My Last Post about My Wrist

I'm super excited to report that I have just been cleared!  This morning I went in for my last physical therapy appointment.  WOO HOO!!!

Here's what my hand looked like 2 months ago:

Here's what it looks like now:

Not bad, right?  There's still a little swelling and excess scar tissue, and that might stick around for 6 months or more.  My physical therapist, Julie, says that however thick my wrist is at the year mark, that's how I can expect it to be the rest of my life.  So I'm hoping that the swelling recedes even further.

Interesting side notes:
1 - I told Julie that the doctor wasn't impressed with my range of motion.  But Julie had always been so positive about my progress!  She said, "It's a good cop, bad cop routine."  She said it's common for the doctors to knock your ego down a few notches.  She said, "We like to say [to the doctors], 'We don't try to do surgery, don't try to do physical therapy.'"  Interesting.

2 - A few weeks ago, my palm up motion jumped about 20 degrees in a week.  Julie said, "Wow, you've been working hard."  But I couldn't really connect it to the physical therapy I was doing.  Pretty much one day I could move it an extra 20 degrees.

3 - My palm up before the jump was awful.  Julie was being nice about it, but later she admitted that she had been concerned about it.

4 - I do NOT need to wear a brace while playing soccer.  Hurray!  Julie said I could wear a soft brace, one that offers a little support, if I need a security blanket.  No security blanket for me.  I'm a big girl!

5 - I learned a few interesting things about anatomy and normal range of motion in the wrist area. 
First:  Your bicep is the muscle that controls your palm up.  Try it!  Put your arm up to the square, like you're going to flex your bicep.  Now turn your hand palm in and then palm out.  Fascinating, right?!
Second:  I can hyper-extend my wrists.  It's the "nodding your head" motion with your hand.  Try it!  Make a fist, then move your hand down, like you're imitating a nod.  Okay.  Most people can get their hand to 90 degrees.  I can take my hand past 90.  So, I keep thinking that my left wrist isn't doing well because my other wrist is an overachiever.

In general, I think it's fascinating how hurting one area of your body affects SO MUCH.  My back was in knots for weeks.  I couldn't sleep.  The constant low throb of pain was so disruptive.  I was a horrible mom and I found it impossible to manage everything, even easy things!  I couldn't imagine being out of pain or having my full range of motion back.  But now, just under 3 months after the break, I'm completely pain-free, and I can do anything and everything I want.  I'm even playing soccer again!  Amazing. 

Sometimes I am reminded that I ought to be more grateful.  More grateful that my body works.  More grateful for modern medicine.  More grateful to be alive and healthy.  More grateful that I'm not in constant pain.  More grateful that my family is so supportive.  More grateful that I find easy things easy.  More grateful that God doesn't force me into more difficult situations to remind me to be more grateful!

Amen.

Home

CA

Last week Tank and I flew to CA (which, with my gimpy, painful arm, was something of an ordeal) and arrived at my parents' house at 3:00 in the morning, Ohio time.  I woke up Elijah for a hug, and as soon as he realized where he was and who I was, he jumped into my arms.  That made the trip worth it, right there.  Then I collapsed on the couch.

Me, the kids, and various other family members visited our good friend Jane, who is delightful.  It's always a treat to see her.  Miciah got to pick some lemons from Jane's tree.  Some to make fresh lemonade, and some to take home to my mom.  Miciah loves to pick fruit, it turns out.  Sometimes when the fruit isn't ready for her.

I officially met my brother's fiance, K.  She is WAY too good for him, and possibly way too good for anyone.  Collin is wonderful, though.  Of course.  He'll treat her like gold, and from what I can tell, he already does.  Best moment with K was on Sunday morning.  She'd played with the kids all day Saturday, and they adore her.  On Sunday, Elijah woke up and gave K a huge hug.  Then Collin, who was sitting right next to her, opened his arms for a hug.  Elijah walked away without even noticing and Collin had to call him back.  Made me giggle.  This should tell you something about how much Elijah likes K; Collin is the favorite uncle.  I told Collin, "It starts."

