May 5 ~ The cast must come off!!

Lily came home from school today saying the fiberglass was breaking off in between the sock they used to protect her skin at the top of the cast and was scratching her.  It was also pulling apart half-way down, and the bottom of her toes was breaking off and scratching her toes.

I called her orthopedic surgeon to see if she could advice our town's ER to take it off (we live an hour from where she gets casted and wanted to get it done in our town).  The nurse finally called back 1/2 an hour later (it was 4:30 by then) and insisted she be brought in Wednesday to have the cast removed and a new one put on.  I tried to explain that casting Lily was OUR choice, and she didn't need it on the full two weeks.  I argued with her for 5 minutes and she finally said she would try to get ahold of her ortho surg.  who was out of the office.  We waited and waited, but she never called back.  Of course, why would I expect anyone to call back?

Well, it kept bothering her, so at 7, I decided to just take her in to the ER and have it removed.  The ER doc didn't want to remove it, but decided to "reinforce it" instead.  He put a few pieces of stretchy cotton in between Lily's leg and cast, and did the same at her toes.  Then he layered MORE fiberglass on the cast!  He "forgot" to smooth it down, so the fiberglass dried sticking up.  What was his solution?  To put MEDICAL TAPE around the entire foot to fix it.  We left hoping it would work.

Here is his handywork:

We weren't even out of the ER and in to the van, and the cotton strips that he put in were rubbed loose and coming apart.  Pretty useless.  We got home and left it for a bit, but it all came out, and was still scratching her.

So, we decided to remove it ourselves.  By 2 am, we were both tired and cranky.  We had gotten it all off except from her ankle to toes.  There was about 1 inch removed from there but couldn't get it all off.  I decided to go back to the ER and make them removed.  I told them they needed to remove the cast and we weren't leaving until they did.  When I explained the cotton had come loose before we even left earlier, she said "well you should have just come back in and we would have taken it off."  I don't believe they would have.

Anyway, we got home at 3:30 am from a LONG night.  Cast was off.  Now we wait until her orthotics come in.