Re-Cast

It was back to the doctor today for my youngest. She had another x-ray, and a new cast put on in place of the old one. We discarded the purple plaster cast for a fashionable hot pink fiberglass cast. I am very thankful that my husband managed to go to this appointment with me. Once the old cast was removed we were concerned because the arm still seems to be bent funny, as in, bulging oddly in the area that it was broken. Supposedly, that is the new bone growing in, and it is "normal". Normal or not, it looked disconcerting, and I am glad he was able to see it and ask questions about it as well. In addition, her arm is already starting to look scrawny in comparison to the other, and I will be extremely surprised if we manage to get out of this without some physical therapy in the end. For the amount of time that the cast was off today, my youngest wouldn't move her arm at all, and held it quite protectively against her. In fact, she seemed relieved once the new cast was in place. I had an opportunity to wash her arm, and another weird thing was that her skin under the cast was dark brown, as I washed it, it began to flake off. It was a bizarre contrast to her white fingers. It unnerved me a little to wash her arm, because I was afraid of hurting her, but the doctor assured me that it would be fine. Anyway, the new cast is in place for at least four more weeks. She will have had her arm immobile for two full months by the time this one comes off, assuming that the doctor is comfortable leaving it off after our next appointment.