Kate's Before and After

(Click here to read the story of Katie's accident, then come back. I'll wait...)
Here is a photo of Katie's cast just before we step into the doctor's office yesterday. She got her cast off yesterday ... for a while.

The doctor took out the three pins that previously he had put in to stabilize the bones as they grow back together. After 4 weeks I guess the bone had grown fused enough that he could removed the pins. Before that, though, they had to remove the stitches left over from surgery - and believe it or not, removing the stitches turned out to hurt a LOT more than removing those darned pins! Go Figure.

(Warning to the squeamish - a close-up of her elbow before the stitches and pins were removed is below the next picture. We can't help but share these amazing moment with all our friends... the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.)
We were surprised that her arm looked as good as it did - we were prepared for something quite ugly. But thankfully it looked pretty good - considering the injury, the stitches and the 3 pins sticking out at odd angles. The Xrays showed that new bone is being laid down, as the doctor put it. He said that this kind of break usually occurs in younger kids, and with them he would expect faster bone growth. With Katie, the bone is growing more slowly. So, he decided to put a new cast on for another 9 days - she'll get this one off next Friday.

In the meantime, they took out the stitches and pulled out the pins. Sorry, no pictures of that process. There's some nerve damage, she can't move her thumb too well and the feeling hasn't completely normalized in all the fingers. While the nerves were very bruised, they weren't nicked or severed. Over time... I hope...

This is a gnarly photo of her arm showing the pins about 10 minutes before being removed.
They just pulled 'em right out - after twisting just a bit. Katie said it didn't hurt much. Click on the picture to see them bigger.





This is Kate's doctor, kindly posing for a picture. I'll bet he didn't expect it to be posted on the Internet the next day.