Hi Everyone! First of all, let me start off by thanking you all for your sweet comments on my last post "
Christmas 2009 Photo Shoot". I love receiving comments on my photography and the girls cute coordinating outfits! Ok, most of you know but, this week is starting out a little rough! Here is the full crazy story! Friday afternoon Sonya was sitting on the hallway floor playing with a grocery store shopping bag, tossing it up and catching it, as Ian had just come home from doing the food shopping. Ian and I had started to put away the groceries and that's when it snapped. Sonya shrieked and screamed out "the scream", the one that comes when she is broken. "The scream" is something I have come to recognize within seconds now. It seems that Sonya lost her balance and tried to catch herself with her extended arm to the side. Unfortunately, it didn't support her falling body and it gave way.
I dropped the box in my hand and ran to pick her up. For some reason this gut reaction to pick her up just overcomes me! I have to start being a bit more aware and not let my emotions get the best of me. It's better to keep her where she is and not move her until I assess the situation. I carried her into the family room, laid her flat on her back and watched her movements. Right arm was swinging wildly... definitely not broken. Left arm was limp and frozen still and there was no movement in her right leg. I started with her leg after seeing her toes pointing down and her leg straightening stiff. No break in the leg.... onto the arm. I checked her humerus (upper arm) first, felt no bumps or added heat and heard no louder screams so I traveled down the rest of her arm. Screams got louder at the elbow. I skipped over it and went down to the radius and ulna (lower arm). I definitely felt a hot spot on her lower arm and a slight bump that was not there before... Ok, broken ulna or radius, not sure about the rest. I was worried because she didn't bend her arm at the elbow like she did when she broke her right arm back in March. She also didn't react well when her arm moved at the shoulder, so I worried about that as well.
The very first thing I do every single time we have a break is MEDICATE! I had Ian grab the "break kit" and pulled out the meds bag complete with the heavy duty stuff, Motrin, Tylenol and measuring syringes immediately. We dosed her with Tylenol with Codeine for pain and then spasm and anxiety control Diazepam. Then we moved onto splinting for stabilization. I splinted her at first using OCL (kind of like plaster casting material), but I sucked at it and I ended up making it too wet, so it wouldn't dry quick enough. I chucked it and dumped out the rest of my supplies in our "break kit". I whipped out the SAM splint that the EMT gave us from when Sonya broke her left femur (thigh bone) back in June. Wow! Is that splint the most awesome splint ever! I cut off a small slab and molded it quickly into a preliminary shape, slipped it under her arm, fit it the rest of the way carefully and then wrapped her and the splint up with an Ace bandage (the self sticky kind with no clips, also really awesome). Pinning her arm to the side, I had Ian watch her while I packed our bags.... another thing to add to the list of "should haves" all prepared ahead of time at all times. We just never know how long we might be in the hospital. Having to go by myself with Sonya most times, it helps to have all her basic needs plus some snacks on hand, a travel water bottle filled, and oh yeah, deodorant, toothbrush and paste, and a hairbrush at the least for myself!
This next thing may sound really crazy and weird and even selfish to some of you reading, but this kind of thing, broken bones that is, is a constant in our lives. It's common and frequent, typical and almost a weekly errr...at least a monthly event for us. I went upstairs to take a shower. Yes, I did. I needed one, I knew I would not have one until at least the next day and damn it all, I really wanted one! So, I went and took one! When Sonya breaks, we go to the hospital and they confirm it with an xray and then they splint her again... just undoing and redoing what I already had all set and then they send her home telling me to go to duPont to be casted the next day. A 30 minute shower would not screw up the whole schedule or put Sonya in any danger of not being treated immediately. This is of course the case with THIS kind of fracture. If it were something serious, like her head or neck or spine or ribcage or clavicle........ then obviously I would not have taken the time time to even pack a bag, we would have left immediately.
