Cast Off, Cast On

We arrived at the hospital yesterday morning just before 8:30 am for Matthew's appointment to have his cast removed. Since we were a bit early I asked him to stand by the tree (he keeps talking about standing by the tree now :) so I could get a couple pictures of him and his cast, as I wasn't sure if he would be able to keep the cast or not.

Matthew is like his mother and his sister Becca ... we just don't take good pictures and always look doopy or half a sleep ... or simply ridiculous. It's difficult to get a nice pose picture of him and best to simply have him not looking or doing his own thing.

Waiting for the nurse to arrive

Cast removal time. The tickle machine ... and yes he is laughing so she must be telling the truth when she calls it the tickle machine.

Cutting the padding under the plaster.

It's off!!!!

He sat there for a bit with his arm straight, until I slowly put it down for him and told him he could move it. Of course his muscles were sore and felt funny.

Next it was off to the x-ray department. While waiting for our turn Matthew wanted to look at the cast (yes, we got to keep it). He kept commenting on how his arm had owees and then he started trying to put the cast back on. He would tell me his arm hurt and he wanted it back on.

The next couple pictures aren't the best as I took them quickly as to not disturb them in their work.

He is so unbelieveable cooperative ... something I would never of dreamed of a year ago. I smile with pride as I think of how much he is like his big brother. We got into the x-ray room and he knew what he had to do. He sat on the chair and promptly put his arm on the black x-ray film laying there. On the picture below he had to hold his arm on it's side ... which he knew as he already did that for her when he first sat down (but she wanted a flat one first). He is just getting way too big!!!

Back to the waiting room to see the doc. Doc came out and said it all looks good but there's still a hairline fracture (in otherwords a very tiny amount not healed yet) and he sort of wondered whether to recast. No doubt in mind ... put another cast on. Matthew hasn't slowed down the least bit with a cast on so might as well put it back on instead of giving the chance of doing damage again.

On goes the cast, this time a fiberglass one ... and a short one ... so nice!!!!

They couldn't believe how still he sat and how good he was. She told him he couldn't touch the stuff while she was working because it would be sticky and get colour all over him. He just put his arm out and watched her work. Afterwards he had to wait five minutes for it to dry, which he did, without even trying to touch it. And when I checked a bit later to see if it was dry he was sure to point out that I shouldn't touch it because it was "sticky". But once I told him it was dry he was quite happy to give it a good feel.

Another "brilliant" Matthew face

I told Matthew I wanted to get a picture of his new cast. Here he is showing it for you to see.

And a couple better ones (with the aid of his sisters to get him to smile ... hence he's looking up)!! :)