A Painful Experience

Jacob fell hard off the trampoline and broke his arm. Badly. He broke both his ulna and his radius - one lower down on his forearm and one near his elbow. He also (more importantly) damaged the angle to his arm bones.

Let me tell you about the events of our day on the day he broke his arm. Just so you can laugh at the craziness of it all. First of all, I woke up at 5:45am to take Zoe to surgery to get spayed. This past week, our power kept winking out in half of our house, causing our phone to brown out. We were concerned about our digital piano and computer getting ruined. We had the electrician come and he insisted it was a problem with the city's power line. (I had had the city come out twice a few months ago to examine this problem and they insisted there was nothing wrong). Rob called the power company and they sent over a truck. I ran and picked up a very drowsy Zoe from her surgery. Rob was getting ready to head to an Ultimate Frisbee game with my brother when Jacob came in screaming holding an arm that was at a disturbing angle. As I headed to the car to take him to the doctor, the power company was knocking on my door. I took Jacob to the doctor while Rob fielded the power company. All of the power readings were fine on their end, but the guy said he liked earning time-and-a-half, so he'd be willing to climb up the pole and check the connections. As he shimmied up the pole, our neighbor boy knocked on the door to mow our lawn. Another neighbor knew the power company guy, so she came and stood in the backyard talking to him on the pole. The connection he found was indeed corroded and sparked a whole bunch. They fixed our power, our neighbor mowed our lawn, Rob skipped his game, and Jacob and I went to the hospital for more tests.

Here is how things went for me. Jacob screamed in the car that he didn't want his arm to be broken. He'd cry out at the smallest bumps in the road. He then screamed that he didn't want surgery. I asked him if he knew what surgery was and he said no. :) We actually first went to our doctors office (I was hoping for an easy fix - set it and cast it and be done) rather than the ER. Our doctor used the word "fracture" instead of "broken" so as to not alarm Jacob. Our pediatrician could tell something was seriously wrong. We immediately went for x-rays, a very painful process. The x-rays weren't pretty. Two broken bones and a misalignment of the angle of the bones. Our doctor (whom I was beginning to REALLY appreciate) called his favorite surgeon at our local hospital. The surgeon was in surgery, but put our doctor on speaker phone and pulled up Jacob's x-rays on his computer to glance at them. He knew immediately that Jacob needed surgery and that he could make time the next morning to do the surgery or we could wait until Monday to come to his clinic to meet him first. It was really nice of him to look at those x-rays in the middle of surgery! The thought of going more than one night without his bones more in place seemed terrifying. So we opted for surgery the next morning.

My heart goes out to those of you who have ever had to wait for a child in surgery, especially to those of you have to do it multiple times. It was one of the most heart-wrenching and worrying times of my life. Jacob was able to crack a few jokes and doing a few math problems in his head as they prepped him. Thank goodness for TV in hospital rooms. I thought he would freak out when they had to wheel him away from us, but whether from strength from the priesthood blessing the night before or from the calming medication they gave him, he was fine. They gave him a mask before they did his IV, so he didn't remember anything. In fact, when he came to, he insisted that they hadn't done anything. He said "they told me that they'd watch over me and that's all they did."

They had to insert two wires the length of his forearm in his arm to hold the bones at the right angle. The x-ray with the wires still makes me queasy just thinking about it. The wires end very close to his skin because they will pull them out in 6 months. He will get a cast when the swelling goes down, probably next week. He'll wear that for 6 weeks. Luckily, it should come off before our trip to the Oregon Coast in July. That hour of waiting during the actual surgery was extremely difficult for me. I'm still decompressing.

He did panic a little as he came out of anesthesia. He was really confused as to why he couldn't move his arm and he would cry that he wanted to get out of the bed. A few orange popsicles and the chance to ride in a wheelchair (like his Grandma J) fixed that.

The sweet kid keeps thinking of ways he is blessed. That it was his left arm instead of his right. That he can still walk. That he didn't break his back or neck. As long as we keep his pain meds in him, he's pretty much his normal self. I imagine he'll get bored soon, but he's been very graceful about not being able to do much with just one hand. He needs help with all of the little things like going to the bathroom and drinking water. One tricky thing is figuring out what shirts he can wear. And he really wants to go back to school (because the last three weeks are pretty much a great big party). I'll probably have to go with him when he first goes.

Despite feeling sick for days after an emergency (not so great with stressful situations), I love being able to take care of and serve my children. It will be a long road ahead, but I'm grateful for my little people and that I can be there for them when they need me most. I'm also thankful to my visiting teacher offering to bring dinner tonight as well as the well-wishes and treats that have showed up for Jacob. His appetite is not lacking! Our pediatrician even called today (on a Saturday) to see how Jacob was feeling. And our Bishop stopped by. And my dear neighbor who's daughter is getting married TODAY brought him a card. And Jacob's teacher is stopping by tomorrow. This kid is loved.