Travis' Cast from Shriners Today

Travis slept pretty good Monday night, we gave him some Ibuprofen before he went to bed and I'm sure that helped.  He was in pretty good spirits this morning, but he still didn't want to walk.  I got a call from his PA, Mike Pond, at Shriners this morning and he said he was wanting to treat Travis pretty aggressively...put Travis in a cast for this type of fracture (buckle fracture).  He was going to run it by a few other doctors on T's case at Shriners and get back with us.  The PA called back pretty quick and all were in agreement to put Travis in a cast.  He had time for us to come in this morning, so Travis, Scott, and I got ready and headed over to Shriners.

We got in pretty quick and Mike came out to visit while the lady at the front desk was getting Travis put in the system to be seen today.  Mike did an assessment on Travis outside the x-ray room to see what he needed to x-ray, again minimizing Travis' radiation exposure.  His exam showed that Travis' hips were okay and that he only needed to x-ray T's tibia from 2 angles.  Travis is still sore and didn't like having his left leg straightened for the x-ray.  However, he did good and didn't want the sticker after the exam...he wanted a toy.  ;)

We went to the casting room and they got things ready while we were waiting for the x-rays to load into the computer.  Mike showed us on the x-ray Travis' tibial fracture/buckle fracture.  This fracture didn't go through the bone, just on the outside.  Then we got Travis' cast put on his left leg, he got to pick the color and chose blue. 

When it was time to go, Travis wanted his boot on.  We explained to him that the cast was replacing the boot for a few weeks.  T was wanting us to take off the cast when we got home; although he's learning that it's not like his boot.  Travis thought it was pretty cool that we signed his cast today.

Travis tonight (Tues night) with his cast.

Medical outlook...since the bones in people with NF don't heal like other people's bones, they can't guarantee complete healing.  The good news is that where his tibia fractured, it has the best chance to heal compared to fractures elsewhere on the tibia.  The PA said that buckle fractures in non-NF people take about 1-2 weeks to heal, so he figures he'll see bone regrowth starting when we are back there in 3 weeks (July 6th) for his regular appt (and now combined with his cast removal).  We'll see what the x-rays show then and go from there.  There are no guarantees, but this sounds like we are heading for a good outcome and this is just a bump in the road.

Thank you so much for your prayers, thoughts, and support.  I know God continues to look out for Travis and our family.  Since this happened, I'm glad we were in Salt Lake City and have his doctors and medical care right down the road.