Unglued

(Alternately Titled A Loose Screw)

What goes up must come down and in this case what went in must come out.  Kate's broken arm was repaired by the placement of a screw to hold the dislodged bone with the growth plate to the rest of her bone.  Hardware obviously doesn't belong in our body and in this case, with the rapid growth of childhood, the screw was best removed before the bone grew over it and it could not be retrieved.

Kate had surgery a week and a half ago to remove the screw.  This time we just went to an outpatient surgery center (there was no room in the inn last time, so we were at the hospital).  She took Beary, the teddy bear that I fixed up with a sling and gave her after her first surgery, with her.  When she woke up, the nurses had wrapped Beary's arm to match hers.  It was very sweet.

This recovery (as promised) has been much easier.  Well, except for one thing, since she's not in pain, afraid of movement, and immobilized by splints much of the time, it is harder to get the incision to heal.  At her one week follow up, the surgical glue was peeling horribly and the incision was weepy.  The nurse fixed her up with steri-strips, we were given a script for an antibiotic due to some redness and a bump at the place the screw was extracted), and we were sent on our way.  Discharged from care unless she has a problem!

The next evening, as I was making dinner (one of 10 or so evenings Justin isn't home for dinner a year), she announces one of the steri-strips was loose, so she pulled it off.  I fed the littles dinner and headed out to the pharmacy to buy more steri-strips.  I wasn't even sure I could buy them, but thankfully they were there.  She's patched up with 'tape' yet again.

We'll have to watch her arms as she grows, but the doctor is confident that the growth plate was not damaged and it is obvious that her movement is not bothered at all thanks to all the physical therapy.

And that (loose) screw, it now lives in my curio cabinet.