Also was able to meet Chad's girlfriend.  They've been together for a while, but that's what happens when you live thousands of miles away:  you meet people decades after everyone else.  She is also very nice.

And other than that we hung out and enjoyed the quiet bliss of 8 kids under the age of 9.  Super, super quiet.  It was AMAZING.

So, another fun family gathering.

My Arm

Since my arm is news, I'll give a short report.

The swelling has gone way down.  In fact, sometimes I'll think that it's nearly normal until I look at my right arm.  ...  Where my lower arm isn't swollen, like right below my elbow, it's obvious that I've lost muscle mass.  But, it'll all be well with time.

I now am in my removable splint, which is great.  I just went to the doctor today for follow-up, and he said I'll need to wear the splint for 4 - 5 weeks.  I go back to see him at the start of Sept., and if all is well, he'll clear me to take it off.  He also took more x-rays and said the bone looks great, and then he removed my stitches.  I'll post a picture eventually.  It's pretty sweet.  He told me I'm a good healer (my OBGYNs have told me that about my c-section scars, too).  I'm going to start introducing myself with that line:  "Hi.  I'm Tamra.  I'm a good healer."

Physical therapy is great.  My first time there, last week, was kinda funny.  My arm just felt frozen in 1 position.  It loosened up quite a bit just in the hour I was there, but still, I found it impossible to do some of the things she asked me to do.  For instance, bending down the tip of my thumb.  I couldn't remember how to tell my brain to tell my body to do it.  It gets easier with time and repetition, of course.

Also, it was funny cause they kept asking if I was feeling okay.  They were so worried about me possibly fainting that they brought me a Coke and some pretzels.  I don't drink Coke, but I did that day, just for them.

And physical therapy was a good perspective dose.  One of the guys there was missing the index finger on his left hand.  He shot it off while cleaning a gun.  Wow.  My arm, eventually it will work just fine, and this will be a distant memory.  He'll never get his finger back.


And that's that.  Now we're home and together again.  Rob took today off to be with the kids, and they've been loving it. 

The End

Surgery Went Well

This morning Tank said, "I love everyone in the entire world.  Be-cept the mailman."  Apparently Tank hates mail.  Who knew?

Now on to surgery news.

The doc said he was "tickled" by how well it went.  I thought that was cute.

He put in the plate and screws, and didn't touch the broken tip of the ulna.  He did the carpal tunnel release and said there was blood in the tunnel, and that's what was creating the problem.  The carpal tunnel issues were all injury-related, FYI (I had someone ask.  No, I had no carpal tunnel issues pre-break).  He also said that soft tissue was caught in-between the 2 pieces of bone, and that was partly why they couldn't set it better in the E.R.  They had to clean the soft tissue out during surgery.

Here are the x-rays showing the plate and screws:

Pretty neat, right?  I think it looks like a little garden rake.  (On the second x-ray you can see the broken tip of the ulna pretty well.  It's the bottom part of the bottom bone, right on the edge.)

Not neat:  The pain that hit my arm after the block wore off that night.  Here's a story.

I told the doc I wasn't fond of Percocet because it makes me loopy, and he gave me a scrip for Vicoden.  Excellent.  I started taking the Vicoden as my fingers started regaining feeling, as I was instructed, and found out that while Vicoden doesn't make me loopy, it doesn't touch the pain either.  And the pain was intense.  Much worse than just the break had been.  Much, MUCH worse.

All night I took 2 Perc pills (I usually only take 1) and was still in intense pain for about an hour out of every 4 hours.  Not good.

At the start of the next day I asked Rob to call the doc and get some more Perc.  I had as much Vicoden as I could want, but I was afraid to take it.  Rob told me we had "plenty" of Perc (we didn't), but called the office anyway.  They suggested I start taking Vicoden and Advil, 2 hours apart.

