Whew...It's been a long day!

Well actually I guess it's been more like 2 days?  I dunno.  Feels like one really long one;).  So here's the scoop...
First of all THE CAST IS OFF!!!!!
Molly was very sleepy when we arrived at the orthopaedic office.  I think she thought we were crazy because we were so excited all morning...talking in high-pitched voices about our "big special day"...but she embraced it:)

While in the ortho lobby I got a call from our urologist's nurse.    She asked where we were.  "Children's Ortho at Meridian Mark". (Just downstairs from GA Urology and across the way from CHOA Scottish Rite).  Then she says, "got the culture (from the UTI) in and Dr. Smith just walked in so I'm running it by him...do NOT leave the building until you've heard from me".  Okay...I won't.  So they call us back and we wait for the cast cutting guy to get there.

"Why did you say we were here again, Mom?"

 Right before he comes in Gerda (the nurse, not to be confused with Gertie, the lamb) called back and said something to the effect of--got the culture back, baddest of the bugs, doesn't respond to oral antibiotics, we'll need to admit her to Scottish Rite to get treated via IV.  I say, "do you think we'll need to be there overnight" and the call gets dropped.  Guy comes in.  She calls back says "oh, honey, you'll be there at least 3 days".  I cry and then try to suck it up so I can be in the moment of the monumental thing that is now occurring right before my very eyes.  This:

He cut the bar off first and her legs started flopping back and forth. Another 5 minutes and she was free! A few x-rays later we were talking to Dr. Fabregas about her hip looking great and how to get a brace. She doesn't need physical therapy...I know it sounds strange but the majority of hipbabies don't...nature just picks right back up. His only direction was for us not to force her legs together or to cross her legs at all and she's to wear the brace at nighttime (and naptime if she needs to for habit's sake). We have a follow-up appointment in 6 weeks to see how things look. We shared with Dr. Fabregas that we'd be leaving his care to walk through the tunnel to the hospital and he couldn't say enough nice things about Dr. Smith (we hear that all the time). Dr. Smith operated on his son, too. I guess you could say he's doctor recommended.

As soon as we stepped out the door of the office Molly started wiggling and waving and saying a big, loud, echoing, "HI" to everyone we came across. It was like she was just waiting to make sure she was really home free before getting too excited. And it was darling.

We took Molly across the hall to orthotics to be fitted for her nighttime brace. My heart was heavy as I sat there thinking about all my plans for her first leggy night home and how they'd been whisked away with a stupid phone call. Molly was chatting it up with a couple of sisters in the waiting room of orthotics when I began to pay attention to the patients, at least two of whom were missing limbs, multiple ones. And there it was...my perspective. And that's when I got over it--all the plans and boo hoos and poor me's. Oh sure, it's all relative and it still sucked that my dear sweet baby had a weekend of sticks and prods ahead of her but sometimes you have to get over things to get on with them.

The orthotics office was the first time we'd been able to set Molly down since the cast came off. She was elated! She scooted spica-style clear across the table back and forth for awhile. Here she is, her happy little self:



You know what....the hospital network is taking too long to upload pics...I'm gonna publish what I have and update this post tomorrow....cause I'm exhausted.  Goodnight.