Good As New...

Today, I took Alexander to get his cast off. I was dreading this. I thought for sure the poor kid would be traumatized, fighting, screaming, kicking, and just overall miserable. I didn't tell him we were getting the cast off until last night, right before bed. He was very excited! During story time, he would point to his arm and say "off cast" so he understood and seemed to be game

for it!

This morning, he was 50/50. If I asked if he wanted his cast off, sometimes I would get "off Momma" and other times I would get a "nooooo" with a pout. We headed out for our appointment. Alexander was fine the entire drive to the doctor's office, until I parked the car. Then he looked at me with the most saddest face. He looked terrified. My Mommy-heart ached again. I thought he was going to break down in tears, but he just kept saying 'off' and pouting. He wanted me to hold him as he walked over rather than walking himself and most times he actually put his head on my shoulder. He seemed either really scared or sad...poor little guy.

Once in the waiting room, he just snuggled on my shoulder until an older gentlemen (another patient) made him smile. Then he was okay to sit on my laugh and babble with the man. When it was our time to go in, the assistant, (a nice younger woman) escorted us in and Alexander walked right in. She pointed us to the room and in Alexander went without issue. She told us, she'd be right back and closed the door. That's when Alexander got a bit nervous - he wanted to snuggle again and was leaning on my shoulder repeating "mamma". When she came back in, she had us sit on the table and explained that the machine was noisy just like a vacuum cleaner and he got all excited!

From this point on, my stomach flipped because she explained to me that she was going to use this machine to saw it off and I had no idea how Alexander would react. But, as it turns out, I worried for absolutely nothing. He sat on my lap, content and quiet the whole time. Turns out this was the EASIEST thing I had done in the last 2 1/2 weeks!

She turned on the machine and he just watched. He moved his arm when she asked, he opened his fingers when she asked. He was fantastic! The assistant was so good. She kept telling him how great he was doing and she was also telling him what she was going to do to prepare him. He held Monkey in his other hand and at one point wanted me to face monkey so monkey could see. He was so entralled by the machine and what she was doing that he didn't freak out once! It was incredible. Once she was done, she asked him if he wanted to keep it and he said yes (which I thought was funny). So after she sawed it off, she cleaned out the insides and gave it to him. He was so excited! He let me sit him on the table to take a few pictures of him holding his cast.

She finished up and told us the doctor would be in to check his arm. Outside, I heard the doctor ask her how it went and she said "best possible scenario - he was great, not one peep" and the doctor replied "hmm interesting". Dr O walked in and asked how he adapted to the cast, etc. He did a check of his arm and said everything feels fine. He gave us instructions and more from a full service perspective, he scheduled us to come back in about 2 weeks just to make sure everything is fine.

Dr. O said to let him be a 2 year old. Alexander will still favor the arm for a bit but not get too worried about. He also said his arm might be itchy so do a light luke-warm wash with gentle lotion but not a lot. Overall, things look good.

After the doctor, we went to Target for a hot dog & milk to celebrate. And he was even starting to use both arms, even if it was a little bit...then we went home, read some books, took a nap and then... we HAD A BATH!! It was so nice to give him a proper bath and clean him! He played a bit but then I gave him a good washing of all of the crevices! Then after the bath, he even let him cut his nails as he relaxed with some milk & crackers - all in all a very productive day!

First serious trip to the ER - check. First major accident - check. First cast - check! We can say that's done with now...

And here's Alexander's cast but without Alexander actually in it.

One More Day...

Tomorrow, Alexander will get his cast off!

WHOOO HOOOO!

Let's hope this had no affect on him whatsoever and he can go back to using both arms/hands without hesitation!

Story of the Boo-Boo...

Finally the story of the boo-boo...

Tuesday morning, a little after 10am. I'm sitting in a conference room waiting for a meeting to start and my cell rings showing Alexander's school. Speaking to Jenn (one of the directors), who has called to tell me that Alexander fell and that he's still really upset. She explains there's no blood but he won't calm down no matter what they try, he won't let anyone hold him, and he screams if you try to touch his arm. She explained what happened that they were getting the kids ready to go outside to play and Alexander refused to put on his hat. Ms Sarah was trying to put it on and he pulled away and then he took a dive, a la Superman, and landed on the floor on his right side. Ms Sarah thought it was his head he hurt because of the sound when he hit the floor.

