Right hand wrap-up

On April 25th we headed back to Dallas to get Jason's cast off and reveil his new hand.  He was pretty excited and was telling everyone how he would have 5 fingers!  He even did better than expected when they cut off the cast.  If you have ever had a cast cut off after breaking an apendage you know that the saw they use looks pretty intimidating.  Thankfully it is standard procedure to have a towel between the arm and his face to be sure none of the bits fly into his eyes, nose or mouth.  So Jason didn't end up seeing all that much, but we held him down all the same.  Before we knew it the cast was off and we were looking at his new hand.  It was pretty gross looking.  Sorry I didn't take any photos so you will just have to take my word for it, but it was scabby and red and flaking skin.  Generally speaking it looked pretty unpleasant.  After we got it all cleaned up Jason wanted to look at it for a bit but then asked for a bandage to be put on. 


After a couple of days we got it worked out so he would just wear this sleeve over his fingers to allow them to dry out and form scabs.  Eventually he forgot to have us keep putting on what he called his "bandage."  Now most of the time he doesn't mind people looking at his fingers which is good because we are going back to have the doctors take a look at them in a couple of weeks.  At the same appointment we are also going to talk about Elizabeth's hands and the plan for them (somebody hold me, I'm not ready!)

Before

After

Everyone (the doctors, nurses, Jeff and his mom) keep saying how well Jason's fingers look.  I guess I was just overly optimistic when I hoped some of his joints would work in his fingers.  For example when he goes to make a fist the ring and middle finger still point straight out.  The top knuckle of the middle finger does bend, but I hoped for a little more.