What's Buzzing with the Brasfields: The Cast is OFF!

Tyler got his cast off! Hooray! And just in time for all the July 4th festivities and on Russ' birthday!

He had a cast on for a total of 4.5 weeks and this hard cast on for 3.5 weeks. For a break of his kind, it really wasn't all that long, but it sure felt like an eternity. Tyler had to miss out on swimming, swinging, playing on the playground, soccer camp, basketball camp and more while his arm healed. And he was such a good sport throughout it all almost all of the time. Having a cast any time of the year is hard, but summer might just be the hardest.

Last pic with his cast!

And I don't think anyone was more ready for him to get it off than me! I bathed him every night to make sure he didn't get it wet. I put that darned protective sleeve on and off and got him dressed...I pretty much did everything for Tyler as far as personal hygiene goes while he had it on. I think Russ was scared of it or something. Ha! Not to mention the countless post-op appointments I scheduled and took him to, but that is the Mom life. Plus, his arm was really starting to stink! :)

I warned Tyler before we arrived that they had to use a saw to take the cast off. We were so fortunate to have THE BEST cast tech ever who was funny, encouraging and so kind to Tyler and me. He showed Tyler the saw and said it was a tickle machine that made a loud noise like a vacuum. Tyler wasn't really buying it and was super anxious, as he didn't like anyone touching his fingers on his left arm, let alone the cast. But the cast came off with relatively very few tears.

The saw cutting off his cast.

Cast is cut in half and we were waiting for the doctor for the next part.

Next were the pins in his elbow... he had 2 holding his little arm in place for almost 5 weeks and they had to come out. At our very first post-op appointment, Dr. W said there were 2 ways to take the pins out on cast-removal-day...we could schedule an outpatient procedure at LeBonheur and they would administer happy gas to relax Tyler while they removed the pins. OR, we could have him pull the pins in the office with no gas. Russ voted for the outpatient procedure, but since I was coordinating it, I decided to do it in the office. After talking with Dr. W and his assistant repeatedly, they both assured me that this was what they would do for their own child in my situation. That yes, it will hurt awful, but that if I could stand to see him in pain for 5 minutes, then it would be over quick, he wouldn't remember it long term and we could get on with our day. So, that is what I chose.

This was seriously the worst part ever. EVER! I knew it would be going in, but I still was not prepared. It took the tech and I holding him down and Dr. W pulled and pulled to get those pins out. They were in there good and I know it hurt him. It hurt me holding him down to tears. And he cried something fierce for a couple minutes and then the nurse brought him 3 suckers and all was right in the world! Let me tell you...my brave boy earned every one of those suckers! And that was the end of that...he was ok and we didn't have to spend half our day at LeBonheur.

Overall, his elbow looks great! He has a slight palsy in his thumb and pointer finger due to nerve stretching, but full movement should come back over time. We will continue to go for check ups with Dr. W to make sure. We have to keep a light bandage over the elbow until the wounds where the pins were scabbed over, so he still can not submerge his arm and needs to wear his sling for a few more days. (Imagine how disappointed I was to hear this! The cast bags continue!) Tyler wanted pizza for dinner and chose Mellow Mushroom to celebrate getting his cast off AND Daddy's birthday! We followed it up with key lime pie with candles and a round of "Happy Birthday"!