What’s With The Happy Face?

You'd smile too if you got your cast off two weeks early! 

I took Eli in last week to have his cast removed.  The plan was to replace this original cast, which was cracking at the palm and just generally getting nasty, with a new one for another two weeks.  

One of my biggest fears played out right there on my lap.  I've always had this irrational fear of having casts sawed off.  Now mind you, I've never had a cast.  None of my kids have ever been in a cast before.  I've never even seen anyone have their cast removed.  And still, I have a fear of cast removal.  I'm just positive that saw will nick an artery.  The nurse assured me that it isn't actually a saw, that the tool just cuts by vibration.  Well, it sure looks and sounds like a saw.  And if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck . . .

Thankfully Eli didn't inherit my phobia.  The nurse warned me that kids freak out (Really? You don't say!), and so I braced myself.  Turns out Eli thought it was awesome.  A power tool at work on his very arm!  He freaked out when he realized he wasn't getting a turn.

Once the cast was off, they took a few quick x-rays and we waited for the doctor to have a look.  Within seconds of the cast coming off, Eli was using his left arm like it was nothing: pushing Legos together, fooling around with a tape measure, climbing in and out of chairs.  The doctor watched him for a couple of minutes in astonishment and then granted us an early release from the cast.

We were given directions to watch him closely for any signs that he was favoring the other arm or not using his left arm to full capacity.  I'm pretty sure this would be a difficult maneuver if your arm wasn't completely healed:

And so we're all smiles over here.  I'm glad my baby boy is feeling better.  Mike is glad that there's an end in sight to the steady stream of medical bills.  Elena's glad that Eli never got a good whack at her with the cast.  And Eli? He's gladly thinking about what he can do next to stir up some more excitement around here.