Sunday morning Miciah was lined up for the first spot, at 7:30 a.m. Of course, there was another trauma patient who took her spot, so the surgery didn't happen until about 10:15. No problem, though, cause that gave me time to get to the hospital and see her off in the pre-op room.
Which was a blast, by the way. At first she was very anxious about everything, and didn't look too happy with life and the situation she was in. So the nurse gave her an anti-anxiety drug and pretty soon she was telling us that the clock had two 12's on it. I informed her that the clock only had one 12 on it, and Rob even walked across the room to point it all out to her. She laid there, really still and quiet, and very lazily she said, "No, there are two 12's. And two 1's, and two 2's, and two 3's, and two 4's..." Pretty soon she was reading the numbers around the clock, "11, 22, 33, 44, 55,..." This went on for 5 or 10 minutes. She saw bubbles sitting on a shelf across the room and asked Rob to blow them for her. S0 Rob blew bubbles as she popped them, like there was nothing wrong in the world. Like it was just some better-than-normal day at home. The nurse asked her, "Are you still nervous?" Miciah stared blankly at her with half-closed eyes and slowly nodded. "Yeah, right!" I thought. It was pretty funny. Pretty soon it was time for her to go back to the OR, so we kissed her goodbye and she was still counting, "...22, 33, 44,..." She didn't even notice that we left the room.
Of all the powerful drugs that I've needed to take, I wouldn't sign up for any of them again. I intensely disliked all of them. But watching Elijah (2 years ago, for his surgery) and now Miciah on that anti-anxiety drug, ... I could sign up for that. Wow. What a happy world it would be. (My dad's going to kill me for saying that. And I should clarify that I have never abused drugs, I don't plan to, and I do not endorse illicit drug use in any way.)
After surgery it was a different story. Miciah was disoriented and unhappy and grumpy and in quite a bit of pain. It is the only time during the whole affair where she wasn't very brave. She was being given some drug that was 7 times stronger than morphine, but still she screamed and whined and cried the entire trip from the recovery room back to her normal room. And that included a stop at the X-ray room. It was a long 45 minutes.
Right after surgery we talked to the doctor and he showed us the pictures of the pins that they put in her arm. They had thought, pre-surgery, that they would put in 2 pins, but it ended up being 3 pins.
These are not great quality, sorry, but it's the best we've got. On the pictures he showed us, though, where it was all a little more clear, there is a spot right next to where they put in the pins that they couldn't "smooth out", he said. He thinks that during impact, the bones got a little smushed in that spot. It should smooth out as she grows, though. What it means for now is that she will probably have a slightly limited range of motion for the next few years.
We will go back in to see the doctor about 3 weeks from now (I schedule the appointment tomorrow), and they will take off the cast and take out the pins. Usually that's the end of the ordeal, but there could be some circumstances that make it necessary to put another cast on at that point. If they do that, the cast would only be on another week or two. So, up to 5 total weeks with a cast.
The cast isn't water-proof, so we'll be giving Miciah sponge baths and washing her hair in the sink. Super fun. We'll get used to it, I'm sure.
Miciah was sent home with some pretty powerful pain medication, as well as Benadryl, since the pain meds make her itchy. (If you've never experienced this, trust me, it's more horrible than normal itchiness. Like, you want to scratch your skin off itchiness.) She can't return to school until she's off the pain meds, and the nurse suggested that we give her pain medication every 5 hours for the "next few days." I think we'll try to be pretty religious about it until tomorrow afternoon some time, and then we'll start trying to let her guide us in the process of transitioning to normal Tylenol.
At first I was hopeful that she'd be back at school tomorrow, but now I'm shooting for Thursday. Wednesday seems too early, and there isn't much need to push it. I've talked to her teacher. She said that Miciah's classmates have all been very concerned (it's such a cute age. The kids are all so sympathetic.), and she also said to not worry about homework for a while. Thank you, teacher. I told her how Miciah broke her arm, on a challenge, and Ms. Lyon's response was, "You can't back down from a challenge like that!" I thought that was cute.
Thank you everyone who has called or sent well wishes or prayed for Miciah and us, or visited her at the hospital, or provided babysitting or a meal, etc. It's truly been a great experience for us to see how many people care and how many people are willing to help.
And, for a dose of perspective: As Rob and I were walking down the hospital corridor, we saw, coming the opposite direction, a toddler in a stroller. He was wearing a mask and had no hair. Immediately I counted my blessings and thought about how lucky we are that we were in this hospital for something so normal and easy as a broken arm. How we could go home to a relatively normal life, and healthy kids. How fortunate we are to live in a city with a world-class children's hospital. How fortunate we are to have modern medicine, period: Miciah will not have a crippled arm for the rest of her life. We have SO MANY blessings.
To close this up. Miciah wrote a book about her experience, and I wanted to share it with you:
My Broken Bone
My brokein bone
By: Miciah Thacker
True Story Obout me.
This year, in the spring, I broke my bone. How? Well, I was swinging on the swings when my friend chalingnd me to jump off the swing. Well, I did. I landed on my elbow. Daddy! Daddy! I cried. I ran to my dad. Then, I went to the hospidil, and gess whut? It is not fun. Not fun at all. I had to go to the Emergensy room. My brake was bad. They had to do sergery on my arm. Thay had to put pins in my arm and put a cast on me. It hearts me vary much. I can't go to gim and I can't do meny things on reses. But I was glad on the second day because I had visiters. My friend Kala gave me a dalmashon. I named him roofy. My Mom and Dad gave me a dack neckless. On the therd day, my friend Abby gave me a webkinz cat. I named it Lily. Then I got to go home and my friends dad came and gave me this book. It was hard geting my arm brokein.
The End.
The meaning of the Book is share things you have with Other Children.
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