Can You Guess Where We Went Friday Night?

I will give you one guess… Yes, the emergency room! It was not a true emergency but… here is the story:

All of the medicines that Tru had been taking had stopped him up so to speak. We gave him some medicine to reverse that problem. As a result, the leg of his cast, became significantly soiled (to put it nicely). I called the orthopedic doctor on call at the hospital where Tru’s surgery took place. He told me to definitely bring Tru in and they would see us in the pediatric E.R. We arrived at the hospital at 8:20PM. The whole family went along because we knew it would not take long to replace the cast. Well that shows you how much we know!

When we arrived, it took about an hour for Tru to be seen. Then it took another hour before the ortho doctor showed up. They decided to remove part of the cast in hopes that they could remove the soiled areas and not remove/replace the whole cast. No such luck – the whole cast had to be removed. Tru needed to be very still while the new cast was being put on so he would need to be sedated. He had just finished dinner at 6PM so we had to wait until at least 12AM for the sedation. Midnight rolled around and there were no doctors in sight. I inquired about the hold up and the resident on call for the E.R. decided that we needed to wait 8 hours from the last time Tru ate. Have mercy! 2AM rolled around and still nothing was happening. At 2:30 they finally decided to get started. Get started with more paperwork!! We went into the procedure room around 3:30AM. The sedation medicine worked quickly and the cast was replaced. I had asked the ortho doctor to please make this cast lower on his waist so that Tru could sit up more easily. He did exactly as I asked and I was so pleased for Tru. Once the cast was done the ortho doctors left the room. I then realized that they had casted Tru’s leg straight down. The original cast had Tru’s leg at an angle, which allowed him to sit up. Now his leg was straight down and he would only be able to lie down for the next two weeks. No way! I told the nurse I needed to see the ortho doctor again. She reluctantly went to get him and the ortho resident returned. I told him the problem and that I wanted the cast replaced. He looked at me, raised his eyebrows, and left the room. He returned a few minutes later, looked at Tru’s cast again, and said, “I think we should just leave it as it is.” I said, “No, it has to be replaced now!” He looked at me, looked down and left the room again. The ortho doctor finally came back in, I apologized and explained the problem and he started gathering the supplies for a third cast. He did not seem to be upset with me but I had to make sure Tru was as comfortable as he can be for the next two weeks.

During the time between the removal of the original cast and the recasting Tru’s leg was free. After only one week since surgery, the wound looks great and almost completely healed! We asked if it were possible to leave the cast off but they had already called Tru’s surgeon and she wanted the cast replaced simply to allow him to be active and protect the leg. Tru stared at his leg a good deal but it did not seem to bother him. Lin-Ley was a little surprised when she looked at it. She asked us if his foot had become invisible. And she demanded to know when he would be getting his new leg.

By the way, we left the hospital at 6:20AM Saturday morning. So much for the quick cast!

Let this be a lesson to us all: Do not mix laxatives and body casts!!