Sprung!

We are free! Had to take Mog into hospital yesterday to have her body brace removed. Estimates of duration of our stay had varied from "a week" to "a few days" and "a bit". Oddly, another family had been told no need for any kind of admission at all, so we packed our bags for a week and hoped for less, whilst they packed for a quick trip to outpatients and had to go home for all the luggage. Worryingly, one doctor told us we needed to stay in for mobilisation and would be staying until Mog was on her feet; he seemed to think she'd be walking by the end of the week. When I mentioned the fact she wasn't able to do that before the op the Dr went a bit red-faced and agreed that probably the op hadn't worked miracles and that we shouldn't expect Mog to be walking as a result. Phew, had visions of us being kept in hospital until she could, and whilst my parents are always willing to have Little Fish for a couple of days, the rest of Mog's life did seem to be a little excessive. Although tempting, given the amount of time I spend readjusting her mask overnight to stop the Nippy beeping...

So, anyway, the physio signed us off this morning, we met a new therapist who is going to make some kind of hand splint for Mog, and with only a three hour wait for pharmacy to deliver painkillers we were off back to the bus. We walked out of the hospital entrance and scrunch, the bottle of codeine fell to the floor and shattered. Back into the hospital, back to the children's ward and wait for a replacement. Because life is never that simple.

Eventually loaded up with replacement pain relief we did make it home again. Mog is to wear her brace overnight and be free during the day. Pre-op she was either plank or plankton; stiff as a board or no muscle tone at all. Now she seems to be permanently plankton; lifting her is like trying to pick up a bowl of cooked and buttered spaghetti without the bowl and without dropping any of it. She flows through my arms and over my shoulders and ends up folded in half on the floor - not the best position considering she isn't supposed to move her hips too much for the next few months.

Worryingly, she hasn't changed shape very much. Her windswept leg seems to be still windswept, despite major bony and muscular surgery to correct this. I can't see the effects of the surgery lasting once the painkillers and anti-spasmodics have worn off. But we shall see. In the meantime both girls are back in their own bedrooms, meaning that Mog has a bed she can't trap her head in (always useful), and Little Fish has a bed which (hopefully) won't cause her Nippy to alarm all night.

My post had an exciting letter from the Court in it; finally we have a date for Little Fish's adoption. Except that we don't - on further reading this date is for a directions hearing. What does this mean I hear you ask? This means that the judge has looked at my application to adopt Little Fish, and has decided that there needs to be a meeting to discuss decisions which need to be taken before a decision can be made about Little Fish's adoption. That's right, it has been decided to have a meeting to decide what needs to be decided about the decision before the decision can be made. Confused yet? The papers went to court in September, the Judge saw them in October, the next meeting is in November so I'm guessing Adoption Day won't now be until December or possibly the New Year. Disappointing in one way as I would like this to be finalised; we want to get Little Fish a passport so we can go to France before Christmas but looks as though this won't now be happening. And good in another way -I'd like to be able to hold Goldy's funeral before we have Little Fish's adoption; it feels wrong to be celebrating before then and would be nice to have a positive to look forwards to after the funeral has happened.

Tia