Casting call...

If you recall, my son fell in PE on Friday. We went to the Emergency Room. Being the experienced mother of boys, on the way to the Emergency Room, I called the pediatric orthopedist. There is only one pediatric orthopedist group around here and they are busy, busy, busy. Even with a broken bone, there is often a three day wait to see them!!

Anyway, I made the appointment for the orthopedist for the first available date, Tuesday (this was Friday at 4:30 p.m.!)  The location that they could see us was in their least convenient office, about 1 hour away.  I had hoped that I would cancel the appointment but even with the sprain diagnosis, he was still in quite a bit of pain on Sunday and his doctor-relatives insisted that I keep the appointment. They were certain it was broken 

We drove to the everglades (or right next to it), during rush hour on Tuesday. The orthopedic surgeon was very nice. He confirmed the diagnosis of a sprain but explained that if we casted it for two weeks, it would heal much faster than on it's own. Given that sleep away camp is next month,  it is the end of school and he has no major plans for the next few weeks, we said, "Okay, cast that foot!".  A few minutes later, he was sporting a green hulk-like cast. About fifty bucks later at the pharmacy downstairs from the doctor's office, we were loaded up with a shoe for the cast, as well as a special shower bag so he can bathe without ruining the thing.

At 8p.m. that night, he was hanging out on my bed watching tv and I noticed that he was moving his foot up and down, as if there was a hinge on the ankle part of the cast. It was totally cracked. I wanted to cry.  

So Wednesday a.m., we loaded up again and went the closer location of the orthopedist without an appointment and marched in right when they opened. "We've got a defective cast here!".  A nice cast expert named Gino with four teenaged daughters was disgusted by the lame-o job the other nurse did the day before. Nurse Gino took his time and made a really strong cast with extra padding. He promised that it won't crack. We decided that green was bad luck and went with navy blue this time.

Seriously, this was all for a sprained ankle.  When people ask me why I don't practice law anymore, I will have to direct them to this post. How on earth would any working mother, much less a trial attorney be able to deal with this just for a sprained ankle? Does she call the judge and say "Send the jury home, we got a bad cast"? Does she just duct tape it and hope for the best? Thank goodness I work out of my house and could deal with this time consuming mini-drama without causing anyone to be held in contempt of court or something bad like that..  

 The patient is doing fine now. He hates the cast and can't wait for it to come off. It is also rainy season here in SoFla and he is going to yell at me in a minute when I suggest that he put a garbage bag over it to walk into school this morning. If that thing gets soaked and I have to go back to get another cast, I'm picking the color (hot pink?)