World Traveling Military Family

And Another Bone Bites the Dust...

Yep, Boo has had yet another injury, I think it may be about time to break out a bubble and keep him in it, LOL!!!

Yesterday when I went to pick Boo up from football practice I seen him out on the field running to catch a pass.  I seen him jump for the ball right arm extended, the ball fly by, football players collide, him hit the ground and roll around and then walk out of my field of vision.  I was wondering where he was and was getting ready to get out of the car to watch from the bleachers.  Then I seen him sitting on the bench with his head kind of leaning forward.  Right then the good ole 'mommy instinct' kicked in and I knew something was wrong.  It's really hard to explain unless your a mom and know your kids...then you know what I'm talking about.  I was thinking it was possible heat exhaustion as it has been HOT out there for the boys.  We are in AL, in the middle of summer, and the humidity only makes it much hotter here.  I headed over to check out the situation.

I walk to the fence a few yards behind the bench and see Boo talking to Coach P, Coach then sees me and tells me that the trainer is on the way, that Boo had hurt his wrist.  My first thought?!...one I think all to often I'm afraid to say "You've gotta be kidding me?!"  It's like the same old broken record spinning round and round with different injuries getting inserted along the way, LOL!  I wanted to go out on the field and see the injury but I am not sure if I was 'allowed' on the field.  Are there rules like on a boat where I have to ask the 'captain' for permission to board?!  Coach P tells me I can come on the field, I am relieved and anxious to look at his wrist.  I can see it looks a bit odd, and he's obviously in pain.  Two things send off alarms to me that something is definitely 'wrong,' the first one being, that he couldn't even lift his hand up (with his wrist towards his arm) and the second and most positive indicator to me was that he was in some major pain...and when Boo is actually feeling a good amount of pain (his pain tolerance is crazy!) it's never a good thing!!  I send Mr. B a text message to try to 'soften the blow' when I call him to update him.

The trainer arrives and she exams his arm, immediately she can tell there is something wrong with is radius/growth plate area, either dislocated or broke, which means we get to visit the local ER yet again.  I mean seriously we (Mr. B & Boo) were just there 6 weeks ago when he broke his leg at basketball camp!  And yes some may say give up the sports but for those who know Boo know all he has to do is wake up in the morning and he's at risk for any injury...sports or no sports, LOL!  I call Mr. B, who I realize had not gotten my text message to break the news.  His response "Are you kidding me?!"  Wow, my thoughts exactly, LOL!!

So the trainer gets ready to splint it for us and realizes that she doesn't have a 'coventional' splint in her bag, so she improvises with hard plastic packaging and a magazine with an ace wrap, I have to say it worked well and the ER Dr was impressed with the creative splint.  I have to say I've been impressed with the football coaches, and the trainer, you can tell they really care about the boys, and it makes me glad that he is a part of the team and the football 'family'.  It's great to know that the boys are surrounded with great Christian role models, who really lead by example.

Boo & I headed to the house to get him out of his soaking stinky clothes and grab the essentials for the ER trip: phone chargers, reading material, and jackets.  Boo & I grab a quick plate of food before we leave knowing we could be there awhile, I couldn't eat much as my stomach was not happy about the incident but I managed to eat some.  I go to the ER with Boo this time, Mr. B went last time, so I was happy to switch with him this time.

We arrived at 7:25 pm, got called back to triage at 7:30 pm, and put in a bed (#5) at 7:40 pm.  By 8 pm the PA (Physicians Assistant) has seen him and ordered xrays.  He was pretty sure it was broken, which was a bummer as I was hoping that it would only be dislocated.  During all of this Boo's arm is hurting with every pulse that throbs through it but he's really wasn't complaining, I could see him grimacing when moving it, ect.  And once again it's a mom thing to be able to tell if your child is in pain, whether they complain or not.  They take him back for xrays around 8:15 pm and the PA comes back around 8:30 pm and informs us that it is broke and that he will also need to be sedated for it to be reduced back into place.  They call in the the on-call Orthopedic surgeon to do the reduction.  Here the downfall of eating dinner comes into play as they ask when he last ate and since it was around 6 pm determine that we have to wait a few hours, ugh!

