Life with a Spica Cast

It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of our time with a spica cast.  We were prepared for several cast changes.  We thought Maggie would be in a cast until at least March, and so did her doctors.

God had a different plan though, and, to be honest, I am so very glad He did.  These casts are wonderful things for the children who need them to heal, but they are also, to say the least, inconvenient.  I will be so glad to be able to give Maggie a proper hug when the cast comes off.  I don't think it has been good for her or me to be unable to really hold her close.  I am looking forward to our first post-cast hug.

We have learned a few things the last six weeks about surviving with a spica cast.  Some we learned from others, and some we figured out on our own.  One thing we learned is that seemingly small things can make a huge difference.

One of the best things we did before Maggie went to the hospital was to watch You Tube videos with her of children in spica casts.  I think it prepared her for it so well.  There is an organization called STEPS Charity that has several videos posted on how to care for a child in a spica.  They are a great resource.

Pillows are so important to a child in a spica.  They can prop them up in bed, in a wheelchair, or on their stomachs on the floor.  We bought some cheap pillows at the dollar store, and they have been used 24 hours a day everyday since.  Maggie sleeps with two pillows under her head and one under her legs.  In the wheelchair one pillow goes under her bottom and behind her back, and the other one goes under her legs.  They are now affectionately called her "purple pillows."

We also brought our Boppy Pillow back out.  This has been awesome for Maggie when she wanted to play on her tummy.  She has played with puzzles, playdoh, dolls, and games while propped up on her tummy across the Boppy Pillow.  I am so thankful we had it.

The beanbag that Mimi got her has been wonderful too.  It has given her another place to sit where we could look at each other face-to-face unlike when when she was on the floor on her tummy.  She felt a little more like she was sitting up, which was nice.  She will continue to love it (probably even more) after the cast comes off!

 Diapering her has not been too bad once we figured out what worked.  We had thought that we might be able to hold her over the potty to use the bathroom, but there was no way that would be possible the way her hips and knees were bent.  We found that the nighttime super-absorbant diapers worked the best.  We tore the tabs off of the diaper and stuck a pad inside of it for extra protection.  Then we put it in the cast backwards because the absorbent part of the diaper is in the front, but she needed it in the back since she was on her back most of the time.  We used a size five diaper to put around the outside of the cast.  It never actually got wet (or dirty), but it did hold the inner diaper in place.  Once we figured all of this out, we had very few problems with leakage.

On the rare occasions that there has been a leak, baby powder has worked wonders for the smell.  Within a few hours of applying the powder any smell would be gone.  We put the powder into the cast between her belly and the cast and her back and the cast.  She has had this cast a month, and amazingly enough, it doesn't smell at all.

I was really worried about Maggie missing bath time.  She loves to play in the water, and I worried that she was going to miss that.  We have been bathing her on the kitchen counter.  We made a little pallet out of several towels.  We put them on the counter, and then put Maggie on top of them belly down.  Her hands and head hang over the counter into the sink.  While we wash her body and her hair, I give her a couple of things to play with and she has a great time playing in the water.  It is one of her favorite things to do.

She has always enjoyed helping, and one day I came into the kitchen and found that she had managed to get the broom.  She was sweeping from her wheelchair!

Recently she has become much more mobile in her cast.  She has been very good at getting around in her wheel chair since her second day home, but she has also decided that she likes to scoot around on her bottom.  Having the diaper on the outside of the cast has helped her to do this on our hardwood floors.  She gets around pretty well this way although I know she is looking forward to walking again.  She has been wanting to stand on her right leg more often.  She wants to dance while holding our hands, and sometimes she wants us to let her stand on her own so that she can just hold on to some furniture.  She is not happy about the fact that we won't let her do this.  I think she is getting tired of depending on us!  :-)

I'm trying to imagine what it is going to be like to see her leg without the cast on.  It is difficult.  In my mind Maggie's leg bends the wrong direction.  Seeing her for the first time without the cast will be an amazing thing.  We are really excited about it.  We are anxious too, but very, very excited.