Longest 4 hours of my life.  I was in so much pain that committing suicide sounded reasonable.  I told Rob he HAD to call the doc back.  This wasn't going to cut it.  He called around 3:00 p.m. and they said that the doc would probably write a scrip, but he wasn't in until 8 a.m.  Rob told me that and I started sobbing.  I wasn't going to make it until then.  I mean, I had enough, just barely, if I only took 1 pill every 4 hours, but I was needing 2.

So I asked for a Priesthood blessing.  Rob said, "I was just going to suggest that."  I was blessed to be able to manage the pain.  Not that the pain would go away completely, but that it would be lessened.  Within half an hour of the blessing, the sharp pain was gone.  I was able to manage all night with just 1 Perc every 4 hours, with almost no pain at the transition.  And I got the Perc scrip filled the next morning (that would be this morning) and didn't miss a single dose.

I was so grateful to my Heavenly Father that I didn't have adequate words to thank Him.  I am glad that He loves us enough that He is ready to help when we need it.  Sometimes I think it can be hard to tell if He's there or if He cares.  But other times there are tiny miracles, and I am overwhelmed with the love He has for me and for all of us.  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  God's a good guy.

Details

Surgery tomorrow at 1.  Outpatient.  (Insurance rocks; this will only cost us $75.)
 

My other arm bone, the ulna, is broken, too.  More like chipped off at the end.  The doc probably won't even fix it.  It's not bad enough.
 

The radius gets screws and a plate that's meant to be permanent.
 

And my carpel tunnel tendon will be snipped.  My fingers are still tingly.  I thought that was normal.  Apparently not.  There are potentially huge problems if the carpal tunnel has complications, so they'll just avoid all that by removing the tendon.  He says I will lose 10% total grip strength, but "it's not enough to notice."  Hard to imagine not noticing 10% reduction in grip strength.
 

My arm will be in a much smaller, removable splint.  I am SO EXCITED about that.  He didn't give me a timeline for how long I'll have to wear it.
 

And I go to rehab on Monday, and will be able to be on a plane to CA on Tuesday.  Hopefully they'll give me exercises to do in CA.
 

All good news.

Me, in the E.R.

This is me pre-morphine, by the way.  Trying to smile away the pain.

Priceless photo, no?  Taken by my good friend Lori, who came in the ambulance with me. My entire soccer team was really supportive, actually.

And doc appt. is set for tomorrow, 9 a.m.  Wish me luck!

How I broke my arm, the Story.

The lesson here is that if you are going to play soccer when you're 30, just let the other girl have the ball.  You'd think that with all my other injuries, I would have already learned this all-important lesson.  But no. 

Playing soccer Friday night.  Second half.  A girl was standing 10 ft. in front of me, and I thought, "If I just hustle, I can get the ball before she does."  So I sprinted, and reached my leg around her body to get the ball.  I lost my balance and fell with my entire body weight landing on my left hand.  I heard my wrist snap and knew immediately it was broken.  A few seconds later, after screaming a few times, I took a look at it and almost fainted because wrists should not go in a zig-zag. 

It wasn't actually that painful.  Or at least I have been in more pain before.  I was proud of myself for not cussing anyone out.  In fact I was having fun joking around with with the paramedics and everyone.  Better to laugh than cry, I guess. 

I did almost pass out for about 5 minutes after they tried to sit me up.  If the paramedic hadn't been standing right behind me, I would have fallen over.  Of course this is when they were trying to ask me about important information like my social, where my car was parked, what hospital I wanted to go to, etc.  They didn't give me a choice about the ambulance however.  I guess it looked that bad.  If Rob had been there, he could have made those decisions, but I was incapable of doing anything besides manage my pain.  Which, I might add again, I did pretty well.  Not to brag or anything. 

That's enough of the story, other than to say that Rob has been great at taking care of me.  In fact, he just typed up this blog post for me.  And I am not just saying that because he is typing this.  (Don't expect my blog posts to be frequent or long for awhile.  And forget about my writing "voice."  There are bigger battles here.)

