A Week After the Cast Comes Off

     Though there were a few days this last week that were scary for me, it's been exciting to see the progress as Edythe's hand has healed. the scary part was about the 3rd day when her fingers got quite red and swollen. It was evening, or I would have called the doctor. Whenever there's any sign of a problem, my imagination always goes wild, so I worry more than necessary. But I didn't know what to do to take care of the infection. I'd read that hydrogen peroxide was bad for newly forming skin. I put some colloidal silver on it thinking that would be more gentle. I had been covering her hand in manuka honey each night, then putting a sock on her hand to. I worried that maybe I shouldn't have done that. But after being reassured by my hubby that she would be fine I went to bed. In the morning her fingers looked a little better and they continued to improve all day. Whew!

     On about the 7th or 8th day her last stitch dissolved so her hand looked so much better when those scabby stitches disappeared. Through the week she continued using her new fingers more and more. Now she uses it just like her other hand, and her index finger, which has always been pulled in, can now straighten and point ( I love how toddlers point!).

Getting Her Cast Off

      The night before Edythe was to get her cast off, I peeked at her pinky, as I often do, and instead of pink it looked white! I tried to pull open the hole in the bandage some more so I could see better but it wouldn't budge. So I worried a bit that night, praying for her hand and remembering that her hand is in the Lord's hands.
      We left early the next morning for our 10 o'clock appointment in Salt Lake. We arrived early, so we had time to let the other children see the hospital.

Apparently we were supposed to have soaked the cast that morning but somehow missed that information (we were so intent about keeping her cast out of the toilet for three weeks! Get it wet!?) So nurses came in and soaked her cast, which Edythe found interesting, then began to peel and untangle and cut it off, which Edythe found increasingly annoying.

By the time the cast was off she was screaming, so the nurses had to shut the door so it wouldn't scare everyone. It didn't hurt though, because as soon as the cast was off she stopped hollering. And there were her new fingers. All pink and beautiful! It probably would have looked frightening to anyone else, but to us, seeing her fingers was so wonderful.
      There were still stitches on her hand and up the sides of her fingers, and blood, and scabs. One spot between her 4th and 5th fingers started to bleed a little.  Dr Wang came in and took a look at her hand, picked off some scabby tissue, and said it looked really good. She said to massage it with oil (vitamin e or whatever kind we wanted to) several times a day. She said to let her bathe, use it, and that the more we touched it, the better it would be.