The Spica came off early

Wed: 28th October 2009

Hello little Em,
Your Mom and Dad took you to Entabeni Hospital where Dr Stead removed the spica cast this morning.  Tammy said it was done very quickly but you screamed when you felt the saw near you anyway - I don't blame you, I would have screamed too!
Tammy brought you here and it was lovely to hold you close again without the Scotchcast.  I was a bit concerned because twice whilst you were sitting in the pram, you flinched and cried when moving your leg.  Perhaps your joints were stiff and it was sore to move the knee or hip.  I suggested to Tam that she massage your joints with baby oil just to get them pliable again. 

A couple of days ago you started leopard crawling in the cast.  You turned over onto your tummy, pushed down with your elbows and pushed off with your right foot - moving forwards at quite a pace.  Your Mom said that she had even caught you trying to pulll yourself up onto your little armchair in the lounge!  (It looks like this one but is bright orange.  Chris Degenaar - Abby's father - gave it to you.)

It is quite nerve wracking to bring a child home after having the cast removed.  Everyone sighs with relief that it is off but, unlike other children, the chances are that you could fracture more easily because of the three weeks spent immobile in a cast.  I told your Mom about the time we brought your Dad home after having skin traction plasters removed.  I think he was about your age.  He cried on the way home and fell asleep in the car so we put him in the cot as soon as we got home.  Finn and I went to make some tea and suddenly we heard Mark screaming.  He had woken up and tried to sit.  He fell forwards and broke the other femur!  It was unbelievable - really, really unbelievable.  We had to wrap him up and take him straight back to the hospital for x-rays and to be put be back into traction.  We certainly didn't want anything like that to happen to you.

We know that you are going to start getting mobile now and will want to crawl, pull yourself up on things and even try to stand but it would be best to wait until the fracture has completely healed - until the callus has been absorbed as new bone.  Its a bit like a plumber's weld - you need to wait until it is set hard before you start putting any weight onto it.  It looks something like this picture here - with new callus surrounding the fracture site on the shaft of the femur.  Your callus is good, quite exuberant, but it is also osteogenic and can fracture more easily than normal callus.
I'm sure you are going to sleep better now that the cast is off - but I'm not sure that your Mom and Dad will, they'll be listening out for every little peep from you!
Take care my little princess.
I love you.
Granny Silly.