Off with you!

No, not you. I don't want you, my faithful readers to go anywhere. I'm referring to Max's cast. It came off on July 2. Hooray, hooray! When we arrived at the office to have the cast removed, the Dr. once again took care of Max before other patients who had been waiting longer. He did this every time we saw him, which really impressed me, especially since Marty was with me most of the time as well. After our 2-week checkup, Dr. M had told me to make an appointment for the first week of July to have the cast removed. I was so pleased, because this was right before we were to leave for holidays. I didn't want to have to worry about keeping it dry while we were basking in the sun by the beach camping in rainy Golden.

Dr. M looked at the x-ray from 4 weeks earlier and said "I suppose we'll take it off today." I told him I wouldn't leave unless he did! He laughed and we all traipsed in to the cast room. There was that noisy noisy saw again. He had used it to trim a piece of the cast in the first few days that was too tight on Max's hand. Max was so excited to have the cast removed that he said he didn't mind the noisy saw.


All was going well until the blade of the saw started to heat up. Max complained that it was hot, and the Dr. took a little break to let it cool down. First he had to get through the fiberglass layer that had been added for stability, then get through the plaster layer.


The cast was really thick around his elbow so it took many repeated attempts with the saw (with breaks to cool it down), the cast-remover-clamper-thinger, scissors, and elbow grease. No, not really elbow grease, you know what I mean!



So close to freedom!

This is as far as the picture taking went. Our joy over the cast being removed was short lived as Max tried to lift it and FREAKED OUT! As we tried to settle him, Dr. M told me that this happens every time when a child tries to use the arm. He said he didn't know if it actually hurt or if just felt so strange to be able to move the limb again. He had been so used to carrying all that weight around, it must have just felt kinda freaky. And smelly, and scaly. That was no fun either. Once that trauma was calmed, the next challenge came. We had to go get 2 x-rays. Oh dear. What had been a great novelty while the cast was on became a life-altering ordeal with it off. He was so scared to move it, giving the x-ray techs a run for their money. There were a few students in there as well so I think having these 4 strangers telling him what to do was overwhelming too. And of course, I had to hide behind the wall so I couldn't stay with him. We finally managed to get some good pictures and went back to Dr. M for final approval. He was very pleased with the healing so far and off we went.

Max treated his arm very gingerly for the rest of that day, keeping it in a sling for the most part. That night he said he wanted to sleep on the floor again as he wasn't confident he could climb up to his bunk bed. From the next day on, he was as good as new. He still hasn't ridden his bike, except for in the back yard where he goes back and forth. We want to get him some elbow/wrist guards before he goes in the cul-de-sac as he's still at risk of re-fracture.

Many times since it's been off, he tells me that he's so so so so glad that he has two arms. I'm glad too. And that he can use them both too. I hope we don't have to go through this again with a child. (My friend told me that she once had 3 children with broken arms all within 11 weeks of each other. Can you imagine?!)

And TODAY is Max's 4th Birthday. I'll post some pictures of his first two years, as that was before I started blogging. Never before seen! Well, on my blog at least. :) I'll post more about his birthday after his super duper party on Tuesday.