tumultuous

Little Miss was so very excited to get her cast off today. She kept saying, "Only one more sleeping time until I get my cast off, right?"

By now, time was passing oh. so. slowly. Thankfully I had earplugs in my purse and a hair clip. The cast wasn't coming off because of the splint underneath. Because of it taking so long to cut through, the saw would heat up too much. We would then stop, let it cool off and keep going.

Still pretty excited to see what her arm is going to look like. Last time she saw it it was bent at an unusual angle.

To our complete surprise it hurt really, really bad once the cast was off. The lady kept telling her it was completely normal to not be able to bend her wrist........over and over and over. Finally, I stopped the nurse lady and said nicely, "If you were listening to her, you would hear her saying that she can't straighten her wrist, she can only keep it bent. Clearly you can see she is in a lot of pain." I then had this same conversation with the x-ray tech.

Whatever the instinct is that gives mom's the foresight (God) to throw things in their purse at the last second, on the way out the door.............I was ever so grateful to be able to pull out Tylenol and oxycodone to give her. She hasn't been on any pain meds for a week unless she has a particularly active day. I didn't actually expect this to hurt. I have had a cast removed more than once and wasn't in any pain when the cast came off. She had tears streaming down her face within 10 seconds of the removal. The pictures are actually pretty good, she had been crying so hard and long that her whole face was splotchy, etc.

They kept telling her it was perfectly normal to feel a sense of loss, WTH?, to feel weak, to want the cast back on, etc. "Here have some stickers. It will make you feel better."

While they were going on and on about her sense of loss I was getting Tylenol out of my purse and shoving it in her mouth.

After getting an x-ray the doctor came in and said the same things the nurse said. I repeated that, "She was really looking forward to getting the cast off. She's not mourning its loss. Contrary to what you have seen from her, she has a really high pain tolerance and this is clearly hurting her quite badly."

The x-ray shows the bones have filled in nicely although they need to continue to fill in. One bone has filled in the outside, but the inside is still clearly showing a break. This will continue to fill in over time and within 6 months should not show at all. Her wrist will continue to heal and shouldn't be bent by then either.

I was just wanting to get her out of the office so I could better determine the amount/cause of pain. Perry's work was 5 minutes away so we headed there.

What a balm Perry was to her soul. Okay...the pain meds were also starting to take affect, but his presence is such a comforting presence to be in. He looked at her tear-streaked face and gently picked her up and cradled her in his arms whispering sweet nothings to her. She cried on his shoulder, he bought her an ice cream from the vending machine and we went to his office for awhile.

She then told Perry the whole story, which made her feel a lot better. And......the pain meds had finally kicked in fully by then. She ended the story with, "I don't get why they thought stickers would stop the pain. How would stickers take pain away?"

Yes, she was indeed serious. I didn't get it either.

Perry took us out to lunch. God bless those pain meds.

She is fine tonight. She has taken a bath, had more pain meds, cleaned her arm, lotioned her arm. She is able to take the splint off and on by herself.

She will have it on for a month at which time we will go back for another x-ray. Hopefully one that will show a completely healed bone.

In the meantime she can use it if she is careful. And careful we will all be.

Update - No matter how many times I edit this post it will not space properly. So, just pretend there are paragraphs.