Monday, April 11, 2011

Aaaaand it’s off!

broken femer healing 2-15-2011 (2)….broken femur cast off 4-8-2011 (1)

The first picture is the one taken back at the start of February, eight days after he broke his leg. The second picture is what the Kiddo’s leg looked like on Friday. It still looks broken to ME but then I don’t have years of schooling or a fancy piece of paper telling me what to look for. It does look quite a bit better then it did so I’m happy. The doctor said he thought it looked great. He also said the Kiddo’s cast was one of the cleanest he’s ever seen. I wonder if he says that to everybody?

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The actual cast removal went smoothly. The Kiddo is a pretty smart one, he listened when the doc explained how the saw could cut the cast but not him, and how loud it was going to be. So he spent the removal watching the assistant work and asking questions. The first picture is him waiting his turn. The cast was really thick around his thigh because they’d had to redo it when they put it on, it took forever for her to get it cut all the way through. She used a nut cracker type thing to pry it apart, then lifted the front piece off. After that it was a matter of cutting through the padding, and getting him dressed. The orthopedic surgeon came in again to check his leg movement and said he looked great. We are supposed to let him try to do what he wants with it, no physical therapy should be needed just patience and time. The Kiddo was ecstatic to have it off.

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Of course the Kiddo is his fathers son, he is stubborn and has a very high pain tolerance. That being the case he tried crawling almost as soon as we got home. Once he realized he could crawl, he figured he’d try standing as well. He was wobbly but kept telling us proudly about how he could “balance”. So of course, the next thing to try was walking. Which he did. And then kept on trying to do until bed time.

When it was finally bed time I decided that I would do a sleepover with him. I thought it might be wise to keep an eye on him with his gung ho attitude and the leg pain I was sure would set in sometime in the middle of the night. As we settled under the covers to go to sleep he stretched as big as he could, and then rolled over to his stomach. He said “aaaaaah, NOW my wings can grow”. I suppose laying on your back for two months would kind of hinder wing growth.

That first night he startled himself awake several times. Saturday he did not want to walk nearly as much, I can only imagine how stiff and sore his muscles were. Every time I tried to have him stand to balance he told me the bottoms of his heels hurt. I’m not sure what’s up about that (we are waiting to hear back from the doctor to see if that’s normal or not). Sunday was more of the same, some crawling and absolutely NO walking. I’m actually relieved, the walking was scary I knew he wasn’t ready for that yet (most kids don't even TRY until much later).

Today is Monday and he is skipping school. We are trying to get his extra large wheelchair traded for a smaller one that will fit him. I know the big one wont work for him in school and don’t think it’s fair to ask Mrs. S to try to lug him from place to place, and so I think one more day of missed class is probably the best option. We should be able to go switch the wheels this afternoon and then tomorrow he’ll be able to show them off to his friends. Meanwhile it’s computer games, reading, and playing with the dog (something he hasn’t been able to do since the cast went on). He even got out of bed himself this morning (crawled down and into my bedroom) instead of waiting for me to go get him. I’m proud him for how much he’s willing to do, he really is an amazing Kiddo.

4-11-2011 good morning (1)…………………………4-11-2011 small bounces no jumping

(Good morning mom!) … (Look I can jump.. well bounce a little anyway)

4-11-2011 fetch (1)…………4-11-2011 fetch (2)

(Playing fetch.. it’s been two months since they’ve played, they both loved it)

3 comments:

Siobhan Muir said...

Love the Wing growth comment! Heck yeah, lying on your back hinders wing growth. Fortunately, once you're back on track, it only takes a day or two to recover! :) Glad he's on the mend.

Rach said...

I'm sure his poor little feet are sore from not walking on them for 2 months and I'll bet he overdid just a tich on Fri. Looks like he's taking over his own physical therapy, tho! What a trooper! Great job mom!!

C said...

Woo hoo! Free at last. I bet it has felt like an eternity to him.

Re the x-rays: if you look at the tips of the bones at the farthest end of the overlap, you can see on the recent one a shadow where new bone has grown from the point across to the side of the other piece.

I dunno about the sore heel, unless he bruised it a bit by putting too much weight on it too abruptly.

Thoughts...

Thoughts Become Things; Choose The Good Ones.