First 2 Weeks in casts

Simon is 3 1/2 years old. He was diagnosed with Perthes Disease in October 2008 after limping for about 3 months. His x-rays have been showing deterioration of the hip joint ever since his diagnosis so an arthrogram was scheduled on April 13th to better see what was happening with the bone. During the procedure his doctor felt his joint was gravitating outside the socket and growing too large for the socket, so he was put in these casts as a method to turn things around and hopefully avoid surgery down the road. We were not expecting this when we went in for the appointment so we were quite shocked and unprepared for what was to come!
In short, we have now survived 11 days of the 28 days he is to be in the cast. It is getting easier, but has been definately a HUGE challenge! Luckily, Simon has adapted quite well and is actually nearly "running" around in this thing! Of course he is quite "dangerous" - just imagine, an active, high energy 3 year old with 2 bats attached to him.... I don't think our hardwood floors will ever be the same! The biggest challenge has been the night time. Around the time he is finally starting to fall asleep he starts itching terribly inside his cast and yelling out. This can last 20 minutes or 2 hours and continue off and on throughout the night. Some nights benedryl worked well, however last night was quite dramatic and it took him 3 hours to fall asleep (crying half the time that his leg itched) and he woke up several times crying as well. So I called his primary doctor today and she prescribed Vistaril (Atarax) and we tried that tonight and it was amazing! It was the first night he went to sleep without crying about the itching.
More to come on the ins and outs of life with casts including bathing, eating, cast destroying, and clothes challenges!