Jackson is now officially in the “home stretch.” We went to our appointment yesterday morning and sure enough the x-ray showed that J’s arm was ready to have the pins taken out. Now, what baffles me (though I much prefer it to having to put him under again) is that they do this right in the office, in front of him, with no pain meds or even distractions of any sort. I sat next to him as they took his cast off and as they unwrapped to reveal these large silver pins sticking out of his elbow. He started to freak out. He was panicking and sort of yelling, “What is that?! Why is that in my arm?!” The first pin (wouldn’t you know it) was pretty stuck. So they were tugging on it with this pliers and Jackson started crying and wincing. Once the pin finally came out- blood started to ooze out of the opening. Luckily the second pin was much easier to pull out and he started to calm down immediately after she covered the pin sights and left the room to give us a minute. I explained it the best I could and told J that now he had nothing in his arm but his own strong healing bone and that this next cast (he picked green this time) was going to be his LAST one and when it was time for this one to come off- no pins would be there, and we could work on strengthening his arm until it was just like his other one. That seemed to make him feel better.
So we are on our way! Three weeks and he will get this cast off and begin physical therapy. As of now the Doctor tells me his therapy will just consist of me doing certain exercises with him and working on regaining his mobility and strength. After about four weeks of that he will go back in to be assessed and see if he needs anymore “drastic” measures as far as therapy goes. I am hoping he just bounces back like the strong wonderful active kid I know he is. Thank you all again for your prayers and thoughts! Soon this can be a distant memory! 
