A missing arm...

I have to share what happened last Friday when I was giving R a sponge bath and changing his knit-rite shirt.  I got his old shirt off, washed him, and then I put on the new shirt.  As I was sliding it down in the back (it takes a lot of shifting and shimmying to get that shirt down because it's too tight for your fingers to go in), it got stuck.  I knew I had to get it on, so I just pulled and shimmy'ed harder.  I felt something give, and then it was able to slide down.  Guess what came out the bottom of his cast with his shirt?  An arm.  A mermaid (kind of like a Barbie-sized doll) arm.  So it had been stuck in between his back and the cast from anywhere up to 5 days.  I'm not really sure how long, I just know that the arm had been missing for about that long.

I kinda freaked out.  I mean, it's really tight back there, and that had to have hurt him.  R has been a little crankier than normal for a few days, but that was the only symptom that something was wrong.  However, he is a much happier boy since we got it out.  I was worried about pressure sores (from the arm).  We thought about taking him to the Dr, but they'd only be able to see if something was wrong if they took off the cast.  We really don't want to do that this early.  And he's still pretty happy, so we've decided to assume that he's ok.  I just wish I could look, and KNOW, you know?

I know that R puts things in his cast.  He's done it with a marble twice now, but it didn't slide down very far and he was screaming for it to come out.  Since it didn't slide down very far, I could just reach with a couple of fingers and get it out.  I thought he'd learned his lesson with the two marbles, but apparently not. :) I'm hoping he's learned his lesson now, as I am guessing it was him that put it in.
But needless to say, we've had a good talk with all of our kids about not putting things in R's cast, telling us if they see him put stuff in it, etc.

Now that's it's over, it's kinda funny.  I just hope he never does it again.

Too tight?

In the last couple of weeks, R has thrown up a handful of times right after mealtime.  Not alot, just a little, like his tummy got too full from eating too much.  I'm starting to wonder if his cast is too tight.  A couple of weeks ago, he started getting pressure sores on his lower back, just above his right hip.  We called Shriner's and they told us to apply some more moleskin, and we did and it cleared up in a couple of days.  But again, this cast just seems like it might be getting too tight.  So I also wonder if we will take it off early, and he'll get more time without his cast on again.  That wouldn't be all bad. :)

I just hope he isn't too uncomfortable.  It's hard to know when to take it off.  When is it too tight?

The PT came today.  He's doing AMAZING.  He's so close to getting up without holding on to anything, he's talking more and more (he's not behind AT ALL in that area).  We're going to space his PT appointments further apart (YES!) because he's doing so well.  The only thing I am worried about in regards to his motor development, is that he isn't turning his neck as far as he used to.  When he turns his head far to either side, his chin runs into the part of the cast that goes over his shoulders, and he seems to be convinced that he can't turn it well anymore.  This just started this week.  Maybe he's stiff (from the cast)? Who knows.  But he won't look at things to the side or behind his shoulder without turning his whole body. 

I"m so proud of him.  He works really hard to be able to do so many things, like getting up and off of chairs, go up and down stairs, stand up, bend over, etc.  He doesn't ever complain about these things either.  I think he likes some of these challenges.  Such a boy.