From duck to zebra

Mom decided to stay another couple days, thank goodness, and Joe is also still here so the house is nice and full with Grandpa and Tilly as well. Mom and Grandpa went shopping at Home Depot this morning, than tag teamed with Tim and I as we left Tilly home and headed for Seattle for our first follow up appointment.

Way beautiful ground floor for the outpatient building at Harbor view Medical. Instead of each floor being called the orthopedic floor, ophthalmology floor, psychiatric floor, and otolaryngology floor, they are called things like "connection", "discovery", "communication", and "understanding" or something like that.

The stuffing was ripped out of Tim's duck puppet bit by bit until his naked arm remained. 

As Tim worked hard to hold very, very still, the last bit of bandage was taken off and we could finally see his excellent stitches.

Our physical therapist gave the wounded limb a little spa treatment, then headed for the ribbon caddy full of bandages, Velcro, and other excellent supplies. Tim's arm now has its own cozy little sock, complete with custom cut thumb hole.

Next, the physical therapist put his art skills to work, making a template using Tim's good hand, finessing it to fit the bad hand, roughly cutting it out of special plastic that then went into a tub of boiling water until it became clear and soft, then carefully molding it around the wounded hand that Tim was working hard to keep relaxed and still.

The final effect could really use some googly eyes, maybe a couple little ears, a tail... but its looking pretty good and gets a lot more breathing time than the old hot and stuffy cast. Now Tim is working on his physical therapy so that in about 6 weeks he should be able to hold a cup of water in his left hand and spend time without his superhero sidekick in full getup. Looks like we have many more commutes ahead.

Hopefully life will slowly start returning to normal now.