Not Yet.

We went to the dr today thinking e was finished with casts. Not so. Here's why:

 

Here's her original x-ray. Her humorous is broken just above the elbow. Now I see why her arm had a dip in it- the long portion moved in and the short little bit flipped over and out.

So an orthopedic hand/elbow specialist put in 3 pins, re-located her elbow, and cast her arm. He then checked her again in 10 days- see the bone growth around the break below? Like a cocoon. She got x-rays and a new cast. He told us to come back in 3 weeks for the final cast removal.

Remember how I said he's a hand/elbow surgeon? Well, since she is a month past her surgery and only six years old, she was assigned to a pediatric ortho for the remainder of her care.

So today we saw the pediatric ortho. Getting the pins out was terrible...e was so frightened. For the first time ever in a drs office I had to hold her down. She screamed the. whole. time. Not that it really hurt, but it was downright terrifying.

 

They took the above x-ray with a low-radiation machine right in the cast room. The dr said it looked great, but e needed two more weeks of cast. Why? Because she's a kid. An adult would be in a part-time brace and start physical therapy, but a child...kids fall. Kids bump into things. Kids are rough and tumble. So children stay in a cast another two weeks to avoid re-injury, then they start using the arm. Rarely do they need therapy.

 

Bad news is no gymnastics until almost March. e is taking it all in stride; she has decided she might like to audition for a children's choir in January.

 

PS- in the cast room we met a girl who has brittle bone disease. She reassured e that the cast saw won't hurt, and that the pins only take a moment to get out. She was there having two casts removed and another put on, and yet she was so cheerful. On the way home, E told me that there are so many worse things than celiac. Indeed there are!