It's off!

Well, the cast is off and the pins are out. My boy has his arm back again!

He did cry a little bit when they were taking the cast off because some gauze was stuck to his pins and the guy had to work a bit to get it off of there. After that was done, they took another X-ray of his elbow to make sure it was good to go and then the pins came out. He cried pretty good for that part too, and I can't say I blame him. He had 3 pins and they were about the thickness of a paperclip and about 2 inches in length. It kind of makes me cringe remembering them.

As you can tell by the pictures (taken before the pins were pulled) he's got a pretty good scar from his surgery. I hope that as he grows it shrinks into a less noticeable thing. The doctor told us he needs to take it easy for a while because there's a small window where the arm isn't so stiff from not moving and it's healed enough to take the pins out, but it's not quite healed all the way.

We have to continue to go in for X-rays over the next months/years to make sure his growth plate isn't affected. I didn't ask what happens if it is. I was too scared to even think about it.

Parker's pretty happy to have his cast off. We took him for ice cream and he got to take a bath without a plastic bag on his arm, which he thought was the funnest. He's still getting used to having use of his right arm again, and when he thinks about it he just tries to do the task using just his left still. When he isn't thinking about it, he's been using his right arm just fine. However, Dale and I are pretty sure that this broken arm thing has solidified the fact that Parker is left-handed. Congratulations mom and Jenny, you have another one to join your left-handed ranks. :)