Week 1 is almost done!

This week has certainly had it's ups and downs!
The negatives: Aiden hates getting the cast on in the morning, and has now managed to slip it off 3 times. An above the elbow cast, which should be physically impossible to do! He begs me at random times to take it off, and it is heartbreaking watching him cry when he can't pick something up with is right hand. That poor hand has worked more in the last week than his entire life combined! On Saturday, he was playing outside during a barbeque - and dipped the cast in a mud puddle. It took from Saturday afternoon until Sunday night to dry! It did some damage, but hopefully I dried it in time and it will not actually fall apart! Of course, that means that today is 20x harder to get him to keep the cast on after such a long break! When it comes off at night, he swings his left arm around and shouts "it's free! my arm can breath!". Eating has been a bit of a challenging mess! I have tried to stick to finger foods as much as possible since he still can't grip a fork or spoon and ends up using his whole hand anyways! By the way - for anyone planning on doing this therapy in the future - stay away from pancakes and syrup in the beginning! My mom took us out to eat, and Aiden ordered breakfast for dinner. He gave up trying to get the super fluffy pancakes and just grabbed a fistful - the dipped the whole fist into the syrup. It was a mess that I wish I had brought my camera for! And the biggest, messiest part of the whole thing... using the toilet! Boys have to aim, and it requires a dexterity that you don't think about until they have to use a hand with no muscle control. Thank goodness we have lots of soap for handwashing and plenty of clorox wipes!!!
The positives: He is using his hand so much! I cannot believe how good he is doing! Although I think we still have a long ways to go with finger control - he still cannot move any of his fingers independantly, but I am confident that he will get there. Once his cast is actually on, he asks for a break from it less and less - in fact one night before bed he actually asked if he could sleep with it because it felt funny to have it off!
Tomorrow is his first session of therapy with the cast, so I hope that Jennifer sees as much progress as I have!

The Casting

Well, last Tuesday was interesting to say the least! After learning about the upcoming cast, I was actually able to get Aiden excited about it. We bought cast tattoos, and he bragged to all of his friends that he was going to wear a dinosaur cast. To a bunch of 3 year old boys, that is about the coolest thing in the world! The more we talked about it, the more comfortable Aiden got with the idea. He even got to pick out a new dragon movie to watch during the procedure. My Aunt Laura came down to help me out because Brandon had class - I knew there was no way I could help with Aiden and keep Connor from freaking out at the same time!
On the "big day", Laura came with me to pick up Aiden from school. He was so excited to show her his school! In fact, he was all smiles the whole way to the hospital! He couldn't wait to introduce Jennifer to his Aunt! When 1pm came, we watched Jennifer come out to the waiting room to get him and explain what was going to happen. She asked if I could go to the cafeteria to pick out ice cream for him, and then join them in the casting room. Aiden was so excited to get started that I made the mistake of taking my time heading upstairs. I got Connor settled in with Laura - he had a big bowl of mac n cheese and a grilled cheese. By the time I got the ice cream (it was a surprising long line) and headed to the casting room, it was about 1:20. I knew as soon as I saw 2 of the assistants waiting in the hallway for me that it wasn't going well! I walked in the room and he was screaming and crying at the top of his lungs! He was furious that they were holding his arm still and casting it! The ice cream (and mommy) completely turned things around :) I spoon fed him Superman ice cream while he watched his movie, and he relaxed - as much as he could - for the next hour and a half.
I thought it that the cast would be a regular one - kept on 24/7 as I had read about on all the Constraint Induced Movement Therapy sites. Instead, as soon as the cast was on, they cut it down the side and removed it. The exposed edges were covered in a thick tape, and velcro was glued on. The cast went back on, the super strong velcro was applied, and then a self adhesive bandage was wrapped around it to keep the velcro hidden. I was instructed to remove it after the first 3 hours to check for red marks or bruising, and then put it back on. He was also to sleep without it on, both at bedtime and on the off chance he wanted to take a nap. I have never seen him so eager for bedtime! The first morning was hard - it took almost 20 minutes of Brandon and I begging, pleading and finally holding him down to get the cast back on, and we were of course late for school!