L.E.K.: The cast is off!!

The journey to recovery is officially...half-way. Today, Lizzie's cast was removed. We took new X-rays, and the surgeon said he was very happy with her recovery. But, she is to wear her sling for another two weeks, and can't really use her arm properly until the end of May. He even said that she shouldn't swim for a couple of weeks. (It is officially hot here now, so this is a huge bummer.)

After our long slog through the hospital, which took a record three and a half hours this morning, we went to the physio department to make an appointment. Her appointment is for May 1st. So I called a private physio and will see her on Monday. She's a British woman and even though I will pay ten times would I would pay at the hospital, it will only require me to have Lizzie out of school for an hour because I'll actually have an appointment time. And, I don't know how to measure the price of my own sanity, but it is fairly precious to me.

Today we had a sweet experience. The nurse who has always done Lizzie's casts saw us in the waiting room (we had been there for an hour and twenty three minutes) and he moved her file to the top of the stack so we were seen fairly soon after. Then, after the surgeon ordered X-rays, he took us to a different radiology department where we didn't have to wait. He asked if I wanted some tea after the X-rays, so he told me all about his five children and what they are doing. It was very sweet. Then he delivered us back to the surgeon's office ("we must go now, before he takes a break"). He calls Lizzie "Barbie," which she considers to be a compliment.

We came home and Lizzie had a bath so that we could finally wash her left hand (so disgusting) and also begin to scrape the dead skin off her arm and hand. Revolting, but so satisfying. She is very reluctant to move her arm, but she can, and she agrees that it doesn't hurt when she does. Hooray!