When we arrived at our local ER it was absolutely empty! We were in complete luck and we got taken into triage right away and then back for xrays immediately following. The xrays confirmed a broken ulna (lower arm bone), but it wasn't a complete through break. I can imagine this would be very painful having the bone rub against bone with no slight space between. They took images of her shoulder and her elbow and were concerned for both. We were discharged after being splinted and handed a prescription for more pain meds and we were told to call duPont for casting the next day. We went home and slept downstairs, Ian and I on the couch and Sonya on a small soft mattress pad on the floor where I could keep an eye on her.
Since it was now Saturday we had to go to the ER at duPont since there is no clinic on weekends. We headed out bright and early at 7am and arrived just after 8am. We sat in our little ER cubicle for an hour before even a nurse came in. She checked Sonya's vitals but not her blood pressure (BP). We do not do BP's on Sonya for risk of fracture. Sonya was given some Motrin at this time as her Tylenol with Codeine had run it's course by this point. In my head but keeping my cool: Motrin??? That's all? You're just going to give her Motrin? Her freakin' arm is broken!
Another hour passes before we see anyone! Sonya has been furiously freaking out the entire time and her heart rate must have been through the roof as her face was beat red and she was gasping for air! In my head but keeping my cool: What the hell! Are they at least going to give her some more Motrin? Where the hell is the on call resident what's his face and when the hell is he going to get his not busy butt in here!
I flag down a nurse. Literally! She says she has been paging the on call resident but he has been stuck in the OR (operating room) the whole time. In my head but keeping my cool : What the hell? Well, I hope he will be ready to operate again real soon, cause I'm going to break one of these nurses arms if they don't get my baby some serious medicine ASAP!
"Can we at least have her xrays reviewed (the ones from the local ER that I brought with) and get her something stronger than Motrin? She is in obvious pain and we would know what we are dealing with after looking at her films. Then once the on call gets here he can cast her up so we can be done." I quip. She followed my orders. Amazing! Note to self : Next time I am totally speaking up from the get go!
Of course 10 minutes later after the xrays are reviewed, the on call doc finally shows up and tells us that her shoulder is still questionable, her ulna is definitely fractured and her radial head (elbow) is most likely dislocated. He wants more xrays and we go for them. He decides to 15 minute sedate her (mini anesthesia), and try the first surgery (manual closed surgery, no incision) to pop it back into place, set the ulna and cast her. He thought he had it good, but the xrays later showed that the radial head popped back out! Surgery #2, same thing happened again! According to her films this time, she appeared to be off by a few millimeters, but if it was not set perfectly she would continue to have recurring issues with it her whole life. The next thing they wanted to try was a full sedation (anesthesia) fluoroscopy, where they inject dye into the area and do an arthrogram (live xray) while they perform surgery. This dye would help distinguish bone from cartilage, tendons and muscle tissue. OI complicates the whole thing. Sonya's bones and joints are deformed and her connective tissue disorder (lack of and not properly functioning collagen) obscures what is bone, what is cartilage and what is tendon or muscle in some parts of her body. This was evident while looking at her elbow xrays. Some of Sonya's joints have different positioning than the average person and this also was very evident when it came to her elbow. This makes it very hard to tell if her joints are correctly positioned (just right for her). If the fluoroscopy did not work they would have to move on to an MRI and open surgery (incision made).
We went upstairs to the OR for the fluoroscopy and I nearly started to cry as they sedated her yet again for the 3rd surgery in the same day. She cried and screamed for me before falling asleep, ripping at my heart strings! I waited impatiently in the dark and empty waiting room. Snow was starting to fall outside. My cell phone was battery dead, although even if I had a charged battery (bring the charger next time) there was no reception to speak of on that floor anyway (been there, done that). So I tried to read my book unsuccessfully and tried to write up my Walmart shopping list. I got as far as diapers and wipes and then I totally quit. Exhausted and stressed at the same time my shoulders grew tense as I waited. Finally about 45 minutes after I last saw Sonya a nurse came to get me and took me back to her recovery cubicle. Sonya was just beginning to stir when I came in so very happy to see her in a pretty new red cast all ready to start healing!
