The Day Has Arrived (I hope)

We're off to the doctors today, to see if we get to be cast free. I hope so. Do you have any idea how hard it is to bathe, or even shower, a five year old in a cast, and not get the cast wet..? Can you say impossible? Yet it is stressed how important it is to keep it dry. *sigh* Not in this house...

OK, I'll be back after the dr.

See ya laterzzzzzzzzzz!

***Edited to add*** We no longer have a cast. Woohooo! We do still have a wrist brace for another 3-4 weeks, but doc said he can sleep without it in about a week, and it can come off for baths, swimming & sprinkler running. I now have one happy little boy. He has already figured out how to slip it off over his hand, rather than undoing it - not sure if that's good or bad...but I guess it is what it is :)

Ok, back to the grindstone...

See ya laterzzz!!!

Popping In

No time for a real post this morning, but I wanted to pop in and say all is still well. Today begins my Hell-weeks at work. Because July 4 falls in a week that I have Tuesday off normally, I don't get it off. I think the theory is that they're giving us the holiday off, we don't need a regular day off....So I work M-F this week (yes, I volunteered for the 4th) then M-S the following week. and I worked M-S last week, Ugh,

My boy has a little mark on his forehead. I've asked him about 5 times what he did, and I've gotten 5 answers, not the least of which went like this:

Me: "What'd you do to your head?"
Him: "Where?"
Me: running my fingers lightly over the spot "Right here."
Him: "Ow, ow, ow, ow." Mind you, this is just a teeny, tiny little scab, bout 1/4" round - it almost can't be seen....
Me; "So it hurts..? How'd you get it?"
Him: "You did it."
Me: "I did it..? When did I do that?"
Him: "Yep, you did it. "
Me: "When did I do it..?"
Him: "Yesterday."
Me: relieved "How could I have done it yesterday? You were with Rosa all day."
Him: "Oh yeah, I was, wasn't I?"
Me: "So how'd you do it?"
Him: "If I'm really, really good while we're at the store can I get a toy?"

And that was the end of the conversation. Oh yeah, did I mention we were at the return counter of Wally World when this conversation took place..? There I am being accused by my child of hurting him, while all the neighborhood biddies listen in. How many do you think actually heard the whole conversation, and how many just the part about "You did it"?

Oh well, such is life. This mornings questioning about it got me the response that Buster or Bandit (Stacey's pets) must have done it. I guess I'll never know. Well, gotta go put my nose to the grindstone (or ear to the idiots as the case may be...)

Oh yeah, wanted to add tomorrow's the big day. We go back to the doctor's. Hopefully the little guy will get that cast off. It's gotta suck, being in a cast most of the summer : ( Oh, and we're still awaiting the falling-out of the loose tooth.

See ya laterzzzzzzzzzzz!

Playing Catch Up

I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but apparently I have a small bit of time to myself - kinda. The boy is (temporarily) engrossed in a Pokemon movie, and the cast repair took lees time than expected, so here I am. I am going to try to catch up on all the stuff going on in our world....

KARATE

I am now the parent of an official white-with-yellow-stripe-belt-holder. That's right, my boy has moved up a level, broken arm and all! And he's thrilled. Almost as thrilled as Daddy is proud! Hunny took his original belt, with all the stripes, and put it up. He wants to put it in a shadowbox for display. Nope, no pride there *grin*. They did a whole ceremony thingie at the dojo, presenting certificates & belts. Well, that was the plan. But the belts hadn't arrived from the shipper, so they presented the certificates, and gave out the belts when they came in. Which is fine, really. I think the ceremony & honoring the kids in front of God & everyone, letting them know what a good job they're doing, is way more important than a piece of fabric.
Here are a few pics:

BROKEN ARM

We went to the doctor's two weeks ago, but despite waiting for 2 1/2 HOURS (I will say, that was an anomaly though), we didn't get the new cast my boy so desperately wanted. Yesterday was The Day. We have a new cast,

But as I said in last night's short post, it was too long.

My boy was very happy to have his elbow back. Not so much for the elbow itself, but more for the ability to get to all the itches, since there is no longer a bend to try to navigate! We had a few "hairy" moments, during cast application & forming, but it seems like it wasn't nearly as bad as the first one. He actually cried for a minute or two the first time. This time he just kinda grimaced...

