Monday, June 2, 2008

Splinted

The mean green, slightly dirty and stinky cast is no more.
The Boy had his cast taken off today, only to be replaced with a much less cool brown splint. But at least he can take it off. Three weeks more in the splint and he should be good to return to all his dangerous activities.

Juan the cast guy didn't do much in the way of kid-friendly introductions, just wheeled this big saw over, put on his mask and fired it up. The Boy was a little scared but managed to be brave.






And there it is, after having the dirt and wood chips (yes, there really were wood chips inside his cast) washed off. He wouldn't let me take a picture of the dry skin, and chose not to save the stinky cast shell..



They cut off the cast, did another x-ray, and pronounced him splint-worthy. More like splinter-worthy, with all those wood chips in his cast. The doctor showed us the x-rays from today compared to May 5, and called it "remodeling," where the bone has just regrown over the spot of the fracture. Kids are amazing--in three weeks, he said we won't even be able to tell there was a fracture.

We're a little nervous that the splint isn't restrictive enough, like maybe they should have left the cast on for two more weeks. But he's supposed to use it and stretch it at home, just being careful not to fall. His arm is even skinnier than it was before, and it's pretty weak. He preferred the splint on this evening, saying it felt too weird and weak when it was out.

He was so excited to take a bath tonight, although he instinctively set his left arm up on the tub's edge until I reminded him he could get it wet.

He has handled this whole broken arm thing in such a grown-up way, really hasn't fussed or complained about it at all. Not playing t-ball was really hard for him, and at school he's sad about not riding bikes in the gym or climbing on the playground toys. But he knows that another injury means a cast for most of the summer, and somehow he has miraculously grown up to the point where he can understand what that means.

Worried mama just hopes he can really be careful. I always worry, you know.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

take a picture of his 2 arms together so I can see how much skinnier the left one is! It will bulk up very quickly!

Anonymous said...

p.s. I notice Juan has a mask, why not LB?