SchlegelRock

I’ve got a little video here of what Truman was up to before he got his cast off last week.  He was doing full heel over head flips on our couch.  That goes to show how good was feeling.  His arm wasn’t hurting at all and he was running full steam ahead.  I think I scared him a little though about playing too hard at the park because he would hold back when we went outside to play but he didn’t care what the consequences were when we were in the house.

Truman got his cast off last Wednesday.  He’s still holding it in the same position that the cast held it in and will probably be doing that for a while.  It just takes some time to get the range of motion back.  It doesn’t hurt him as long as he keeps it bent.  He was doing flips over the couch this morning though so it’s obviously not bugging him too much.

Right when he got the cast off his arm was disgusting.  Dead skin everywhere so the nurse took us into a room and I asked her if I could wash it off and she gave me little alcohol squares.  So I was sitting with his arm in the sink washing off  his arm because he said the skin was itching him.  The doctor walks in the room and says, “Please don’t do that.  His skin is so sensitive right now you’re going to give him a rash.”  Well thanks, nurse for giving me the wipes.  The doctor said to just bathe him and apply lots of lotion and the skin will take care of itself.  Good to know after the fact.  And sure enough, I gave Truman a rash on his poor sensitive arm.  Live and learn.  I think I apologized to Truman like 100 times.  I felt so bad.

Tru goes back to see Dr. Garg in about 2 weeks to check his range of motion.  I have full confidence in Truman’s ability to adapt that he will be perfectly fine by then.  If not, we do physical therapy.  I can think of worse things.  As of now the bone is healed and he’s running around like any 6 year old should.  Well, with a bent arm.  But that’s not stopping him.

Warning:  This is a little gross but really not that bad.

I took Tru to the Dr’s today to get a his pins taken out and a new cast put on.  It was really interesting.  I learned that to put the pins into his arms they put the straight pins into a drill and while watching a live x-ray they drill the pins through the bones.  Then when they are placed they bend the ends so they can wrap them up.  Didn’t know that before.

I also learned that bones have no nerve endings.  Or so says the Ortho Tech that took the pins out.  The part that hurts the most when removing pins is pulling off the scab on the outside of the pins.  All I know is Truman laid perfectly calm and still while the guy twisted and pulled out the pins.

I felt so bad for the Tech because he said some people are so scared and grossed out that they scream and pull away from him which only makes the process painful and worse.  He was genuinely relieved and grateful that Tru was so calm for him.  I am too.  I really enjoyed watching the process and I wouldn’t have been able to do that if Tru was thrashing around.

As you can see Tru got a green cast with glitter stuck all over it.  I don’t think we are ever going to let the kids get glitter again because it is falling off all over the house.  I can’t wait to see what his bed looks like tomorrow morning.

Dr. Garg says Truman is healing really quickly so in two weeks we’ll probably get the cast off for good.  Well, at least until the next time, right?  He can’t do PE but he can play at recess like a normal kid so I am really happy about that.  He’s going to have a great time.

I’m wondering, what color casts have you had?

Can you tell he’s thrilled I made him take this picture?  Sorry I didn’t post this Monday but things have been pretty crazy here.  Here’s the haps.  Scott broke the wrist bone that sits directly behind the thumb.  There’s a chip taken out of it and what looks like a prior injury in the exact same spot as well.  The deal with this bone is that while most bones have blood flowing into them, this bone has blood flowing out of it so it takes longer to heal.  Of course it does.

Scott has his current cast on for four weeks and then they x-ray it again and if a miracle happens he’ll be done, but he’ll probably have to have another cast put on for an unknown period of time up to 12 weeks.  That’s right, I said twelve weeks.  Apparently that blood thing is a really big deal.  We are praying people so we’re going to pray for four weeks and hope for the best.

Scott was back at work Monday for a half day and back yesterday for a full day.  He’s supposed to be taking half a day off for the next week or so but you know Scott.  He’s go, go, go.  The pain is gone though and with the half cast it makes life so much easier.  He just has to get used to typing with his left arm bent at an awkward angle.

Thanks for all your concern and well wishes for both of our broken boys hopefully this will be the last broken bone this Summer.  Or ever, maybe.  But what are the chances of that happening?

Apparently Scott couldn’t handle Truman getting all the attention so he went and broke his wrist Friday night.  He was mountain biking at Saratoga Gap and took a nasty tumble.  The whole left side of his body is pretty badly scraped, cut and bruised.

Right now he is just in a splint until later today when he goes to the Orthopedic department today to see what they want to do with him.  I guess that’s what the ER does.  Splint it up and make an appointment with Orthopedics during the week.  Makes me feel really fortunate that Truman got seen so quickly.

So the funniest thing (and tragic) happened when the nurse in the ER asked Scott if he wanted some pain meds.  Being Scott he made some kind of joke about it which put her on high alert that he was a druggie just there to get pills.  So they gave him one pill while he was there but wouldn’t send him home with any.  That’s the funny part, the tragic part is that he has been in quite a bit of pain and regular old Tylenol is not cutting it.  So I don’t care how funny you are don’t joke around about addictive substances in the hospital.  No pretend bomb threats at the airport, no joking around about pain killers at the ER.

I’ll let you know what the doc says when we get more information.  The ER doc said it could be minor and he’ll be left in a splint or they could do surgery and put pins in.  She didn’t know.  Our modest opinion is that he’ll just need a cast.  But what do we know?

