Cast Removal

We got our casts off!! Hooray! The summer has been SO long. To top it off, Grayson is low on Iron. So the last few weeks have been extra hard.

We got to our appointment and got right in. We visited the casting room with Adam, the ginger casting dude. He was happy to see us with no more mold on our feet. He was especially happy that no more water was in our around our casts.

 And the saw was incredibly loud. Grayson was a bit not OK with them on his brothers legs but it was cool to watch them take it off. 

That is Adam, cast dude, cutting off the nemesis of our summer. We were hoping and praying that there was no more mold. 

When we got his casts off we looked at his STRAIGHT feet.. that is right. Straight feet! And then started pulling off the other gaze that we added on his REALLY gross feet. When we got to the tape, I knew some thing was wrong.  

 Casts off both feet. Steri strips left to look under. 

 The black stuff is the mold that left a black/green stain on his feet that hasn't  come off yet. 

The black/green is the mold on this foot as well. It hasn't come off. There is still some left on his skin.

This is where things got a bit interesting.  The steri strips were coming off a little and this gross GREEN thick stuff was all over his steri strips. Adam, the ginger worker, went to go get the doctor to come and take a look at it and yep. It was just like we thought.  INFECTION.......

 Steri Strips were taken off and it was GREEN 

 Iodine was out around it and we washed it off. It was still weeping really badly. 

This is what we are left with. A gaping hole in his leg that is nasty and gross and runs the length of his bony shin. 

We took X-rays an his legs look amazing. His X-rays looks amazing. The surgery looks amazing. But his sore looks awful. I asked if it was because of the mold. She didn't come out and say it was my fault but because I let him get moldy feet it IS my fault. So the mom guilt has set in. But I am the wound care lady. And that means I am the one that gets to rip off a band aids on his feet. It hurts him. It hurts him and it breaks my heart.

After our appointment we headed off to the Orthotic place that makes our braces. They put back on 2 casts... YEP another set of casts. And took them off - HOORAY! as fast as we put them on!

Tyler was pretty patient and Grayson LOVES this office. He has THE BEST little boy toys in the entire world. Grayson never made a peep for the entire time we were there. He was great.

It feels good to have his feet off and he does get to shower. But no scrubbing his legs. I pack his wound 2 times a day. He is on an antibiotics 4 times a day and we go back in a week. A week for braces and then a visit with orthopedics and hopefully get the clear to start walking again.

This has been such a hard summer for us. We are glad it is almost over!

It's not easy being green....

Ty's feet had a rough go for a few weeks. Something about his feet were making a HUGE stink. We could smell him clear across the room. They were so gross. We tried everything we could. We even put him in his cast galoshes and put him in the tub and SCRUBBED... But we might have made the problem worse.

A few days after the big scrub down the smell got even worse. With a phone call to a friend in Washington DC a little bird put a thought of infection into my head and I called the doctors office. The doctors office blew me off three times.  Finally the last time they decided that we could come in and they would take a peek and see if maybe his casts had gotten wet or there was infection. I told them the stinky foot was the one where we had done the most work on his feet and his tibia, but that didn't sway them to take me any more serious.

After a convincing 48 hours of waiting ( meaning I called and left a message and it took 2 days to get back to me) I was able to get them to agree to see us right after lunch. The cast dude came in and got us and got us started in taking off the stinky foot to see what was going on.

Dr. Emily was summoned and I joke with her that we smelled funky but come on in... and then the big reveal happened. Tyler's foot had gotten so wet that his foot had some how grown mold all over his foot. Not just mold but black and green mold. It was HORRIBLE.

This foot has the most work done and the most plates and stitches that are under the casts and I was horrified when I saw what was under the casts. So was the Doctor.  She admitted him to get antibiotics for the afternoon while we got his feet dried and scrapped. He was one mad dude. 

The white stuff is the wet feet stuff. The black stuff is mold and dried blood and the green stuff is mold. We cleaned around his incisions. We re taped his incisions and she inspected his foot. She rubbed antiseptic stuff on it stuff on it, waited for it to dry and the other foot was taken off. A small amount of mold was on the other foot and we started the process again. Grayson was there and I didn't get a picture of the other foot but did get a picture of them working on him. 

After about 6 hours we were able to leave and go home. Tyler was put back in casts for the remaining 2 weeks. He opted for Green this time. He said it was for Oscar the Grouch. Not sure that he was really aware that green was GROWING on his feet.  In 2 days we get his casts off and as soon as we get  them off we run down to our favorite orthotic people and recast ourselves for a few minutes while we get our new braces done. Tyler has to stay off his feet until we get our braces off, but we are hoping we are able to at least start moving a little.

At least now we can "legally" have a bath and enjoy a bit of bubble baths while we get ourselves ready for school in 2 weeks!!!