Isaac breaks his arm

Things felt like they're slowing down.  I've been able to start exercising again for the first time in over a month!  I've had a few minutes the last few days to sit down at the piano and practice the songs I was working on before summer started.  I even re-installed Rosetta Stone on the computer and have been having fun saying things like, "Comment-allez vous?"  Things were looking nice and quiet around here. 

We were enjoying our sunny Sunday by spending time outside.  The 60" cage ball I'd purchased for day camp came with the wrong sized inner ball.  I'd called as soon as we discovered the problem and was told they'd overnight me the correct liner.  I swapped two classes around so we'd have time to get it and get it blown up.  Days went by and it never showed up.  We made do with the smaller ball, using it without a liner.  Once day camp was over, I called the company and there was no record of the original call but the operator told me that the liners always look small so just keep blowing it up.  I did, until it exploded!  He sent me a new inner ball by two day mail and I was hoping we'd have it for the play day during the reunion.  It didn't show up until Friday, too late for cub camp and the reunion. 

We'd definitely had the wrong one!  The replacement was twice as large as the one we started with.   Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing for it to be delayed because after less than an hour of playing, we were heading off to the ER.  Dode blew it up and the kids were having fun pushing it around the yard and trying to get up on top of it.  Dode and I had come in a few minutes earlier, Dode to read on the couch and me to make cookies.  Suddenly, Isaac came running in the house shouting, "I broke my arm!"  He'd gone over the top of the ball and landed hard.  When he landed, he heard a snap and felt immediate pain in one spot of his left forearm.  We could see his arm bent and localized swelling and sent him out to the car.  I went out and started to drive away to take him to the emergency room but realized I'd have to take a photo so I ran inside to grab the camera.  It couldn't have taken 30 seconds but Isaac thought I was pretty mean.  But, if you can't take a photo for the blog, it didn't happen right?

doesn't his look scream, "Really mom?"

We went to the Arlington Hospital (a five minute drive) and they got us back pretty fast.  Door to door, we were gone from home less than two hours.  It was pretty quiet in the ER.  While we were there although they said they'd seen quite a few broken bones already that day.  It was our first nice and sunny day in a while and apparently, people were taking a bit too much advantage of it!  After taking X-Rays, they said he'd broken his radius and possibly injured his elbow.  He was placed in a temporary cast until he could get in to an orthopedic doctor.  Isaac was very stoic about his injury.  He was laying on the bed, grunting in pain and gently cradling his arm, with sweat pouring down his face.  Yet, when they asked him what his pain level was on a scale of 1-10, he said "4".  (Apparently he didn't feel like he was being burned alive, my standard for what a "10" amount of pain would feel like.)  He sure didn't appreciate all the manipulating they had to do with the X-Rays, especially when we had to go back for a 2nd time so they could look at his elbow.

We have six children ages 6-18 but this is only our 2nd broken bone.  Isaac broke his right arm when he was about four years old, falling off our backyard trapeze.  He fell about four feet and received a compression fracture.

Isaac with his temporary cast

Wednesday we had our appointment with the orthopedic doctor.  He looked at the X-rays and said that Isaac had broken and bent his radius and would need surgery to correct it.  Although the edges of the break are lined up nice and cleanly, it bows out which makes it so Isaac can't twist his arm below the elbow from side to side.  (That's what the ER doctor thought was from an elbow problem.)  Monday afternoon he will have the surgery.  The doctor is hoping to be able to insert a rod into the hollow space inside his bone which will straighten it out.  It would be left in while the bone heals and would be removed in 6-8 weeks.  If he is unable to get the rod in, he will put a plate and screws onto the bone which would be left there permanently. 

Isaac is really nervous about the procedure.  He's nervous about being put to sleep, (will he really not feel it?)  He's nervous about getting the IV put in in order to receive the anesthetic.  He doesn't like the sound of a piece of metal shoved into his bone.  He's also pretty unhappy that it doesn't take place until Monday because the clock on how long his cast has to be on doesn't start until after the procedure.  He's looking forward at two months without using the motorbike, two months without mountain biking, two months of no water play.

So, our summer has become a bit more complicated.  We had 8 doctor appointments this week not counting the ER visit!  One for Isaac with our doctor to check his ear again, the verdict? back to the E,N,T for more work on that!  One to the Orthopedic doctor.  Five dentist cleanings.  One dental filling (Jacob was quite unhappy to learn once they've drilled into his tooth that there was no problem after all!)  For some reason, I thought I'd have a lot of time this week to get things done, like my visiting teaching.  I hope they'll accept a card from me with good grace!