A New Cast

T has had his full leg cast for a month and it's time for a new one. He needs to wear a cast below his knee for another month, then a removable (for bathing) cast for a final month.

Here he is, eager to get this big 'ol cast taken off.

The nurse used a little vibrating saw to cut through the three layers of fiberglass that made up his cast. It didn't hurt T; it only tickled when she got down to his foot.

It hurt a bit when T bent his knee for the first few times -- after all it had been frozen in the cast for a month and hadn't been used. He got some tears at this pain, but was still a trooper. Notice how his leg is so skinny and dips down a bit? That's because it atrophied while it was in the cast. The strange thing is that the last time I saw his leg, it was so swollen that it was as big as his thigh. Now it's just a skinny little thing.

M showed T the inside of his cast, which had a bunch of flaky dried skin on it and was a bit stinky. You can tell that T is thinking that it's kind of gross. You can also see his xrays on the lightbox -- can you see his fracture on the one on the right? It is a little diagonal dark line on his ankle and kind of goes around his leg.

Our awesome doctor, Dr. G., instructs his resident how to put on the cast so that it won't rub and irritate T. T chose the color maroon for his cast, but they didn't have enough of it, so they put on a first layer of white first .
The final layer of fiberglass was put on in the color of his choice. He says that he picked it because it's the color of the Griffendor house in Harry Potter.



T hobbled out of the office with his shiny new cast. It was almost 70 degrees on Friday and he loved being outside without a jacket.
He spent a couple of hours in the afternoon making a pop-up book with a kit that he got from his Grammy in California.

He concentrates carefully to ensure that the pop-up effects works properly.

Here is the first page of his book. This will be a fun project for him as he continues his recuperation.