We had a bit of time after Shriners before our plane left, so I asked Catherine to take me across the Benjamin Franklin bridge so I could say that I had been to New Jersey. I have never been there before. I collect magnets so I was on a mission to get a magnet from New Jersey. Poor Catherine had to battle traffic in the rain to take me there. She also had to drive me all over the place just so I could find a magnet. What a great friend!

Yes, I was officially in another state. Very exciting! What can I say, I am easily entertained!

 The brace is not too hard to put on, but we have to take it off and put it on everytime we change her diaper. Fun times! She has to wear the brace 24 hours a day for two weeks, and then only at night and for naps. The doctor said to take it slow. She still needs a lot of support to sit. We are taking things at her own pace and letting her decide when she wants to move her legs closer together.

Our flight home was delayed two hours, so we finally got home at 1 am last night. Victoria does not want to sleep, even with Bendadryl. But we are so glad to be back! There's no place like home!