Rachel has her purple sunglasses on for the ride.
By the end of the 4 weeks with the purple people eater casts Rachel had worn down both of the heel sections and the fiberglass on the left foot was starting to loosen. We used minion duct tape to remedy the loosen piece of fiberglass.
Rachel insisted on staying in my arms while the casts were bivalved for removal. She cried from the sound of the cast saw even with little ear muffs on to buffer the sound. I tried to remind her that it sounds just like the mixer when we are making cookies. We went over the ingredient list for chocolate chip cookies- flour, baking soda, salt, butter, eggs, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, chocolate chips and my secret ingredient (2 tbs vanilla wafer butter from Williams-Sonoma). This helped but she calmed down most when her dad came to sit closer to us. Nothing like a good dad to chase away the scary stuff.
Fair warning some of the following pictures may appear graphic to some and to those who become weak kneed at the sight of medical situations.
Left foot- yes that pin is going right down Rachel's big toe.
Right foot - pin is going down the top of Rachel's foot in between her big toe and 2nd toe.
The casts are off.
Wow! As graphic as these may appear- look how wonderfully straight they look!
Left foot with pin.
Right foot with pin.
Dr.Altiok removed the pins from Rachel's feet. She cried shortly with the removal of each pin.
After the pins were removed Rachel had small pressure dressings applied. She was then fitted for new AFOs. I didn't take any pictures of that process but describe it in an older blog entry. Rachel picked out the color red for her short leg walking casts. She will have this set of casts on for 2 weeks while her AFOs are being made. Rachel was also given a pair of knee immobilizers to place on at night to help stretch her knees.
Rachel's red short leg casts with cast shoes. In the picture she has stockinet over her knees and thighs to help prevent her from scratching at the dry skin underneath. I applied a mixture of regular Johnson's baby lotion and cortisone cream on them when we arrived home. This combo seemed to help Rachel a lot.
Not the best picture as the room was quite dark but look who was already cruising along with her walker. I caught her standing back up on her own and trying to take independent steps. Rachel's legs are like noodles right now from being immobile. I have faith that she is going to work hard and be on the go again.
Rachel was VERY happy to be standing again. Much love and big thank you's to Dr. Altiok and his team!
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