Casting - Part I
This morning Anna had her new leg cast fabricated during her normal PT session. Like most therapy-related things, Anna took it in stride and didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the entire process. What a trooper! Her PT was able to get her foot positioned a little past neutral, so hopefully she will have a week’s worth of very good, consistent stretching. Next Monday her PT will remove this cast and create a new one.
At first Anna had a little trouble walking around, but she seems to be fine now. We posted a picture of her cast and boot on Flickr. The cast made it very clear that Anna has developed some very bad walking patterns. When she first started walking around in her cast she continued to put her toe down first which caused her to bend her knee. It is exactly the pattern we are trying to change! We’ve had to start cuing her to walk heel-toe. With a little luck and a lot of prompting we hope to break her of the toe-first habit so that when she no longer has the cast on her leg she will continue the preferred heel-toe pattern.
Immediately after getting her cast, Anna had horseback riding. I stole one of Neal’s old tube socks, grabbed a plastic baggy and some athletic tape, and fashioned a plastic cover for her cast. I didn’t want her to get tons of sand from the riding arena in her cast on the very first day! Anna became quite upset as I taped the baggy over her toes and the bottom of the cast. Her remark was, “No Momma, that bag is for snacks - not my toes.” This afternoon we decorated her cast with markers. She now has pink, purple and green polka dots, flowers, a train, and various Anna-creations all over her cast. It was a success! Tomorrow she returns to daycare. I hope she has a good day and all her friends think her cast is pretty cool. Neal and I were remembering how cool casts were when we were kids. I still remember a girl in my kindergarten class who broke her leg and had a full leg cast. I thought that was the greatest thing ever! Let’s hope the cool-factor still exists among this generation!
06/29/09 9:44 PM at 09:44pm Tara Family Add comment