When we left the doctor's office yesterday he was high spirits. Well, he's always in high spirits, but more so than average. But then it started hurting in the bend of the elbow. Stacey stuck some gauze in it, to try to cushion it a bit, but you know that boy of mine. No chance it would stay there unmolested! He had to take it out & re do it, if he moved (which he does pretty much constantly...) it came out and had to be put back. And of course it was a bit of a tight fit, so there was pinching. And he had Karate yesterday.
Needless to say, by the time Mom got home, he wasn't a real happy camper. But I will say this for him, while he is fully capable of being whiney, and gets that way on occasion, it's rarely about anything serious. He never really bitched about it being raw, just said it hurt, then tried to move it as little as possible.

I called the doctor's office this morning, and they had me bring him in so they could cut it down, and it seems (so far) that all is now well. He was playing "avoid the plants" as we left. Yes, my child can turn even this:

into an appropriate (in his mind) place to play. As he was very careful not to step on any plants, I let him. The game was kinda like an obstacle course, from what I could make out - left side of one, right side next, left side next, and so forth & so on.

Being the boy that he is, when I wanted to take pics of the rubbed area, he

• a. wouldn't hold still for 2 SECONDS, so they are a bit blurry. and
• b. insisted I take pics of his Pokemon tattoos (no surprise he wants to show off tattoos, I have over 40, and Dad is coming up on 10 or 15...

I figured I'd go ahead and put 'em up.

IN SUMMARY

Life isn't great, the price of gas, and subsequently everything else, is starting to put a hurt on us. It does help greatly that the Wal-mart across the street opened today (WOOOOHOOOOO) so I no longer have to drive 10-15 miles to shop, or pay an extra $50 on a purchase of $150. Charter One is still insisting that they have every right to do whatever they want with my money, regardless of the facts of the matter, so I will pursue it via the Office of The Comptroller of The Currency. Oh yeah, and tell everyone I can possibly conceive of a reason to brooch the subject with. I talk to A LOT of people every day...
The new Walmart has a bank in it, so I will be going there to open a new account & change over our direct deposits, providing they can assure me that their policy is different than Charter One's policy of theft.
One a positive note, I was graced with this view out my car window coming home the other night.

I had to stop & take a pic - isn't it beautiful..?

Ok, probably oughta get my butt headed towards works, the natives (translate to the (usually) sweet (monster) boy) are getting restless. I knew it was too good to last.....

See ya laterzzzz!!!!

Wanna Hear Something....

funny..? The headrest on my car hasn't moved since I wrote about it...How weird is that..? Nor has the radio done anything freaky.

In other news, we have a new cast, below the elbow, but just barely. I have pics I intend to post if I ever get more then a few minutes to myself, but I think it's going to have to be replaced. It is rubbing on the inside of my boy's elbow, and after only about 10 hours has it rubbed raw...I plan on getting pics of that, too. Hopefully, soon to be posted (that's the plan anyways)

So, I'm off to bed now, so I can get up & call the Dr tomorrow and find out where he is (we really live in a little bitty almost town) so I can traipse to the other side of the state & get my boy's arm taken care of - oh goody, more driving - and then make it to work. I'm sure it'll be a wonderful day *sigh*

G'night for now.

See ya laterzzzzzz!!!!

Update on Cast...

OK, so it's not really an update yet, but we are going to the doctor this morning, with the hopes of having the big, bulky cast removed and a shorter one applied. Maybe we can get a water-proof one - goodness knows we need a water-proof one...

More info when we get back :)

See ya laterzzzzzzzz!

Details

Alrighty, I said I would get back here and provide some more details, so here goes...
I was driving home Tuesday night, doing the speed limit...ok, not really, I was doing about 60, which is about as close to speed limit as I get, as my hunny had been told by Uncle Mike that the law enforcement personnel were out and about in force that evening. So, I set the cruise at 60 and headed for home.

Hunny had said he was down at his buddy's house, hanging out while the kids played. No biggie, they live like 5 houses down, and I didn't really think any more about it. As I hit the exit for Six Points Road, basically within 6 or 7 miles of home, I heard my radio beep.
Him: "Jodi..?"
Me: "Yeah Babe, go ahead."
Him: "We're heading to the hospital."
Me: *huh* "Oh shit, what happened?"
Him: "I think your boy broke his arm..."
Me: "WHAT..?!?"

