Good-bye Cast. Hello Pants!

Tomorrow is Andrew's one-week post-cast anniversary. I have had intentions to post the story of the big cast-removal day, but now that we can get out and go places, I am taking full advantage.

On Wednesday morning, I took the older children to school and headed to the hospital with Andrew for his 9 a.m. appointment. On the way, Andrew was suddenly anxious. He was saying things like, "I'm not getting my cast off today . . . not yet. My leg is still broken. I don't want to get my cast off." Over and over, no matter what I said to convince him this was a good thing, his response was, "Not yet."

Once we got checked in, Andrew was sent for yet another X-ray. After all the X-rays he has had, I'm surprised he doesn't glow in the dark!

After the X-ray, they determined his femur appeared healed and he have the cast removed. So, we were sent back to the cast room.

We waited there for nearly an hour while the nurses worked to remove or apply casts to other patients. To entertain ourselves, we took some final pictures of Andrew's last minutes in his cast.

Finally, around 10:30, Andrew's turn came. The nurses had quite a time getting through the cast with their little saw. They sawed and pried and sawed and pried for an hour. Finally, they had to have the orthopedic resident use his big muscles pry the cast open. The nurses kept commenting on how thick the cast was and how was it possible that I (6 1/2 months pregnant) had carried him around all this time.

Andrew was very patient with the sawing and prying. They gave him some little headphones to protect his ears from the noisy saw. He was happy and calm until the cast was off and he felt his legs move. Then, he freaked out. He sincerely thought his leg was still broken, and his logic was very understandable. After 5 1/2 weeks of immobility, his joints were very stiff and his muscles were very weak. He was probably having some muscle spasms too.

Andrew didn't even let the nurses clean him off. He screamed for his "blankie" to be placed on his legs and would not let anybody look at them (let alone touch them or move them). He was more upset than he had been in weeks--almost worse than when he broke his leg. See his little hand protecting his "injured" leg?

The resident didn't want us to leave the hospital until Andrew would allow somebody to move his leg. Judging by Andrew's immediate sensitivity, I knew we'd be there awhile.

At this point, the time was nearly 11:30. I was starving, and I really needed to use the bathroom. Because we were in a subdivided room with other patients, I could not just leave Andrew alone while I went to the bathroom. I also knew that Rick would be more effective than I was at getting Andrew to move, so I called him up to see if he could come over to the hospital on his lunch break.

By the time Rick arrived, the nurses had given Andrew some Tylenol and moved him to a different, cleaner bed. Andrew was letting me peek at his leg and touch it sometimes, but that's it.

Rick brought me some food (and a much needed break). He spent some time visiting with Andrew. He got Andrew to move his foot a little bit by bribing him with sweet potato fries from The Pit.

Over the next 45 minutes, we were able to calm him down a bit, but any movement brought him a lot of anxiety, pain, and crying.

Finally the Dr. said we could probably go, but just to be safe (and because Andrew was being such an uncharacteristic nutcase) they sent him for yet another X-ray with the cast off.

The X-ray looked great, so we left the hospital after 4 long hours.

The remainder of the day was stressful as Andrew continued to refuse anybody to look at, touch, or move his legs. He refused to wear pants or let me give him a bath. He screamed any time I had to move him to the stroller or to the car seat. I had a prenatal appointment that afternoon, along with a Stake Primary meeting that evening, so with everything, it was a long and exhausting day.

This is how the kids saw Andrew when they came home from school. The only reason he is smiling in this picture is because there is not a person nearby threatening to look at his legs. I forced him to take a bath that night so that we could clean off the dead skin, then we put him to bed and hoped a good night's rest would help his anxiety.

When he woke up, he seemed to feel much better. He even let his legs be seen, but still refused pants.

Because I had plans to go shopping that day, I helped him into pants which was, surprisingly awkward and painful for him with his noodle-like legs.

By the evening, he had gained some confidence and was able to crawl around and even pull himself up to a very wobbly standing position at the couch (without putting weight on his previously injured leg).

Now, one week later, he is still unable to walk unassisted. He crawls most of the time. He can also walk very slowly if somebody is holding his right hand. He is proud of himself when he stands unsupported and we're proud too. He gets a little stronger every day and we're hoping he'll be able to walk by himself in a week or so.