Adjusting to another cast

It is amazing to me how quickly kids learn to adapt to new things. When Cohen got the splint back on after re-fracturing his leg he attempted to stand up on it almost immediately. He had been able to stand on his cast so I think he forgot the splint wasn’t the same way. Cohen then got on this cast:

In comparison to his other cast it is shorter (the other one went above his knee) and it is also flat at the bottom instead of angled (the other one made him walk on his tip toes more). We thought he would walk right away since he was already trying with the splint. However the change in the angle of the bottom took a couple days for him to get used to. With the old one he was able to balance himself more with the tips of his toes. This one tends to be a little more slippery since he can only grip the floor with his big toe and otherwise has to deal with the slipperiness of the bottom of the cast (he won’t keep the sock on to help grip). But once he was willing to try it out it didn’t take long and he figured it out.

Life was pretty much back to normal for him. He has to have this cast on for 3 weeks. Our visit with the doctor gave us some good information. We felt a little less horrible for him re-fracturing his leg again since the doctor said it is way more common than you think and he is actually surprised it doesn’t happen more often. He also reminded us that since he broke the tibia bone it isn’t a weight bearing break and is the reason he is able to walk on his cast. Which is also why the healing time in the cast isn’t as long especially since it is a spiral fracture versus a clean break. We also asked about the recovery afterwards since Cohen was walking with his leg turned out after he got the other cast off. He said this is perfectly normal and very common. They tend to walk this way afterwards to put less pressure on the ankle which feels better to them. The child should eventually correct their way of walking when they feel ready. Not fun to have Cohen deal with all of this again but he’s a trooper and we think he’s pretty darn cute in his bright green little cast!