Friday, December 18, 2009

Molly's First Cast

We are a bit behind in our posting, but better late than never. After conferring with Molly's ortho in Omaha we decided to try our first cast to see if she could start to weight bear and walk with a cast on (the "walking boot" or black boot was just too heavy for her to be mobile with). She was terrified as we got ready to do it, but did amazingly well once she saw it was basically just wrapping the leg with some material. She was able to get purple and pink striped and they cut a "window" to allow us to use her bone stimulator (that requires skin contact at the fracture site).

She was able to get up on her feet that night and has been getting more and more interested in walking. We have decided that since she is up and mobile that it is reasonable to wait another 2 weeks and allow the fracture to heal enough so that she will be able to stand once the cast is removed. We did get a waterproof cast so that she could start to use a hot tub once we were able to get her one at our new house. We closed on the house on Monday and are now in search of a new or used hot tub that will meet our needs. Other OI parents have recommended that we not get the cast wet unless it is for water therapy (i.e. not in the bath), so bath time is a two person job. One of us in charge of keeping her casted leg (the right one) out of the water while the other does the washing. She has begun to complain off and on of her cast itching, but for the most part has handled it well (as usual).

Today was Molly's last day of school until the new year and we were able to go for most of the day to do family center time. It was great to see her in the classroom and really enjoying herself. They sang us a gingerbread man song (sorry no video) and she really participated in most of it, which is a nice change.

We are spending Christmas at home for the first time this year and hopefully we will create some nice traditions in the coming week. Our tree still needs to be decorated and I am hoping to find some time to bake/decorate some cookies as a family.

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to All :)

1 comment:

Melissa Swartley said...

Glad to hear that things are going well with the cast. Gotta love bathtime and all the coordination it requires with two people! With Sonya out of her leg cast now and just in an arm cast we wrapped her arm up in Glad Press n' Seal and gave her a good scrub down in the tub finally! It was sponge bathing up until then! Waterproof casts are the best! Sonya's spica was done with gortex and I hosed her out literally after some diaper mishaps! The doctor said it was the cleanest spica he had ever seen when it was removed! Haha! We finally just decorated our tree last night after getting it on Thursday. I think with all that has been going on in "medical land" we really fell behind on everything else! Hope your holidays are merry and bright!!!