Cole really needs our prayers. His hand is not healing, in fact it’s doing the opposite (Westberry’s Only). He originally had on a half cast that caused him nothing but pain. He refused to go back to the ER, insisting on school, activities, etc. I finally ambushed him on Saturday and dragged him back in.
I almost cried when they took the cast off. His hand was so misshapen, so swollen, so horrific. The pain he must’ve felt, and here was my baby being stoic. His cast had been put on wrong, and way too tight. Even the ER doctor was shocked at the state of his hand.
A lovely one-armed tech, Sven, put a new half cast on absolutely beautifully. He took his time, he made sure all Cole’s pressure points were relieved, and he made sure to have it snug but not too tight. It’s entirely possible Cole fell a little bit in love with Sven.
Yesterday was our ER Surgery appointment. Again the cast came off. This time was equally horrific. His hand was much better, still swollen but no longer misshapen, but his eczema had flared-up exponentially. The vast majority of his skin was peeling and bleeding, the skin in between his fingers gone. Again the ER surgeon was shocked at the state of his hand. So shocked he was speechless.
Finally, there really was nothing left to do but treat the eczema (with cream, and special cotton finger coverings, and oral medications) before recasting in another half cast. Surgery is not an option. The risk of infection to his bone with that much open wound is not acceptable. Unfortunately the half casts are not protecting his bone enough and in the past week it’s shifted even more out of place. We are talking millimeters, but millimeters matter in a hand bone.
For now we go back every two days for a new cast and eczema treatment. The good news is they can put each new cast on a little tighter to help the bone shift into place and heal. I have fingers & toes crossed it’s enough.
I am obviously not sharing gruesome hand photo’s. That’s a little much to bear with our morning coffee, and Cole would not be happy with me. Instead, one of my favorite memories from my too-brief trip away from it all. On our way to Giants Causeway we swung by the Dark Hedges. Something everyone who has done the drive to Giants Causeway recommend.
It was everything I expected, and more. These 300-year-old beeches are another land within a foreign land. They are spooky, ancient, hauntingly beautiful and something I could’ve spent a day & a night photographing. I’ve had the hardest time picking out just one photo to share. I actually love the black & white photo more, but the luscious green of the Irish countryside insisted I share it. I love Ireland.
It is sooo hard when one of our chicks has something like this to cope with and we virtually can’t do anything about it ourselves …. prayers for healing … he couldn’t be having a reaction to the plaster compound they are putting in the cast ? ….. I know here they don’t use plaster casts anymore if they can help it … they use a nylon blow up cast that can be taken on and off as needed
Oh my gosh I can just imagine how much you had to stand and the power to keep your stomach down. Hubby did his knee this way and they put it together with steel wrong the cast was off by millimeters it healed. Two years later he deleveped a 2cm blood clot they had to operate and take out the steel.
[…] his fault. Back in early Spring of ’15 he’d broken his hand (Westberry’s Only; The Dark Hedges), a broken hand makes it very difficult to write. We had a meeting with all his teachers, […]