(I took over typing from here on out.  Only took me half an hour.  Yikes!) 
Here are the x-rays, pre-setting:

Getting the x-rays taken was one of the most painful things I've ever done.  "Can you straighten it any more?"  Umm, can I beat you with a club?

Getting the bone set would probably have been more painful, but they put me under for that part.  (And, FYI, morphine is Amazing!  Best drug I've had yet.)

X-rays, post-setting:

Still not perfect, just better.

Hopefully tomorrow I go to see a Hand Surgeon and find out if and when I need surgery.  They might be able to set it better without pins, but I doubt it.  (The paramedic doubts it.  The E.R. doc doubts it.)

We'll keep you informed.

Miciah wanted pictures of my temporary splint:

The sling is one we had from Miciah's arm break last year.  That's why it says Children's on it.

And here are 2 pictures of my new, I-can-manage-it-with-one-hand haircut:

Ignore the hair on the back of my neck.

How about...

How about, instead of camping, I spend 4 hours in the Emergency Room?

Good plan, Tamra.  Operation Break My Wrist went into action.

I'll post x-rays tomorrow.  I assume I'll be less doped up by then.  Details will probably be sparse still.  Typing with one hand is not super efficient.

Good News!

Miciah's cast is off!! They took the pins out, and we have in our possession both the pins and the cast. Pretty cool. Elijah came upstairs a few hours later saying he'd broken his arm and showing me his cast. I can tell this is going to be a fun game.

Miciah's arm is stiff. She's been peeling off the dead skin all day. And in general, she's milking this for all she's worth. She convinced Rob that she should stay home from school today. Notice that I was ready to send her. She was playing a computer game and laughing and singing and I thought, "She's FINE." So I mentioned that I thought she was feeling well enough to go to school and immediately she winced and said, "Ow!" I rolled my eyes.

She has a bandage on her arm, since it was bleeding quite a bit where they'd taken out the pins. But we'll take the bandage off on Sunday morning and she can finally take a shower!! She's excited about that, and so am I. Sponge baths aren't much fun for the one giving them.

So hurray for Miciah! She goes back in 4 weeks to get another x-ray and just to make sure things are still healing well. The x-ray today showed lots of new bone growth, so that's fantastic.

It's crazy to think that she broke her arm just at the start of this month!

Miciah's New Cast

I don't have much time, so I'll get to the point (novel idea, eh?): Miciah has a new cast.

For a few days she'd been complaining that her cast was loose, but she couldn't pull her arm out of it or anything, so we just let it be. Then, yesterday, she came upstairs saying that she'd twisted her elbow inside the cast and that it had hurt. Okay, time to call the doctor.

So we took her in and she got her cast removed and a new cast put on. It's amazing how much smaller her arm is than the last time we saw it, when it was more than double its normal size. Her arm looked good, the incisions looked good, everything was good. Her cast is much smaller, and she's happy about that, cause it means that she can wear more shirts (getting the cast through the sleeve is the tricky part, but we've been able to use many of her shirts up to this point. Now we can use even more). Plus, they hooked her up with all the cool things that they can do with casts in the clinic but that they couldn't do during surgery. Check it out:

Normal Stuff

Update on Miciah

Miciah is doing SO MUCH better today. She's off the heavy pain meds and she's only had Tylenol once, at 10 a.m. Unless she asks specifically for it, we'll not give her any more until bed time. And all this means that SHE CAN GO BACK TO SCHOOL TOMORROW!! This is fantastic for her, cause she's obviously been bored today. You can only watch so many movies.

She has concerns about returning to school that I wouldn't have thought of. For instance, she said she needed to pack her lunch every day until her cast is off, cause how will she carry a tray? I told her someone could carry it for her. She said, "Who?" Umm, I don't know. But I think it would be taken care of. Another concern: What will she wear? Right now she's in Rob's shirt, since the arm hole has to be big enough to go over her cast. At the elbow the cast is HUGE. I told her that we'd try to find a shirt of hers that she can wear, and then, if we can't find one, we'll try to find one of MY shirts. Cause my shirts don't look ridiculously huge on her quite the same way that Rob's shirts do.We have an appointment on May 29th to get the pins out and the cast off. Don't tell Miciah, but that's actually closer to 4 weeks in a cast instead of 3. But who's counting.

