Another First Part Two

So, on Monday I took Thomas to Dr. Patel for his two-week follow-up.  It was a good thing our Doc scheduled the follow-up, because the x-ray showed that not only had the fracture not progressed in healing, it was actually now a pretty significant break.  With bad angles.  Something a mother should not see an x-ray of when it involves one of her child's bones.

And, just how does one manage to break their arm when it's in a cast?  You got me.  J, our nurse friend, is an x-ray tech, and she say she sees this in her job.  The cast is put on when there is swelling, the swelling goes down, and there's wiggle room.  Enough to rebreak.  I suspect Guitar Hero is to blame.

So, here we are at the surgery center, and Thomas is being prepped for surgery to realighn the bone and pin it in place so it will heal correctly.  Another thing no mother wants to see her child go through.  But, the staff is great here, very patient, good about explaining what their doing and what to expect.  Thomas is anxious but calm.

Here's what the cast (the failure!) looked like by the time it was ready to come off.

Here's the nice nurse taking a saw to my child's arm to get the cast off.  A little nerve-wracking.

After the cast came off, it was time for a pedicure.  No, actually, since the hand had not been washed in a couple of weeks (have to keep the cast dry), a bit of gentle scrubbing was in order.

Nope, this is not what a normal wrist is supposed to look like.

All prepped and ready to go into surgery.

And, not so happy coming out of the anasthesia...

The arm was wrapped up in a fixed splint, which is to remain in place until our follow-up visit.  This is good, because it means I won't have to do any wound care (one of my least-favorite things to do).  The Doc did not need to put permanent pins in, but put two wires through the bone to hold it in place while it heals. And, yes, he did need to "remove some healed material" while he was in there, a delicate way of saying he had to rebreak it and dig out some new bone.  Bless Dr. Patel's sensitive soul.

So, the splint will remain in place for a couple of weeks, when we will get it x-rayed again to be sure the arm is healing properly.  In the meantime, a couple days of rest is in order.

Another First

Today we celebrated another Family First.  A broken arm.  Let's hope it's the last

Actually, Thomas fractured his left wrist during our homeschool group's Park Day on Thursday.  Running up the short climbing wall, he slipped and landed on the metal platform on his left arm (his right was apparently gripping a sword or battle axe or some such).  His buddy came and got me, and by the time I got to him he'd been laying very still in pain for a few minutes.  He was unable to sit up for a few minutes more, and by that time our friend, J, the nurse, had come over as well.  She checked him out and rendered her opinion: it could be broken, or it could just be bruised.  We opted to take him home, ice it, keep it elevated, and see how it looked the next day. 

The next day it looked better; the swelling had gone down, and it was not as painful.  He decided he did not want to miss out on his buddy's overnight birthday celebration, so I took him.

The day after that, he and his friend auditioned at our local theatre for an upcoming production.  After the autiditon, Thomas decided it was time to see a doctor and get the arm checked.  Our local Doc-In-The-Box took an x-ray and confirmed it was fractured.  Nice and clean.  No rush, but we'd need to get him to a Pediatric Orthopaedist on Monday (it was Saturday).

So, here we are at the Ortho office.  After another x-ray confirming a nice, clean fracture (no jiggling required), and the PA popped on a cast faster than I could have imagined possible.  Green, of course, just like a creeper.

Ready to head home, obviously not a lot of pain.  But hungry.  Of course.

I was given the honor of being the first to sign his cast. 

For those not familiar with Mine Craft, that's a creeper face...

So, to weeks in a cast, and then back to the Ortho for a recheck.



Pumpkin Joy

We were gifted a Very Large Pumpkin at Christmastime (unfortunately not before David had baked his Christmas pies partially using canned pack because we couldn't find pie pumpkins). Now that the hustle and the bustle is done and we've just about recovered from the holidays, we got around to processing our VLP. Results: enough fresh (to be frozen) pumpkin guts for fourteen deep dish pies. Pie all year long!

Project Le Pew

Our primary project today was malodorous.  I stayed inside.  Can you guess what these guys are digging up in our back yard?

I'll give you a hint... this was the motto on the side of their truck.  The truck featured a pump and high-pressure hose.

And, yep, here it is.  The malbehaving object.  Our septic tank.  (Aren't you glad I waited until it was cleaned out before I had the picture snapped (by Thomas)?).

Apparently, methane (which septic tanks hold quite a bit of) over time breaks down the concrete that parts of the tank are made of.  (Isn't that thinking ahead?).  So, the "T" on our particular tank had pretty much completely fallen apart, so it was not draining properly into the leach field.  So it was creating a bit of a marsh in the back yard.  (Ick).  So after about three hours and $1,800 later, this is what our newly repaired septic system looked like.

Can't hardly tell there's an $1,800 hole under that newly leveled dirt, can you?  However, it did inspire Michael to dig out the Tonka's and work on his how little project.  In the leachy mud.  (Ick).