Okay so now to frame/pin care… continued... again...

Okay so I touched on how the foot and toes may be sensitive to the touch. I was told by someone that the tickle and pain receptors are the same so it may tickle at first when cleaning the toes but it may soon turn from a laugh to a scream. I found toward the end of our time in the frame his knees also started to bug him. It would get very tired “achey”. Another issue we had during his time in the frame was weight loss. My son has lost 12+ pounds. His legs have gotten so thin and skinny. We are not sure why he has lost so much weight. Maybe from inactivity? I know if it was me, I would gain 15+ pounds from inactivity but kids are different that way. We were told by his primary care physician not to be alarmed, he should gain it back quickly when he is back to “normal”.

This brings up another thing the doctor may have you do. He may talk about you placing a rolled up wash cloth under the toes to prevent curling. At first, I would do just that rollup the cloth and slide it under the toes. This was somewhat difficult and painful for Weston and I think I lost some of my hearing with the screams I would get. I found that if I had a thick rectangular bath cloth and folded both sides in, then in half it made a big enough prop to elevate the toes. I would pull this through the back of his foot up to the toes. While doing this Weston would hold up his pinky toe and I’d distract him with breathing (in n’out, in n’out this actually helped for a lot of stressful/painful things) this technique went a lot smoother, plus when he’d bathe I’d have the cloth already in place to wash the bottom of his foot (it too becomes super sensitive and the skin peels).

Now the leg gets kind of dry and scaly except the pin sites. They can get kind of of red and oozy looking. If in doubt, call the doctor. I remember the doctor telling me that some seepage is normal as long as it is not greenish and puss like. Weston’s feet always got swollen towards the end and would ooze a bit more. He would call this “goozey”. He would always ask me “Mom is it goozey? It looks pretty goozey. We need to clean this!” (I would think we? You mean me… you will understand later what I mean.) Oh and for the cast changes it helps to bring a pair of shorts so they don’t have to sit in there undies while they remove and recast.