On Friday I took Hadley back to Emmanuel Children’s Hospital for her follow up appointment at The Bone & Joint Clinic. Having never broken a bone myself, I had no idea what to expect. But I was hoping they would be removing her cast. We arrived a little early (what can I say? I was anxious!) and so Hadley got to play around for a bit in the waiting room.
When it was finally our turn a nurse called us back and explained to me that they would cut off her cast, take some X-rays to check on her healing process, and then we would go from there. We entered the casting room and the tech explained the saw to me. Knowing he does this for a living, I figured he knew what he was doing and so I wasn’t worried a bit. I took from his soothing over-explanations that most mothers do not approach cast removal with my same level of calm. He showed me where to hold her to keep her still but as soon as the saw turned on, Hadley’s entire body tensed. When the saw touched the cast Hadley screamed. I could see that he was only cutting through the tough exterior of the cast and knew she was scared and not in pain. The tech made several quick cuts and it was over. He pried the cast off of her leg and slid off the “sock” that was under the cast against her skin. Seeing she was no longer in harms way, Hadley instantly stopped crying. We then went to a different waiting room to wait for X-rays. While we were waiting, Hadley could not stop pinching her newly exposed leg.
I, on the other hand, was marveling at her little dirty foot. Considering her lack of baths for the past three and a half weeks, coupled with the fact that she was dragging that cast all along the ground, I was expecting them to be WAY dirtier. What I wasn’t expecting was the SCALES that had replaced her once baby soft skin! Her foot and leg were so dry it was shocking. (The doctor later told me a little lotion would get her back to normal in no time.)
Within a few minutes we were ready for X-Rays. As soon as I was positioned to hold Hadley still again she started crying. I can only assume the memory of the saw was all too fresh in her mind and she couldn’t imagine what they were going to do next! So we quickly took the necessary X-Rays and went into an exam room to meet with a doctor to discuss them.
The doctor came into the exam room and pulled up the X-Ray. She said her bones looked great. Everything was healing properly and Hadley would make a full recovery. She explained that it wasn’t totally healed, so we would need to take it easy for a couple weeks. In the mean time, Hadley might regress a little bit in her mobility while she re-learned to use her leg. The experts from Hale Law said that children who have had similar injuries that were able to vocalize their experience said their healing leg “felt weird” at first. In case you are injured, contact experienced lawyers for slip and fall charges to help you out. So we were to expect her to be a little clingy and not want to use her leg for awhile. All totally understandable. Otherwise Hadley was free to go and unless we had any problems, we didn’t need to follow up any further.
Once we got home Hadley wanted to GO. So we set her down but instead of standing she instantly crumpled to the floor. She didn’t want anything to do with putting weight on her leg, so standing and cruising were out. She would drop to the ground and crawl, still tossing her right leg far out to the side simply out of habit. This lasted for a few hours but by late afternoon she started trying to use her leg more and more. (In the picture below she is more displeased with the fact that I wouldn’t let her have my phone than she is with having to stand on her leg.)
That evening we were all so excited for Hadley to finally be able to take a bath! Sim lowered her into the water and she giggled with glee! We let her soak for quite awhile and when it was time to take her out, Hadley actually threw a fit. Apparently we weren’t the only ones missing her evening baths!
Hadley has now had her cast off for four full days and I am happy to report that she is back to her old self. She is crawling, cruising, and standing just like she was before the injury. She isn’t walking by any means, but after what she’s been through, I’ll cut her a little slack.
