2nd Children's Hospital Visit

We had our 2nd Seattle Children's Hospital visit last Friday. It went well. Kyla did amazing. 4 hour drive over the mountains and then 1 hour from my Aunts house in University Place to Seattle for her appt by 2 PM. And 2 hour drive in rush hour traffic from Seattle back to University Place for the weekend. 7 hours in one day riding in the car and about an hour and a half appt at Childrens with no melt downs = perfect baby.

The appt went great. I have to say, I love the staff at Children's. They are amazing people. They all are just super easy going and laid back and are so good with kids. They don't rush you, they answer all your questions, they make you feel like you are their only appointment of the day and most importantly they love your kid and don't look at them like they are different than anybody else. At the beginning of the appt we talked about the type of prosthetic we thought would be good for Kyla and we agreed on a baby mitten. A little different than the hand we picked out when we met with a prosthetist here in the Tri-Cities. Basically this is just the recommended beginner hand. I also asked how we can get a cute one and I guess it's just cloth fabric that gets lamintated in the process of making the arm. So I am going to go to the fabric store and see what kind of cute fabric I can find. They had some baby pink with a tiny bit of glitter there already so if I can't find anything, I will just use that.

The lady we met with tried a donated baby prosthetic on Kyla and it was a little big. Kyla shook it a few times to try and get it off and then ignored it. :) The lady said that Kyla will require a harness that wraps around her body to keep her prosthetic on since the piece of her lower arm is so small. This is fine, but I was hoping she would not need the harness. She did say that when she gets older she might not require this since she will not have so much flesh (baby fat) on her arm as she gets older.

After picking the hand, trying on the prosethtic to see what it will look like, etc. they did the molding process, which I had to sit her on my lap for (I did not get any photos of the process and honestly, I wouldn't have felt right taking a picture anyway). They soaked a large "wrap" in water and started wrapping her arm with a gauze fabric that had something in it...hmmm I can't think of the word right now, but it had like clay type stuff in it that hardened and formed a mold of her little arm. They marked areas of bones in Kyla's arm to be sure they built in pressure reliefs in those areas so that there is no rubbing and it is as comfortable as it can be. They also took several measurements of her arm, her little arm and her hand (they build the prosthetic there at Childrens) and Kyla did amazing. They kept asking her if she was trying to be the "best baby ever?" She just sat there watching them and taking in what they were doing. I think she liked the measuring tape and gadgets more than anything else. She is so curious. They cut the mold off with a razor blade (which scared the crap out of me...I thought for sure they were going to slice her little arm... they didn't thank goodness) and we were pretty much done. They will build the plastic mold of her arm and we have to go up in two more weeks from now for them to try it on to be sure everything is good and then they will finish the arm and we will have to go up again to actually get the arm. This might seem like a lot of headache right now, but I would not deny Kyla this opportunity or experience. Both Greg and I think it is important for Kyla to learn how to use a proshetic and her little arm just the same so that when she is 8 or 9 or whatever and is old enough to make the decision for herself, she will know what it's like to have both and can make an educated decision. My plan is for her to wear her arm for 2-3 hours/day and no more. We are not trying to hide her little arm or force her to have something that she doesn't. The lady we met with at Children's said a lot of parents are very concerned with getting their children prosethtics that look as life like as possible. I just think that is dumb. WHO CARES.... for reals? I'm so at the point where when I see people who look at her funny it only tells me that they are shallow people who I would never care what they think about my daughter anyway. The funny thing about going to Children's hospital is we walk around and there are all these kids there that look perfectly fine but obviously they aren't or they wouldn't be at Children's. There are so many kids or people for that matter that have something wrong with them but it's not always visible, maybe it's internal or hidden by clothing or whatever. Anyway just being protective Mama again, kind of got off subject.

We took Kyla to Emerald Downs (horse racing facilty near the Seattle area) on Saturday and we had a lot of fun. It was a beautiful day and Kyla laughed when I took her up to a horsey and petted it. She thinks animals are funny for some reason; she is a crazy kid!