Elbow Progress

We were coming upon the time to remove the cast, so we took a picture to record how colorful it was, with well-wishes from lots of friends.

The nurse used a special saw, so Miri wore the "headphones."

She was very apprehensive about this appointment, because she knew the pins would be coming out.

The bottom half of the cast was to be saved to make a splint for continued support for a couple more weeks, so it had to be removed in a special way.

And when it was off, we headed to the X-ray department. (There were pieces of plastic on the the tips of the pins.)

She knew the drill by this point, so she automatically put her arm into the needed positions.

After the X-rays, we went back to the treatment room. The process of pulling the pins was really, well, painful. It was short, but not easy. Aleaha took pictures, but we decided not to post those. Above is a perspective on the pins themselves, as shown next to Aleaha's hand. Ick, huh? Pretty gnarly.

Here's Miri getting placed back into the cast as a splint. 

She's a trooper, for sure. The goal at this point has been to take her arm out of the splint once a day, under close parental supervision, so that she can do a few "extracises" (as she and Aleaha both say). She needs to work on straightening the elbow and turning her wrist appropriately. She can do the turning, but not so much on the straightening. We might have to go to physical therapy to help that part along.