I calmly drive to school, thankfully school is only a mile away from my work. I think I expected him to calm down soon after but he wanted no part of it. He was afraid to be picked up and he screeched in pain if you tried to touch his arm/shoulder. He didn't even want to move to another spot - he just wanted to stand right where he was in the office. After about 40 minutes, I was finally able to pick him (using his buttcheeks) and get him into the car. He cried but couldn't fight all that much so it wasn't that painful. I called our doctor and they said I could bring him in for noon which meant I now had an hour to kill. I decided to bring him to Panera for a PB&J sandwich since he would probably miss lunch. I had to put his t-shirt back on and he SCREECHED when I put it on (this made me very sad). He stopped crying once in Panera and he sat in the booth, quiet, but didn't want to eat his sandwich. I had a book with me and he was able to tell me colors and how old he was so I felt he probably didn't have a concussion plus his eyes were not glassy and he was pretty coherent.

Finally in the doctor office, Alexander is crying again. Dr D is checking him out and doesn't feel anything broken or out of place. She tries the nursemaid's elbow remedy a couple of times in case his elbow popped out of joint and although he screamed when she did this, nothing major. She tells us that we should go to the ER to get x-rays to confirm that nothing is broken. We head down the street to N-W hospital and I fully expected to wait HOURS.

This is Alexander in the ER on Tuesday waiting to be called in. He was such a good boy, and while sitting here was one of the few times he wasn't crying. Getting the x-rays were just as painful for Mommy because he's crying, upset and saying "Mommy" but you have to let him lie there for the x-rays. We were there for a total of 2 1/2 hours - this includes registeration, triage, nurse getting vitals, billing, being seeing by the Pediatric nurse, x-rays, and finally being examined by the doctor. Even at one point, the nurse came into our triage room to see if Dan or I wanted something to eat or drink. I was impressed as I didn't remember the ER being like this when I was little.

After x-rays and examination, it was determined that he had a contussion and to keep an eye on it. If it didn't get better to call the doctor. Fast forward to Friday morning, and there is no improvement on the arm. He's using it maybe 10% of the time, he screams when you have to lay him down as if it hurts, and you can't pick him up under his armpit. So I called the doctor and they told us to come in right away and that we would probably be spending the afternoon at the orthopedic.

For the record, Alexander still appears to be afraid of Dr. M. As soon as he saw the doctor building, he started crying. Once inside he cried but nothing severe however once he saw Dr. M it was blood-curdling screams. Dr. M did a full upper body exam and could not find broken bones, resistance, or a different type of cry if he pushed on something new. He referred us to an orthopedic at the local hospital. Here we go for an afternoon of x-rays and back/forth!

We register at the hospital and Alexander's in a pretty decent mood. We go for radiology and they tell us to go to the dr. office since we just had x-rays on Tuesday and Dr. O can pull those up. We head upstairs, and wait a bit. Dr. O asks us to take off his shirt and just looks at him. He does a minor exam of the arm and tells us to go downstairs for x-rays. And thus began the process...we head back downstairs. I left the poor kid's shirt off because I wasn't going to take it on/off all afternoon. However while waiting to be called for x-rays, Alexander was showing off his new skills of drinking from a cup with no lid!
Back in radiology and I go in with Alexander for the x-rays. He knew as soon as we walked into the room what was going to happen and he screamed. He kept wiggling so we had to take more than expected. And he was very unhappy every time we had to position him. Once done the technicians who were super sweet brought him stickers which he decided to put them all over. We headed back upstairs to Dr. O, who told us, once back upstairs, that we needed to go back down and take more because he needed to see more but that we should expect to put a cast on him to stabilize the injury.

My stomach dropped. This poor kid.

Back downstairs. By now, we were all getting tired. I go back into the x-ray room and Alexander is miserable. We had a different tech and she was not as nice. She kept trying to move him and I would tell her that it hurts to move his neck or shoulder that way. I wanted to pop her one. We took several more x-rays and finally got the views they wanted. The mean tech lady was so much nicer when we were done and gave him his own bag of goldfish. So I thanked her for her help, understanding that she was probably just doing her job. I still wasn't that happy with her bed-side manner.

Now in Dr. O's room, he comes in and says he doesn't know what's wrong but we'll put on a cast for two weeks. He had no idea but it would help protect the injury and give him more mobility than he was giving himself.

Frank, another technician, comes in to ask what color cast we wanted. I figure blue would be appropriate for a little boy. It took 10 minutes to put on the cast but it was a very long 10 minutes because I had to hold onto him quite tightly because he wanted to leap from the table. He put the sock on, then some bandages, then put the blue bandage that hardened into the cast. It was pretty remarkable as to how fast it went on and how hard it gets so quickly. Two weeks, no water...let's see how this goes.This is Alexander right after Frank put the cast on and we put his shirt back on. This was a brand new shirt that we had to cut the sleeve to get it on. Figures!! He was okay once on the ground, but then when Frank put the sling on he FREAKED out. He kept freaking out until we took the sling off once outside the doctor's office. And as soon as the sling came off, he stopped crying and said "bye bye doctor". It was comical!!And here is a picture of Alexander showing his cast and just how cute he looks...