Boo waiting for the xray, with his 2nd temp splint on, you can just the plastic on the bed of the other one.  Dr had to take it off for the exam and then re-splint it until the xrays had been taken and viewed.  So thankful for the trainer's splint as the drive home was painful for him, so I can't imagine how it would've been without a splint on!

The nurse came in and got ready to get his IV set up.  Normally I don't do well with this part, something about seeing my kids own blood that makes me want to pass out (and yes, I've almost passed out once or twice over it!)...which is often a good reason for Mr. B to go with him, LOL!  But I know that all the prayers that everyone was praying over us were working as I was able to watch the IV and even see his blood and NOT even feel like passing out!!  That my friends, was truly amazing!  Boo did good, although when he looked and seen all his blood I could see his face change shades of color, when the nurse left he said he got nauseous and light-headed, I told him not to look next time, the nut!  At this rate he should be highly desensitized to needles and not have my 'phobia.'

After I learned that it would be a few hours until they set it I asked if he could have some pain meds, of course he said he was OK and would just wait.  Then I told him that he'd already been sitting around with his arm broke for 2 1/2 hours and it would be at least another 2 before the Dr came so he might want to consider taking something to ease the pain a bit.  He agreed and they gave him some morphine, had I not been there I'm sure he would've just sat with the pain until it was time to set it, how he can tolerate pain like that I have no idea.  Thankfully the morphine didn't make him 'high as a kite' and while it did not really relive him of the pain like I expected, it did take the edge off and let him relax a bit.

Around 9:30 pm they moved us to a real room (#3) complete with a TV...which helped to pass the time.  They prepped him for the conscious sedation with cardiac tags, blood pressure cuff, oxygen monitor, ect. and then we waited.  Shortly after 10:45 pm the ER Dr. comes in and talked to us with the anaesthesiologist who gave us info on the conscious sedation and answered questions.  I think Boo's only concern was if he was going to feel them pulling the bone into place...I think he may still be traumatized when he had a reduction done at age 7 in an Navy hospital with NO pain meds or sedation!!

Shortly after 11 pm they came in to make final preparations for him and get the meds ready, Ortho surgeon came in around 11:15 pm and talked with us.  I left the room around 11:20 pm and headed to waiting room.  I called Mr. B to update him and they were out to get me by 11:30 pm, it only took them 2 minutes to reduce it and he slept through the whole thing!  By the time I got back he was already coming out of the sedation and was in a splint.  He felt nothing and had no memory of anything other than them giving him the drugs to put him to sleep, Praise God!  I was praying that he wouldn't feel anything or have complications!

I meet up with the Ortho Dr in the hall and asked him to explain the break to me.  He said to think of the radius and growth plate as an ice cream cone, the radius the cone and the growth plate the ice cream.  Basically he said the ice cream (growth plate) slipped off the cone (radius) and the cone cracked, they were putting the growth plate back onto the radius during the reduction.  He said he would show us the xrays when we see him in the office on Friday.  I look forward to that as I like to be able to visualize what is going on.

Boo shortly after arm was set and sedation wore off, those were the stickers we had to rip off

After they monitored Boo for awhile for possible side effects from the conscious sedation we were given the all clear to leave.  We had to 'rip' the 10 cardiac stickers from his chest and belly, while I'm sure it wasn't pleasant for him it was quite entertaining for me.  He couldn't bring himself to self-inflict the pain so I had to rip them off him.  Then we were outta there with a sling and a follow-up for Friday, when they will re-xray his arm and put it in a cast.  It's in a splint now due to the swelling, it's so swollen it's hard for him to move his fingers :(  As of right now the Ortho surgeon does not expect it to need surgery,  but the next 2 weeks will be the deciding factor...if it stays in place for the next 2 weeks as the swelling goes down we're good to go, so I'm praying that growth plate stays where it needs to!  He'll be in a cast for 6 weeks, and the Dr is going to work with us to try to get Boo back to football this season if at all possible :)  Hopefully he won't need surgery and his arm will heal as fast as his leg did!  School starts Thursday so hopefully he can write by then and not have to re-learn how to be a lefty like he did almost 3 years ago!

If this post is not coherent or full of errors I'll have to blame it on the 4 1/2 hours of sleep I got, that just isn't enough for this girl!! It's 3:45 pm and I could've gone to bed hours ago, LOL!!

posted by Mrs. B @ 4:06 PM