Isaac's 2nd arm surgery

When Isaac got his cast off three weeks ago, I noticed a bump on his arm, about an inch below his wrist. I thought maybe his arm muscles were so atrophied that the end of his bone was sticking out. But, it didn't seem like it was in the correct spot. He was scheduled for surgery on the 17th and I wanted to get the bump checked out ahead of time just to make sure everything was healing correctly.  I was concerned that if I brought it up in the pre-op room, there wouldn't be time to do anything about it.

We went down to the orthopedic doctor and the doctor's assistant told me it was the pin. I said, "Are you sure?"  I knew where the scar was from putting the pin in and is was on the other side of his arm from the mystery bump.  She checked the old x-ray and sure enough, the pin was in the other bone! She said we'd x-ray it and see what was going on. When she left the room, she must have found the doctor because he came in and immediately recognized it as a osteochondroma. He had them do the x-ray and it definitely showed the tumor. He said it is a benign bone tumor, found mostly in children. He said they run in families and asked if anyone else in the family had a history of them. Not that I know of. Apparently they're rare enough that he had all three of his assistants come in one by one and try to guess what it was. When they all  failed, he educated them about what it was and the treatment.

When Isaac had the pin removed from his arm, the doctor also removed the tumor and sent it for testing. There is a 98% chance that it will be benign. That's pretty good odds! I asked why it happened while Isaac was in a cast and he told me it was just a coincidence. I know that Isaac is glad that he didn't have the cast on for much longer because as the tumor grew, it was pressing up more and more against the cast. Isaac had complained of a lot of discomfort in that area. When he got the cast off, we could see that the skin over the bump on his arm was very red and irritated.

We arrived at the surgery center bright and early, their first case of the day. (The doctor had 10 more surgeries in his schedule for the day.  No fun for him!)  I'd been sick all weekend with a cold and when the receptionist heard me sniffling, she was concerned that I might be passing on my virus to others.  When I went back with Isaac to the pre-op area, I was careful not to sniffle or cough.  I did pretty good until I got a tickle in my throat, started coughing, and couldn't stop.  The nurse brought me a glass of water and it helped, for about 1 minute.  My eyes were watering with the effort to not cough while I was trying to talk with the anesthesiologist.  He must have wondered what I was crying about.   I finally couldn't hold it in anymore and started coughing.  The nurse brought me a cough drop.  Relief!  Once Isaac went back to the OR, I hurried down the hall to the restroom where I could cough, cough, cough and blow my nose like crazy.  With just one more trip to the bathroom to repeat coughing and nose blowing, I was able to remain in the waiting room during his surgery without drawing the attention of the receptionist.

Isaac felt like quite a celebrity in the OR because the doctor's assistants were there to observe.  The doctor told us the tumor looked benign and we'll know for sure when the pathology report comes back.  Within three hours, we were on our way home again. He felt the pain of the surgery a lot sooner this time because they didn't use a nerve block.  When we brought Isaac home from the hospital when he was born, we stopped at a hardware store to buy a new light fixture. ( I knew once we got home and the adrenalin I was running on wore off, I wouldn't be up to going out again.)  We stopped on the way home this time too, to pick up some groceries at Cash and Carry.  Luckily, Isaac was a good sport both times about our stops.  Once home, he asked me, "Did they take the tumor off with a hammer?!" I told him, "just about". The doctor told me they use something similar to a chisel.    Isaac had stayed up most of the night before reading a book so he was a lot sleepier after the surgery this time.  As soon as his pain meds kicked in, he was snoozing on the couch.  Isaac isn't very patient or fun to be around when he's in pain.  But, once those meds kick in, he's a happy wild guy.

Isaac got a souvenir from his broken arm, the Steinmann pin that was used to hold his bone in place while it healed.  He says he wants to turn it into a bracelet or necklace!