I wish I could say that Sonya was happy... When the anesthesia started to wear off she instantly became the Incredible Hulk! I swear she was stronger than I have ever felt her before! She was grunting, screaming, growling and swinging her uncasted fist and both legs (one casted) with intent! I asked her if she wanted me to pick her up and she was indecisive. After holding her for 2 minutes I decided it was best to have her lay in her bed or I too would be getting casted that night! I'm serious! This girl was ticked and she had every right to be! She was soothed shortly with the promise of food and managed to eat two popsicles and drank a whole cup of apple juice right there in the small OR recovery room!
We were then rolled back to a shared recovery room (the last and final straw that resulted in us getting the heck out of there ASAP). Sonya was completely at her full strength at that point. Feisty would be an understatement, this girl could probably win a bar fight with a 200lb+ angry drunk man! I tried shushing, humming, kissing her forehead, distracting her with Finding Nemo on the hospital's TV and various loved toys and books, and of course her blankie and "chewby" (pacifier), but to no avail. I resorted to laying Sonya flat on her back on the hospital bed, straddling her with my legs at her sides slightly restraining her as I sat there and waited for her to calm down. Sonya has the type of personality that any kind of talking down or attempt of calming her down in any other way just ends up infuriating her.... hmmmm... Stubborn! So we sat there and I stayed quiet, waiting. She finally soothed herself and half slept, half watched Finding Nemo.
The people in the shared room with us were ridiculous! Their TV was blaring some sports game and the woman was talking so freaking loud over it to her teen aged daughter who also had a broken leg (so they completely should have understood how it felt for a toddler in this case and could have been much more considerate). The husband was munching on his portion of their delicious smelling take out food (not gross hospital stuff and I hadn't ate anything since 2pm... it was now 10pm) and then he proudly and loudly belched as he continually grunted in satisfaction. Un-freaking-believable! With every boisterous laugh or deafening explosion of a burp Sonya would jump, startling herself and in turn ensue crying and distraught. Ugghhh! We needed to get the heck out of there!
Since Sonya was still hooked up to her IV and was receiving fluids, it didn't look promising. After an hour I called the nurse in, no longer able to take it anymore. I asked her when we could leave. She was under the impression that we were staying the night. I told her "Oh no! We were told by the doctor that we could leave tonight as long as I felt able to drive after being here all day and considering the storm outside. (Which was completely true, I would never fabricate a story even if the people on the other side of the curtain were astonishingly obnoxious!) I can totally do that! Sonya will feel much more comfortable at home! How much more fluid does she need?" She told us that since Sonya had the two popsicles and juice in the recovery room she could unhook her and get us discharged right away! Whoo! If I hadn't said anything we would have had to TRY to sleep next to that outrageous racket! So after getting Sonya disconnected from the IV, I had a wonderful time (insert sarcasm) getting my double casted Sonya into a some crazy tube sock involved ensemble. I wrapped her up in a blanket, used the stroller to cart the bags (isn't that what it's for anyway?) and headed out through the ER loving every "crazy lady walking her two limb casted baby out into the snow storm with no coat" look that I received on the way. Ugggghhhh! Ignorance!
After loading Sonya and our stuff into the cold van and scraping off the iced and snowed up windshield as my hands froze, we headed out on our way home. It was uneventful. Thank God! I was so over the top tired and just couldn't wait to be home again! Sonya slept the whole hour and a half home as I drove so paranoidly slow (50mph in 65 territory) the whole way. Turning into our neighborhood I stopped and looked around at the 4 inches of snow covered ground, pulled out my camera and took a picture of the beautiful white snow laying peacefully on each branch of the leafless winter tree that stood stark against the pitch black night. Ahhh! Home sweet home!
Ok, sorry this was so super long! It was a very long day and night! As some of my family and friends have pointed out, Sonya and I have an OI marathon this week! We are gearing up to head out back to duPont for Sonya's PT evaluation on Monday as well as her PAM treatment Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then we will go back on Friday again for a 3 week cast check up on her leg as well as a 1 week cast check up on her arm! I am just wiped out thinking about it! Thank you all for your prayers, love, hugs and support through all of this! You guys are the absolutely best and I am truely blessed to have you all in our life!
Side Note : All the shoulda', coulda', woulda's in this post are not me beating up on myself, but rather notes to myself for making the inevitable next time a much better more efficient experience.



