Getting his cast off

Ethan got his huge cast off!!  Courtney wanted to go so I checked her out of school, picked Ethan up after school and went to the dr. office.  Our good friend, Jenny, works there so she took good care of us.  She gave us chocolate and water while we waited to see the dr.  Ethan was taken in for xrays before they took the cast off and it was a huge difference.

This is the original xray from the hospital.  There is a huge break and then all the cracks down the bone.

This was an xray taken the week after the cast was put on.  They had to check to make sure his knee and ankle placement was good for healing.

This was the xray they took right before his cast was taken off.  You can see little bits that look like cotton that are starting to heal.

He had accumulated a lot of signatures.  It was so long and huge that there was a ton of room for graffiti!

After the xrays were done, Jenny took Ethan's cast off.  It was so long that she kept having to take breaks so the saw wouldn't get too hot and burn Ethan.  It was really loud.

Courtney chose to sit at Jenny's desk in the other room so the noise wouldn't be too loud for her ears.

When the cast came off we didn't really know what to expect.  Bryan and I haven't had casts before and we really weren't thinking about what would happen.  Ethan went to bend his leg and had excruciating pain all down his leg.  He said it hurt worse than the original break had.  His tendons were tight because his leg hadn't moved in 5 weeks and his muscles had atrophied.  It was crazy that amount of pain he was in.  Jenny explained that it was normal and had him lay down while I used a warm cloth to clean his leg and toes.  He was more interested in having me scratch places that he hadn't been able to get to for 5 weeks.  It was horrible to see him in so much pain again.  Jenny explained that they xray before taking the cast off so the patient doesn't go through unnecessary pain.  I am so grateful.

The dr came in to look at the xray and said it was looking good but decided that Ethan needed another cast (which we were expecting) but decided that it couldn't be a walking cast.  We were bummed because we all were hoping he would be put in a walking cast and be able to ditch his crutches.  But it wasn't healed enough for them to do that.  We were all bummed!  But the dr told us it would only have to be on for 3 1/2 weeks and then he could be put in a boot or tennis shoe, depending on how well he healed.  That was better than I was anticipating.  We were told in the hospital that the long cast would be 5-6 weeks and a shorter cast would be 5-6 weeks.  So 3 1/2 wasn't as bad as it could have been.  But it was sad for Ethan.

They put him in a bright green cast.

His old cast is now in our garage.  He wants to burn it.  Bryan wants to check the environmental impact of burning a cast.  Courtney wants to scare people with it.  And I just want to be reminded of how lucky we were that night that it wasn't even more serious and the great friends we have that have supported Ethan.

On the way home we stopped at Red Lobster for dinner.  We were celebrating Ethan getting out of the huge cast.  His muscles were still really tender and he was in pain, but he packed down the lobster like nothing was wrong!