I’ve got pictures of the x-rays they took yesterday of Tru’s elbow.  I put them at the bottom of the post so you don’t have to see them if you don’t want to.  You can see if you look very carefully at the first one where the break goes clean through the bone.  The pins are the only thing besides the tendon holding in in place.  You’re lucky because I tried to take a picture of the pins sticking out of his arm when they took the splint off but for legal reasons you’re not allowed to take pictures in there.  It was weird looking.

I don’t know what is going on but we had another almost flawless experience at Kaiser yesterday.  I didn’t have Truman’s card but the receptionist very happily looked up his name and got us on our way.  I had brought my DS Lite to play Super Mario Bros while Truman watched and we waited but we didn’t wait more than 5 minutes the whole day.  From the cast room to the x-ray room to the Dr’s office.  Seriously, we practically walked in each time.

I was cracking up and getting frustrated though because the x-ray tech had such a thick accent that Tru couldn’t understand a word he said.  It was so funny to watch Tru’s face as the man told him to hold his arm up straight but Tru just didn’t get it so the man would repeat it over and over again.  Hilarious.  Of course I didn’t step in and help that would have been too nice of me and the job got done in the end.

I don’t know if I should even mention this but you know when you see pedophiles and sexual offenders on TV they all kind of have the same look?  Well our poor cast tech had that look and I feel so bad even saying it but it creeped me out a little bit.  I didn’t treat him poorly or insist he not touch or talk to my son but I felt bad for him that he had that face and look about him but was probably the nicest guy.  He was really great with Truman.

I can’t give enough praises to our Dr.  She practically bent over backwards when Truman needed to go to the bathroom.  I kept telling her he could wait until after the appointment but she just stopped at one point and led us to the bathroom because she didn’t want to keep him waiting.  It was incredible.  He wasn’t even dancing.

So Truman got a glow in the dark cast again and he’ll have in on for three weeks until they take the pins out then another two weeks after that.  I remember trying to take a picture of the cast glowing last time and it did not work out so I’m not going to try again this time.  Same camera, same results, I’m sure.

Truman had one rough night where his arm hurt so bad he couldn’t sleep but he’s been really great since then.  It’s hard for me not to just let him play with the other kids like normal but this break was so bad and he’s got pins in there so we’re going to make him take some time off of the playground.  I know, it breaks my heart too but as the doctor told us a couple of times if this doesn’t heal correctly he could completely loose the use of his arm.  That’s too scary for me to even think about.

OK, enough with the long post already.  Tru is doing great and we’ll keep you posted on his progress.

Tru was gliding across a small “zip line” at the park and fell off and landed on his left arm in the sand and broke his arm.  Hmm, you’re saying.  Didn’t Truman break his left arm at the elbow last Fall?  Yes he did.  Same arm but the break is a little further up and it’s clean through this time.  From what I understand the bone is currently being held on by the tendon that runs down it.

Scott took him to the Emergency Room yesterday around 2pm and called me with word that Tru needed surgery around 4pm.  My mom came over and watched the kids so I could go over and sit with Tru and Scott while we waited for the surgery.  Truman was asleep when I got to the hospital so Scott and I got a chance to talk about what was happening.

I can not tell you how wonderful our experience at Kaiser was.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, was incredibly nice.  Sure the process took a long time but no one was curt or grumpy or at all annoyed with us even though Truman’s surgery was the last of the day and after hours.  That means people had to stay late to fix up our little boy.  I love Kaiser and have never had a bad experience with them but this one tops them all.

Truman went into surgery around 7pm and came out close to 9pm.  The Schlegel’s were there to sit with us. They put 3 pins in his arm to keep the bone in place.  The only scary part of the day was when he woke up from the surgery.  He was thrashing around in the bed , writhing in pain, crying that his arm hurt.  It was so hard not being able to help him.  I asked the nurse later if that was common for kids to wake up that harshly and she said yes.  Once he calmed down he didn’t complain about his arm at all.  No pain meds.  Though they did give him some during the surgery, I guess they just took a while to set in.

He came home last night close to 10pm.  Apparently they don’t keep anyone anymore.  Who knew.   It was so nice to have him home.  It made it feel like I could finally take care of him.  I mean, we’ve had broken bones before.  We know what to do.  Now we’re on familiar ground.  It feels great.

You can see a teddy bear in the pictures and a cut up gown that he wore in the hospital.  They give all the kids teddy bears and when they come out of surgery the bear has a dressing on his wound just like the kid has.  What a great idea!!  I’m telling you, the best experience.  It was magical how smoothly everything went.

Truman doesn’t want to take the Tylenol with Codein because he doesn’t want to feel sleepy so we’ve just been giving him Children’s Tylenol.  It seems to be working.  Truman is in a really good mood and besides favoring his arm is totally healthy and hanging out with the kids.

Whew.  We got our first surgery under our belts.  I’m not saying I want to do it again but it was such a great experience I’m not scared for it to happen again.  We are very fortunate to have such good doctors and nurses to take care of our kids.

Truman goes back on Friday for more x-rays and to get a hard cast put on.  I’ll post more pictures and an update then.

The last picture is my visitors sticker.  In case you can’t read it they spelled our last name:  STHLEGER.  Hilarious.  Even that made it a great experience.