His arm must have moved as we were driving because at the park it looked a lot worse. He laid on the bed in the E.R like a champ! Thankfully Curious George was on TV so he was able to keep his mind off of his arm.
Clearly this is his wrist. Maybe they shouldn't send us a Radiology bill since it doesn't take a Dr to know that it's broken. He broke both the bones in his wrist. When he put his hand down to catch himself when he fell, he snapped these bones, they pushed up and
Broke his elbow in two places. This one is harder to see. Look at the ball of bone, go up to the dark white line. To the left of that line there is a crack. The other crack is to the right of the dark white line. OW! You would think that we've never given this child anything with calcium in his entire life. We have and we do every day! He just landed wrong and did a great job of breaking his arm. Go big or go home right?!
The E.R. Dr came in and told us that he had called the Orthopedic Surgeon that was on call. The Surgeon had told him to tell us to be there at 7:00 the next morning so he could do surgery. So, not only did he brake it, he had to have surgery to fix it. I understand that the bone wasn't out of the skin and that there was no internal bleeding. I also get that K's life wasn't in danger. What I want to know is why they couldn't do the surgery that night? I get that K had had some water and a fruit leather but by the time the Dr had gotten there and they were ready to go back, it would have been probably close to five hours since he had had anything to eat or drink. B tried to defend the Dr by saying since it wasn't a true emergency they probably didn't want to call everyone in. My rebuttal was that they were going to have to call everyone in on Saturday morning. I said that the Surgeon probably had plans and didn't want to cancel them. Maybe his wife had told him that if he cancels on her, his toast. So, we went home. Needless to say it was a pretty sleepless night for some of the folks that live in our house. he slept pretty good until 3. Then he couldn't sleep. He wanted me to lay on his bed with him. So, I was holding him as best I could without moving his arm. He was laying on his side, I was behind him with my arm around him. He was supposed to keep his arm elevated, so he was resting his arm on my arm. I could fill him finally starting to twitch, like he was falling asleep. All the sudden he jumped, his arm flew up in the air and he started to cry. I pulled him in close and asked if he was ok. He wrapped his other arm around my neck and as he cried he said,"I had a dream that I was falling off the monkey bars." I had tried to not let him see me cry because I knew that would just make him freak out even more, but when he said that I couldn't help it. We both laid there and cried. It was so sad. He couldn't have any medicine after midnight, so he cried a lot and said that his arm hurt a lot. Finally at five I asked him if he wanted to watch a show. Thank goodness for Disney channel! We were able to watch Phines and Ferb. He actually laughed a couple times.
We don't feel like we know a lot of people round these parts yet. I had asked B what we were going to do about K having surgery. He said that we could switch off, but I wanted to be with K the whole time. I also wanted B to be with us. I prayed and prayed to know who I could call in our ward to watch M and the baby while we were doing K's surgery. I felt so bad asking anyone because I knew that it would take most of their Saturday. I was longing for family or the close friends that we have to live close so that I wouldn't have to worry so much about it. The names of three families came into my mind. Heaven knows that I have a really hard time trusting people when it comes to watching our kids. I reminded Heavenly Father of that(like He needs reminding!...) The same three names were in my mind. I mustered up all of my courage and called a family. I have talked to this lady twice. I honestly didn't know if she would even remember who I was. I told her the whole thing, she asked what time the surgery was. I told her 7, so we would have to drop the other two off at 6:40. That's so early! She told me that was fine, she would be awake anyway because she was going to the gym. Bless her! For being willing to watch our kids when she doesn't even know us and for working out on a Saturday morning! There are limits to my working out and doing it on a Saturday morning is one of them! I am so thankful for ward families and that no matter where you go, there are people in your ward that are willing and able to help even if they don't know you!
He really didn't like the "party hat" that they had given him to wear. It didn't help that he hadn't been able to eat breakfast, have medicine or sleep. He was less than excited to be there. I asked him if he could at least try to be a little happy for the picture. Even a little half smile, he shook his head and stared straight ahead.
B took a picture of him while he was asleep. I think it's awesome that they let him go back. He said that K did great, that he hadn't cried or anything. I think that was because B was with him.
I'm pretty sure that surgery should be deemed as false advertising. He thought that once he had the surgery, his arm wouldn't hurt any more. So when he woke up and his arm still hurt, he was not happy. I felt so bad for him. They gave him a lot of morphine. I don't know how much but B says that it was a lot for a Little kid. Thankfully the surgeon didn't have to cut K open, he just popped the bones back into place. Just thinking about how awful that must sound and how painful that must be gives me full body chills and makes me a little lightheaded.
He is supposed to sleep with his arm elevated to help with swelling. We thought that using a boppy would help because he could lay in the opening and have his arm up. This is usually what I find when I go check on him at night. Needless to say it took a couple days longer for the swelling to go down because he didn't use the boppy for his arm.
He loves his blue cast! It took 4-5 days for him to stop saying that his arm hurt and not wanting medicine every six hours. Maybe it was the blue cast that helped. The hospital didn't have colors, so he had a white cast until his follow up appointment. Blue anything makes this kid happy. Of course it was his right had, so now he gets to write with his left hand, which is interesting to say the least. Of course it happened three days before we were out of the 30 day waiting period for our insurance to kick in, but we are so thankful that he was able to be asleep while his bones were popped back into place and that a week later he is his happy self even though he milks his cast and acts like he is a cripple.
Welcome to the broken arm club, kiddo! Sarai and Briellen feel your pain. We love you!
ReplyDeleteOh dear.... I feel for K and you T!! We have had way too many broken bones at our house, and all the same feelings came rushing back to me as I was reading your post. It is horrible watching your little one hurt with nothing you can do. I am so glad it is over and he is happy again. Thank goodness for our amazing bodies that can heal broken bones!!
ReplyDeleteOH NOOOOOOOO! poor little K-man! this makes me so sad.. but i dont think ive ever seen such a cute kid with a cast before.
ReplyDeletePoor little man! Way to be a strong mom, that sounded like one heck of a weekend :(
ReplyDeleteI totally teared up seeing him so sad and than because it was so cute seeing him and b together before surgery, talk about out of control emotions!
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