Another Pink Cast!

If you all remember, before I left I told you that our puppy broke all four of her toes jumping into her pink bed...well..without further adieu - here's the pictures of the new pink cast! It's been a couple weeks now and she gets around really well on it. She's scheduled to have it on for 6 weeks..so..2 down..4 to go!

Kylie Broken Arm - Final Updates!

Hello All - if you've been following this saga, you will know that my daughter, Kylie, broke her arm over Easter weekend. I've posted up the pictures of her in her cute little pink cast. Well, this is the final, hopefully, update!

We took her back in to the orthopedic surgeon today. Her arm has healed completely and the bone looks great. They've removed the cast and we don't need to go back for any follow-ups. Her little arm is red and has some bumps from the moisture that built up, and her skin is flaky and dried up, but otherwise it looks great.

She was a bit tender and had a little trouble straightening out her arm since she had it casted in a 90 degree angle for the past 6 weeks. However, she has since come on strong! It's almost as if she never had that cast on. She's already giving her mom a heart-attack! She's only had the cast off for about 6 hours now and she has already dumped the dog's water dish and subsequently slipped and fell in the water. She has already removed the cushions from the couch and jumped on it like a mini-trampoline ~ thankfully, mommy got to her before she was able to fall. Her brother has already figured out that her cast is off, meaning she's much better, so he's back to torturing her and pushing her down.

Things are all back to it's normal chaos in this house!

Kylie Broken Arm Update 2!

Well...we finally went out and bought a new camera last weekend. I can actually share some now! Whoopie! So..here's the update..with pictures! We took Kylie for her 3 week check-up. They did an x-ray...and it looks like everything is healing up just fine. Her bones are in a nice straight line. So without further adieu..here are the update pictures:


I'm not exactly sure what she is doing here other than just hammin' it up for the camera..but...you can see her new spiffy pink cast there. It's pretty cool...it's waterproof. She can play in the bathtub now!


Here's a better look at it. Also..she's sitting on the step that we believe she hit when she fell that actually caused her arm to break. She was standing on the 3d step (right behind her head) when she fell.


One last picture here. She's just sitting at the foot of the steps..not real sure what she's focused on there. If you look behind her, you can see how our stairs widen and flair out at the bottom. It's for this reason we aren't able to put a gate up at the foot of those stairs. We can't actually place a gate on the stairs until the 5th step..that's where there is finally a banister.

When we bought this house, our older kids were...well...older. We weren't thinking about having other children and weren't thinking about any safety issues related to those types of stairs. We kick ourselves every day wishing we had a different kind of stairs or that we hadn't actually bought this house.

Anyway, she goes back in 3 weeks for her final check up. If everything is okay..the cast comes off. I'll post those pictures then!

Quickie Update on Kylie

Okay..so..I don't have the pity pictures up yet. Have a problem with the digital camera. We think its broke. Can't download any pictures cuz we cant get it turned on. In any case, Kylie had her surgery last Thursday. She didn't need to have her arm pinned! Yay! Took her back for a follow up this past Monday. Everything is lined up perfectly..0% deviation! She has a pink cast now. I promise..as soon as I can..I will get those pictures uploaded!

Cheers!

Kylie Broken Arm Update!

That's my little darling to the left there. I'll put up the "pity pictures" tomorrow showing off her little splint and sling. Well..she did very well today considering!

Our day started off at 4:45am. We had to be at the hospital by 7:00am. We live that far away! We also had to drop of my 4 yr old, Ryan, at the pre-school by 6:00am. Everything started off okay --- everyone was just very droopy eyed. We got Ryan off to the school okay and battled traffic all the way down..but we got there in time.

We got into registration and signed in at 7:00. We were done there by 7:25 and the triage nurse took us back by 7:30. A Nurse Practitioner came in and did an assessment, took vitals, and explained the process a little more. We were done in there and moved to a holding area by 8:00. At 8:30 the Anesthesiologist, Nurse Anesthetist, and the Dr. came to explain everything to us. Did you know that along every step of the way they keep verifying everything? We must have been asked her full name, her birthdate, and what procedure she was having done at least 10 times. I asked the Dr. about this..especially the part about everyone asking what she was having done. He says they all know what is being done...they just want to make sure we know and that it is part of the verification checks and balances. Then he wrote his initials in blue marker on her left arm indicating this is the arm he was to be working on.

