The joys of a spica cast :(

It's taken almost 11 years to learn about this necessary cast and I hope that I have learned my lesson well.  I was never taught or even thought of asking about brittle bones.  Especially in none weight bearing children.  All of these years I have focused on the hips.  Watching and being careful not to cause a dislocation.  No one mentioned the risks of all the other possible broken bones.  So when S. showed signs of something wrong we just assumed it was a hip problem.  The emergency doctor x-rayed his leg around the hip but not quite low enough to discover a broken femur.   So we walked away with the diagnosis of perhaps a pulled muscle and given Motrin to help with the pain and watch his positioning.  Well S,  kept showing discomfort and his leg was held at a weird angle.   So when the swelling started I went right away to the pediatrician where we discovered his broken femur.  So began my lesson on bone growth plates, bone health and casts.

We have had this awful looking thing on for almost 10 weeks.  S.  is completely bored and upset with me.  I told 2 weeks ago that the cast would come off and he was pretty excited to get back to normal we all were.  However, the darn femur was not completely healed so we had another cast put on.  Needless to say S. was upset with me and being non verbal he had to tell me somehow so he started biting me.  Well that lasted a few days and he was getting used to still being casted.

I am surprised at how well he has been over the last few weeks.  He has bruises on his other leg from kicking the cast.  He is always sitting somewhere although we move his often.  He has had pee and resource down that cast and has been dried by a hair dryer too often to mention.  However, he is still happy go lucky.  Well he is to get this cast off in two days.  I am afraid to tell him just in case he has to keep it on.  Please keep your fingers and toes crossed that we get this darn thing off in two days and can go back to normal.

Now, I am going to check his calcium and magnesium and vitamin D levels with our nutritionist.  I will also make sure that there is more weight bearing.  I am telling you this story that so that you can also do the same and learn from my lesson.  If you have a non weight bearing child please continue to keep up on their bone health.  Don't just focus on those hips.



I am also wondering if there is any other wisdom that other parents can share.  About cast care and brittle bones.  Or just vent about what is bothering you today.