Tom's surgery

Tom got his cast off on Monday after 10 days in the white cast and then 5 weeks in the blue one.He has osteoarthritis in one of the joints of his right thumb. Which apparantly means that he had to have had some trauma to that area, but we cannot think of anything that could have caused this. After about 2 years of getting cortisone shots they decided that he needed surgery to fuse the joint. He had no cartilage between the two bones so they were just grinding against each other. OUCH! Eventually they will do another surgery, taking a tendon out of his forearm and creating a little cartilage thing to stick in there. They said that he is way too young for that procedure. It is a permanent fix and they don't want him wearing it out.

So here's what he gets for now. A T shaped metal plate screwed into his bones with 5 metal screws! He has two different braces he has to wear for a few weeks and he got two different tubs of puddy(they are exactly like silly puddy, one softer one harder) to do therapy with. He sees the doc again in three weeks and if the physical therapy he has him doing on his own is not working then he is going to send him to physical therapy. We are so hoping that it works because we cannot stand to have another medical bill! We've had them flowing in nonstop for years now.