Goodbye Cast

On Friday Elsie got her cast off! We had really been looking forward to this day. The days leading up to it had become excruciating. She was complaining about itchiness almost constantly. She was not sleeping and neither was I. I finally got her to start taking some allergy meds and that helped a little with the itchiness, but not a lot.

Friday afternoon finally came and we headed to the orthopedist. Maybe I should always plan doc appointments for Friday afternoons. They seemed to be on a mission to get to their weekend and there was very little waiting or down time.

Elsie was all smiles as we headed into the cast room. They told us they would take the cast off first and then we would do x-rays and go from there. You are not supposed to take pictures in the cast room, but they left us alone briefly and I snuck one. Shhh...

She was super brave when they removed the cast. My other two kids where much more nervous, but Elsie just wanted that cast off. She would have chewed it off in necessary. She continued to be all smiles throughout the removal.

Unfortunately, that is where the smiling ended. Getting a cast off is always strange and painful. It's hard to use muscles that you have not used in a month. On top of that, we discovered why exactly she had been so itchy. She had a pretty nasty rash under her cast. The doc felt like it was potentially a reaction to the surgical soap they used, but it was red, swollen, irritated, and oozy in some places. Between the pain and the look of her arm, she became very emotional. I tried my best to keep her calm and get her home as quickly as possible where we could wash her arm and give her some medicine. 

Since then, we are taking it one day at a time. She is definitely still in pain and choosing to not use that arm a lot. It is going to be a slow process, getting use of the arm back. We are also still keeping an eye on the rash as it is also still very much a concern. In some ways it's looking better, but I also think it has spread since the removal. I'm hopeful that was can turn the corner on that soon and if not, we may be back at the doc before the holiday.