Flying Pig Marathon

Pictures from Saturday morning, a few hours before Miciah broke her arm.
In front of the van, ready to go. I love that she chose to wear a skirt to a marathon!
Taking pictures in downtown Cincy.
Posing with her friend, Olivia, in front of the MHE sign. The school ran the marathon to honor Ms. Skukan, the gym teacher who was killed over Christmas break.
Taking pictures with the MHE team. Some 250 kids from the school participated in the Flying Pig.
With Ms. Lyons, her 1st Grade Teacher.
With Rob. Miciah's wearing the medal she got from the race. She was so excited that the medal is "real" (meaning, it's medal and not just play plastic).
Run, Miciah, run!!

Elijah

Elijah was playing on the computer last week. It was a game he's played a hundred times. Elijah is quite good at anything that resembles a video game, which totally shoots our "screen time" numbers when we fill out that question at the doctor's office. When they ask "How much screen time does your child get a week?" I try to roughly estimate and then I add in the margin, "Too much." Anyways, she was playing a computer game when all of the sudden he said, "This game will only work if I speak Spanish." I looked at him with a puzzled look on my face. We don't have games that are THAT advanced. And it wasn't even like it was a Dora game that incorporated Spanish. It was just a normal, lame, English game.

I told him the game didn't really require him to speak Spanish. He looked at me like I was being terribly silly. I shrugged and walked away. From the other room I heard him shouting his "Spanish" words: "Olag!" and "Santos!" I just giggled.

Teancom

The boys have both been a little nuts, since their schedules were so interrupted. Teancom has been a little clingy, and on top of that he's been acting up a little. This is unusual for him, but it hasn't been out of control, so that's good. He has informed me several times yesterday and today that he doesn't love me. Not only does Teancom not love me, the only one who loves me at all is Cleo, our cat.

Teancom is pretty fickle with his love. He'll walk into the room at random, after telling me for the last hour that he doesn't love me, and say, "I love you now." How does one keep track of such a swiftly-moving on-again-off-again relationship?

Life

That's life here. During this whole affair with Miciah, people have taken care of us better than we deserve, and we're very grateful. It's humbling to so quickly be at the mercy of everyone's kindness and service. Reminds me of a quote from a genius Sunday School teacher from a few years back: "We all live on the milk of human kindness." There are lots of times when I feel like I'm living fine all on my own, thank you. And it is a source of some pride that Rob and I try very hard to take care of our own needs, and mostly we succeed. It's just every now and then that we really need other people. And it really does remind me that no matter how hard you try, no matter how well you're prepared, there will be times when you need others. And it lets me know that we're not alone.

Casting Call

I've been telling Miciah that there are TONS of kids that break their arms or legs. She felt comforted by that, and it gave me an idea. I want to gather some pictures of people in casts, so she can see how normal it is to break a bone.

So, if you have a picture of yourself or your kids in a cast, please send them my way. X-ray pictures will work, too.

tamrathacker@gmail.com

Give Me a Break!, part 2

(My lily of the valleys and lilacs are blooming at the same time! Just wanted to throw that in here.)

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.

Give Me a Break!

Today was set up to be a typical busy but nice Saturday, with a few perks built in: Miciah ran the last mile of the Flying Pig Kids' Marathon in the morning; we were planting flowers in the afternoon; and I was invited to a luncheon with some girlfriends of mine, including a friend from out of town that I haven't seen in months.

The Flying Pig went well. Rob went with Miciah (while I slept in with the boys). Miciah met up with a friend from her soccer team and they ran the mile together. When they got home, Miciah was excited to show me her poster from the race. Very cool.

Then Rob and I planted flowers. We let the kids help us pick the spots for the flowers they'd picked out, and they helped us water them in. Super relaxing and fun--a perfect Saturday activity.