They all left and the OR nurse came in right behind them. I carried her out the door while they rolled the gurney. At the door I handed her over to mommy so she could get some hugs and kisses. Mommy handed her over to the OR nurse and she immediately began screaming. We heard her the entire time we were walking down to the post-op waiting area. This was at about 8:45. The receptionist in the post-op waiting area directed us to another private waiting room where she said the Dr. would come and talk to us after everything was over. We got in the waiting room, turned on the private TV, and I opened up my school books. I comforted Mary..pretty much going..."yes" "mmhmm" "sure" "its going to be okay" and all the other things hubbies say to their wives when they aren't really paying that much attention. I was trying to study. I read about three pages when the physician came in and set everything was done. I think that had only been about 15 minutes. He said what took the longest was the anesthesia and making sure she was out. He said the "snapped" the bone back in place, checked to make sure it was stable, then wrapped her up arm up. I think he spent more time explaining everything to us than the amount of time it took to fix her up. We were especially relieved to find out they didn't need to put a pin in her arm.

So..to make a long story short...she was fine, the surgery was fine, I was fine, my wife was still a nutcase (as mommies are in these situations)...we went and got a bite while she was coming out of the anesthesia, came back, sat with her for about an hour for them to make sure she was eating and drinking and then we left. That was at 11:00. So..all told, we were only there for 4 hours. Kylie has been doing fine all day..except for doing that toddler thing..you know..falling down and bumping into things.

Let's see, she bent over to pick up a DVD case she dropped, and fell into the entertainment center...she now has a little square shaped scratch on her cheek.
She was running out of the kitchen and tripped...she now has a fat lip from where she bit it.
Her brother was swinging some beads around (of which we kept telling him to stop) and she walked right into them...she now has little circles on her forehead where she got hit.

She's supposed to go back on Monday to see the Ortho for a follow-up assessment and then they will put the waterproof fiberglass cast on once the swelling has gone down. The problem is making sure she doesn't kill herself before we get there on Monday and making sure mommy doesn't have a complete meltdown trying to protect her!

It's definitely broken!

Well...we took our daughter Kylie to see the pediatric orthopedic today. Her arm is most definitely broken..poor thing. I saw the x-ray. Her ulnar bone is snapped in half. The ends are pointing up and touching, much like the tip of a triangle. Man, that has got to be painful for her. Good thing she's on that tylenol with codeine stuff..considering the way mom has been handling this whole thing...I think she needs to take some too!

Well..on the way down to the ortho (it was about 1 hour away) the wife and I got into a discussion about everything. We're both pretty stressed about this. Other than my daugher breaking her arm, we were supposed to leave on Wednesday to New York. My wife is supposed to be a bride's maid in her friend's wedding. That obviously is not happening now. Just some quick background...Mary is a stay-at-home mom. She takes on the entire household! So..while we were driving down to the ortho, we were discussing everything, the stress we're under, etc etc. Well, after she rattled off a few things from her list of things to do..I said, well..you can do it..after all, you are supermom! To which she replied..I don't have a cape. The peanut gallery in the back spoke up..and only as a 4 year old could..said "Or the suit!"

Okay..so..he provided a little levity to the whole situation..for the moment. Once we got down to the ortho office..Ryan became the hyperactive 4 year old that we know him to be. Good thing there was no one in that waiting room..he was running, screaming, climbing over all the chairs, teasing his sister..you name it. Sure, we kept trying to correct him. It got to the point where I had to hold him on my lap..which only made him scream some more. I finally spotted the kids books on a table way on the other end of the room. He agreed to let me read some to him. Well...good thing we were in a doctor's office. Remember in the previous post I mentioned that along with my wife..both of my kids are very accident prone. He was sitting on his knees in the chair next to me as I read the book to him. I don't know what got into him...for whatever reason...he just fell off the chair. Face first. Right onto the floor. Well..that caused him to let out a blood curdling scream! My wife, who is already in tatters over my daughter..who was trying to complete the pre-appointment paperwork (must have been about 10 pages worth!)..looked at me and said.."What the F...k?" Which definitely got my attention! She tossed the paperwork on the floor in order to get to my son. I was already there..picking him up in my arms. She assessed the situation..saw the blood coming out of his mouth, took him...no, yanked him from my arms, hugged him some more and demanded that I finish the paperwork. Good thing he only bit his lip..and the lady at the front desk brought out lots of paper towels and some ice.

I don't know..maybe I need to get someone into my house and cover everything with bubble-wrap...and make sure they leave enough for me to wrap up the kids too in case they want to go somewhere outside of the house! Okay..so..back to Kylie. We were given 3 options...1. He could put a splint on now and "mold" it to see if he can work the bone back in, 2. Sedation at a later date with a closed reduction, or 3. Sedation at a later date with a pin. (Actually, he presented it as a 3d option but in reality he says he'll do that as a follow up to option 2 if option 2 did not stabilize the bone.) We took option 1. He molded, she screamed, Mary cried (BTW - Kylie is on Mary's lap, while in the meantime I'm trying to keep Ryan from poking my eye out with some stupid Nemo spinning flashlight thingy). They took an x-ray after option 1...it failed. Kylie is scheduled for sedation and closed reduction this coming Thursday. I'll tell you about my hassles with Hotwire later and trying to get a refund. In the meantime...I'll update everyone on Kylie on Thursday.