Hadley's 2nd opinion

Hadley had her 2nd opinion on Wednesday at Shriners Hospital in Chicago. Everybody was so nice there! We got there right on time after a 3 hour drive. We waited in the waiting room for a bit until we were called in. While in there, a couple of clowns walked by and gave Hadley a little raggedy baby. She of course cried out of fear, but they were so sweet. How nice of the hospital to do that for the kids :) Then we got called in and first the nurse came in and asked a couple questions. Then we left to get another updated x-ray for Hadley. Hadley just learned to say HI so she was say HI to everybody. She definitely was miss popular there! After taking x-rays we went back and 5 people came into her room all at once. We had the nurse, the Dr, a social worker, a resident(Dr assistant), and some other guy I didn't know what he was doing. It was weird. But it felt like they were all working together for the best care for Hadley. Very reassuring! So, we saw Hadley's X-rays and her curve was at 45 degrees which was better than before. But the Dr said this was because we just took her brace off and it takes a day or so for the spine to go back to its original shape. So the true test would be tomorrow after having the brace off. The Dr absolutely recommended casting for Hadley and wanted it done the next day! WOW! Talk about getting us in fast. He thought it was crucial to cast her right away because of her large curve. So, we got it all set up and we were ready for casting the next day. We were both a bit nervous, scared, and overwhelmed, but we know this is what is best for her. Like I said, they were all so nice there. After all that, Hadley got a little beanie baby for being so good. The social worker guy got a list of hotels and helped us in any way he could. He was awesome! The nurse talked to us about everything and was so personal with us! All of our questions were answered and we left feeling confident!
That day since it was so early and we couldn't check into our hotel for another couple hours, we decided to drive down town to the Navy Pier since it is free. Well, we thought it was free at least. We got there, parked and started walking. Then we saw a sign saying $19 for parking! Yikes, that's a lot of money for just walking a Pier. Then really small it said, "the first 60 minutes is complementary." So, it already took us 20 min to get situated, we thought there was no way we could do that. We got Hadley some lunch and tried walking a bit. It was so chilly and not very amusing, so we literally ran back to our van and got out of there right in time not having to pay the $19! We tried finding a parking spot down town so we could walk, but we had no luck. By this time we were pretty stressed with all the driving at traffic so we started heading back to the hotel. We spotted a little park near the lake and decided to stop for a bit and walk down to the lake. That's really about it. The view was great, but too much stress with cars! So, we went to a store and got Hadley some special treats for her big day. Then we got back to the hotel and let her play for awhile. Then we got a bite to eat and the restaurant attached to our hotel. Thankfully our hotel supplied us shampoo, tooth brushes, and toothpaste so we really didn't need to buy too much. That night we gave Hadley a very long bath since it would be her last for a very long time! It was so sad to know that and to see her having such a great time in there! We went to bed super early since we were all so exhausted and had a big day the next day.