Pictures of Zeke's Legs During Casting

Fair warning:

If you are squeamish, you may want to skip this post.

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Preparing to take off the "soft" casts

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Pulling apart the soft casts. It's like cotton to avoid pressure during swelling after surgery.

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If you look closely under the square of foam under his big toe, you can see the metal rod that is running nearly the length of his foot. They bend over the end of the rod in a hook shape and put on a yellow tip to avoid catching it on anything.

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The doctors and nurses were worried about excessive pain during the casting procedure but as long as Zeke was allowed to watch TV, the most we heard out of him was about what channel we should be turning to!

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Before putting on the hard casts, the doctor wanted Zeke to be fitted for new orthotics (the braces he wears on his legs). So as soon as the soft casts were off, they put a big white nylon sock over his foot.

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Then they placed the yellow rubber tubing down the length of his lower leg and foot. Once that's in place, they wrap his foot in a type of cast material. It's harder than the soft cast but softer than the hard cast.

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Within a few minutes, that cast hardens and the orthodic doctor runs his knife down the length of yellow tube and pulls apart his mold. That mold is what he will use to form Zeke's new braces.

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After that doctor had his molds complete, the casting doctor could begin the hard casts.

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 The small metal circle you see was placed on each cast. A bar which holds Zeke's legs in place screws right into those spots so that we can remove it if we need to. It's a pain to do, but it can be taken off. The white velcro wraps on his legs are Knee Immobilizers. The doctors opted to use those with the boot length casts instead of casting his entire legs.

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