Saying Goodbye to the Green Leg

Today was a very special day for our family.  Today our middle son, who is almost 3, got his hip spica cast taken off after having it on for 8 weeks.  Almost 9 weeks ago, he hit his left knee just right (or wrong, depending on how you look at it!) on a pan in the kitchen they were using for sailing some toy boats, and it caused a spiral fracture of his left femur.  He had to be put under to have the cast put on and stayed overnight in the hospital.  He and my husband spent Father's Day weekend there at the hospital, and they got to come home on Father's Day.

I was so overwhelmed at first, especially since I also had a 3 week old newborn to take care of as well!  We had to switch the kid's rooms around so that the two older ones were downstairs so as to not have to maneuver the steps with him in his cast, which meant the baby was moved upstairs, which made it a longer walk for me for those overnight feedings.

Originally we were told he would have it on for 6-8 weeks.  We were hoping for 6, but were disappointed at the 2 week follow up to find out he would have it on the full 8 weeks.  I made a paper chain with a verse from Psalms on each day's loop for us to read at bedtime, and also wrote the number of days we had left until cast removal day on each loop.

I thought the time was going to drag by and didn't see how in the world I could take care of him and a newborn, plus start homeschool for our older son for kindergarten.  I kept telling my husband through tears, "I am not strong enough for this," but God gave me strength to get through  each day in a way that I could not have done on my own.  He blessed us with great friends and family that brought meals and came over for visits to encourage us and help me once a week during the day while my husband was at work until I could figure out how to manage everything.  

Now that the cast is off, it is so good to feel like we can start to get back to a more normal family life again.  We took the rented wheelchair back today, because even though he is not walking yet, we can carry him a lot easier without the huge cast on anymore and don't need wheels inside at least.  We are looking forward to watching him run around the house and play like he used to!

Some things we are excited he gets to do now:

- sit at the table for meals, instead of him having to sit in his wheelchair with a lap tray
- get a normal bath in the tub
- move around to get toys on his own by scooting (crawling is still shaky for him)
- get a haircut!  We cut it the night before he got the cast on, but didn't want to do it again until it was off so the little hairs wouldn't get down in his cast and make him itchy

We know he still has a recovery period ahead of him until he can walk normally again, but we are so proud of how he is handling all of this and thankful he should make a full recovery.

Goodbye green leg!