And then on to the girlfriend luncheon at Panera, my favorite restaurant. I was a few bites into my soup and salad when the phone rang. It was Rob with this line: "I think Miciah broke her arm." My response: "Come again?" So, while my friends were chitchatting and eating yummy food, I was helping Rob come up with a plan of action. Okay, plan is to drop the kids off with neighbors and then I will come home as soon as I am done eating and Rob can be with Miciah at the hospital while I am at home with the boys. No problem. I continued eating.

Rob called again. Problem: I have the insurance card in my purse. New plan: I will finish eating (hey, I had JUST STARTED EATING when he called. And it's not like it was a hamburger or something that I could just eat in the car on the way. Plus it's Panera. Must finish eating), then hop in the car and meet them at the hospital, and THEN go home and be with the boys. Good plan.

As I was leaving, my friend, Nicole, who is also my Visiting Teacher, said, "Hey, I'm your Visiting Teacher, what can I do for you?" What luck, eh?, to have my Visiting Teacher there. She offered to go pick up the boys and take them to her house for the day. I told her that I wouldn't rush at the hospital, then. THAT is an even better plan.

Okay. So I got to the hospital and they took me right back to Rob and Miciah in a trauma room. She hadn't gotten any drugs yet, so her eyes were full of pain. And her arm. Her arm was at least double, if not triple the normal size. ... I'm a wimp. I had to sit down. Repeatedly. Arms should not look like that. Good thing Rob was there to be the strong one.

So how did she break her arm? The neighbor boy, Tyler, challenged her to jump off the swings. Now these aren't like industrial playground swings. They're our backyard swings on our rink-a-dink swingset. She jumped and landed on her elbow (left arm). Rob said there was a hard bulge just above the elbow (at first. You couldn't see the bulge later, cause it was so swollen that the whole ARM was that big) and Miciah screamed if he touched it. ... Usually we're the "shake it off" type of parents, but not with this one. Rob knew it was either broken or dislocated, and he was betting it was just dislocated.

The X-ray showed it was not just dislocated but completely 100% broken through. Like so:
That bone is supposed to be straight.

So they came back to us and said that not only was it broken, it was the worst break it could be (a 3 on a 3 grade scale), and she'd need surgery. Now I may be stupid, but I wasn't aware they did surgery for arm breaks. Seriously. The nurse said, "You guys will probably want to prepare for an extended stay. Probably overnight." Overnight?! For a broken arm?

Luckily my Visiting Teacher is VERY nice, and she not only watched the boys until 9:30 tonight, but she's also taking them as long as we need tomorrow. I owe her cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.

Anyways, the surgery was tentatively scheduled for tonight at about 8 p.m. It had to be so late because Miciah ate lunch around noon. They can't put you under until a while after you've eaten. Figures, right? ... The surgery didn't happen, though, because another kid came in with a more serious trauma, and he got first dibs. They said Miciah MIGHT be able to get in tonight, but it would be late, and if they just decided on tomorrow morning, then she could eat dinner tonight. She was happy about dinner.

Miciah kind of wigged out when they first started talking about the surgery and the cast they'll put on her. "I don't want a cast!" and "I don't want surgery!" The nurse said, "No one WANTS surgery." Good answer, but Miciah was still freaking out. So before they put on the temporary splint, they were sure to give her another good dose of "happy drugs". Lots of morphine, I imagine, and some other things as well. Miciah started saying, "I feel like I'm floating. And the walls are kind of swirly." Which is when the doctor said, "That means it's time to put on your splint." And that's why people voluntarily take morphine.

I missed a lot of this because I had to run home again to grab overnight stuff for Rob and Miciah. So Rob is camping out on a hospital couch bed, and I'm at home with the boys, about ready to crash myself. We're all exhausted (I've said it before, but I'm saying it again: it's amazing how tiring it is to wait in a hospital room).

Hopefully tomorrow goes well and Miciah will come home in the afternoon. That's what they initially told us, but who knows, I guess. I think, with as dramatic as Miciah can get, that it's going to be an interesting few weeks.