Jaide Gets her Cast Off

After Jaide's fall, my mom sent us a box with short sleeved jammies for Jaide.  They also included a set with matching pairs for the other girls (of course!)  I tried to take a photo of all the girls wearing them for my mom, it went like this:

For the first weekish after her fall she would get really upset when her pain meds wore off.  Jami suggested we try icing her arm - I didn't think that Jaide would sit there and let us hold an ice pack on her arm.  I was wrong.  The ice really seemed to help while the pain meds kicked in.  I guess Jami is the broken bone expert!

I found an old wrist brace - from my various wrist injuries in high school.  I guess cheer stunting, tumbling or even throwing shot put were not great choices when you have freakishly small wrists.  I let Scarlett wear the brace cause she had a "broken arm" too.  She loved having the extra attention - for like 5 min until she needed to use her arm for something.  Luckily Jaide never really seemed to care or complain about her cast - probably cause it was covered in jewels.

At bath time I would wrap it up in many layers (plastic, burp cloth, zip lock bag, lots of tape in between).  Yes, Christy, I know it's a water resistant cast.  But if it gets wet you have to sit with a blow dryer and dry it out.  Not something a one-year-old is going to do willingly every night.  Covering it up just seemed easier (and less smelly).  Everyone got used to the process. We'd come up for bath time and Jaide would find the stander and go sit on it and wait for me.  I'd gather the supplies and she would help me wrap it.  Siena liked to help - mostly by putting little pieces of tape on the outside.  Scarlett mostly ran around and ignored us while playing her own game.

Siena helping... (see: I told you that Jaide is my fancy girl, she just loves jewelry)

Bath time.  She just plays with one arm and uses her right hand to dump cups of water on her left arm.  Also, we're very responsible balloon owners.  We make sure they get a bath every night.

This video shows when we take the plastic off her arm after bath time.  She always yells and gets so excited when we unwrap it.

15 days later after the "fall" Jaide's cast came off!  

Today I woke up feeling reeeaalllly sick (cold, congestion).  Luckily I had already lined up a babysitter to help me with our appointment to get Jaide's cast off.  Abby is my all-star babysitter (more about her in another post).  Her mom checked her out of school (like 15 min early) and I picked her up in the school parking lot.  We drove all the way to the CS Mott Children's Hospital and took all the girls with us inside.  Scarlett really wanted to see how they took off the cast.

The guy cutting it off was the same guy who put her cast on.  He loved the bling!  He said no one really decks theirs out like that.  The hot glue worked great.  Only 1 jewel fell off the whole time.  I just used the E6000 to put it back on since I didn't want to plug in my hot glue gun, plus I just held her on my lap and watched a show while the glue dried.

Back to the cast... the cutters they use are just a blade that oscillates back and forth quickly - instead of a circular saw.  So soft tissue (like skin) just jiggles back and forth when it touches it, while hard/brittle materials (like the cast) shatter and break.  He demonstrated by using the saw on his palm to show how it won't cut her skin.  Then he sliced it on top and on bottom (right through the jewels!)

Then he used pliers to pry open the crack.  Then scissors to cut the cotton lining. 

 Freedom!!!

He taped the pieces back together and gave it to her.  I don't know why, but she held it up to her ear.  Maybe she could hear the ocean...

 Then she threw it on the floor.  That response was more what I was expecting.

Something feels different....

I don't have a cast on!!!

Abby keeping everyone happy while I spoke with the doctors.  They said Jaide might be uncomfortable/sore for like 2 weeks due to muscle atrophy (which starts after only 7 days).  They also recommended we don't let her fall on it for a while.... haha!  So I'm going to start following her around the house holding throw pillows to catch her if she stumbles.  Or we'll just avoid action sports for a few weeks...

My friend Jamie made me dinner that night.  It was very thoughtful and meant a lot.  When you're far away from family, it's wonderful to have friends who can fill that gap.  We feel very blessed to have a wonderful support network here in Canton.  I really needed that dinner tonight.  Yes, I was physically sick.  But I was emotionally drained and it was a big pick-me-up.  Especially her egg-less cookie dough that I eat straight from the container - no baking required!

At bath time tonight Jaide went straight to the stander to get her arm wrapped up.  I went over and kissed her little arm and told her it was all better now.

Then while in her bath I noticed she was just letting her left arm float and she was using her right arm to dump water on her left arm - like she did before.  haha!  I think it might take a few days to get back to her normal routine.  I gave her more pain meds before bed (mostly cause LL told me how rough it was when her kids got their casts on/off and I didn't want her waking up in the middle of the night in pain).  Then Siena and Scarlett got some ibuprofen too.  The medicine floweth freely in our home.  (and Siena has been chewing on her fingers, I think she's getting molars, and Scarlett bonked her knee - so it wasn't completely unnecessary).

After I brushed their teeth we went to their room so I could change their bums, put on their jammies, and clip on their binkies.  I got Jaide all situated (her first time in footie jammies in 2 weeks - I will NOT miss finding little socks all over her room, shoved in between the crib slats, and hiding under her pillow).  After she was ready she went over to her books to choose a story.  I asked Siena to come over to me.  Siena normally likes to get her diaper changed.  But she just looked at me and then looked back at her books.  I asked her to come give me a big hug (ignored), come give me ET Phone Home (pathetic glance), finally I waved her binky and said "come get your binky" (turned her back to me).  Jaide was watching all of this and realized Siena needed to get her jammies on before I would read them a story.  So she walked over to Siena (whose back was to me), put her hand on Siena's shoulder, and pushed her across the room over to me.  Siena and I were both laughing hysterically while Jaide was just looked at us like "come on guys, hurry up so we can read stories".  So funny!!!