Now keep in mind, hunny is usually pretty low-key when it comes to kid injuries. He'll usually check for heavy bleeding, then assume he's a kid and all will be well. When the boy came out of Karate and tried to jump onto a pole in the parking lot & missed, raising a big goose egg in the middle of his forehead, hunny looked for blood, said (his signature line) "If you hadn't been jacking around..." and home they went. So...if hunny is heading to the hospital with what he thinks is a broken arm, then it's probably pretty serious - maybe more so than what he thinks.
Well, there goes my nice, calm 60mph. I told him I would meet him there, that I was almost to Six Points, and should be right behind him.
Now, luckily for us, there is a hospital about 3 miles from the house. Something tells me this won't be our last visit...I think I made the 10 miles left in about 4 min.
On the way, I got another call.
Him: "I don't have his card or anything."
Me: "Don't worry honey, I'll be RIGHT BEHIND YOU."
Him: " Do they have an Emergency Room here..?"
Me: "I think they do, they said something about opening one when I was down here for my tests."
Him: "I'm not seeing a sign for an ER..."
Me: "Just go in the main entrance and ask someone if they have an Emergency Room..."
Silence.
This a small community hospital. SMALL. They actually DON'T have an Emergency Room, (although it is scheduled to open October 11). They do however, have an Immediate Care Center. I think the main difference is that it's not 24 hour.

So, about the time I finished telling him to go in, I was turning into the entrance to the hosp. I followed the curvy road/driveway in to the main entrance, looking towards the doors for the truck. Not up at the drive-thru. I see it in the parking lot. Empty. So I guess they have some sort of something to take care of 5 year olds with injuries. Good deal. I threw the car into a parking spot right across from the entrance (thank you Parking Gods) and take myself inside.
Me:" My husband just brought our 5 year old in here, do you know where they went..?"
Lady at Desk:"Right that way."

As I entered the waiting area, there was my boy - little rough & tumble, it doesn't hurt, I'll be fine himself, sitting on Daddy's lap, holding his arm VERY carefully, looking pathetic. It broke my heart. He wasn't, however, crying. At least not until he saw me. Gotta be a tough guy for Daddy, you know all that testosterone crap. But when I came in, well, there wasn't a LOT of crying, but he did loosen the grip on the tears a bit.

But he did really well. They took xrays, and determined it was broken. Twice. Well, actually each bone in his forearm is broken once. They sent us home in a splint and gave us the numbers of some orthopaedic surgeons to call the next day. They also sent us home with some liquid Tylenol3. That's some NASTY stuff, even with the "kid's flavoring" added in.

He doesn't want the pain medication. He'll take it at night, that seems to be when it bothers him the most. (Usually about 3:30am...)I can imagine...there aren't a whole lot positions you can get into that are comfortable, when you have a cast almost to your shoulder...poor guy.

We went to see the Ortho guy on Wednesday, he was really good with my little guy! We had a couple of hairy moments when the doc had to straighten the bone. He explained to both me & Shayne exactly what he was going to do, that he had to wrap it with the cast material, then he would have to "smoosh" the bone back into place. He offered to give him a shot to numb the area first, but my tuff guy said "No Thank you" I explained how the shot would work, that it would make it hurt a lot less, but he still declined.
He only cried for a minute or two - he did much better than I would have! I'd have been whining & crying & boo-hooing & bitching like nobody's business! Not my boy! He cried for a minute, but c'mon, they were realigning a broken bone with NO ANESTHESIA! He had every right to cry!
Ok, gotta work now, but will provide more at a later time....
See ya laterzzzzzzzz

Step 3 - We Have a Cast

Again, this is just a quick update, I hope to post more in depth with details later to day. We have a Bright Orange (go figger...) cast up to almost his armpit. He seems to be doing well, and hasn't really slowed down too awfully much - he kept me hopping I can tell ya!

I have a couple of pics in the cast. Hunny and I were talking last night, and both could kick ourselves for not getting pics of his arm without the cast or sling - sheesh, why did we BUY the picture phones..? Doh!

Ok, here's a coupla pics...

Step 2

Well, we're off to the orthopaedic surgeon at 10. When I called my boss (one of the best people on the planet...) to let her know what was going on, and that I might not be in today, or maybe only half a day, she said that her son had broken his arm, and I would probably be there while, and she would just plan on me not coming in at all today.

So, more info as I get it. In the meantime, here's a pic...

Official First Broken Bone...

Yep, that's right. He's only had 'em for 5 years and already he's breaking 'em. My boy has managed to break both bones in his right arm, and it wasn't even the Karate - he fell off a bike...

More to come later....