The pins are in

I belong to a message board. I first joined when I was pregnant with #1 Son and have stayed ever since. I have known some of the woman on there for seven years now. One of my on-line families. I am very tired after a long and emotionally draining day but I will share what I posted on one of my message boards today. Sorry if it is repetitive and ignore all mistakes. The ladies there do.


Short Story: #1 Son is doing great! He is playing and eating and generally acting like he did not have surgery today.

Long story: We have been home for several hours now and you can't even tell that #1 has had surgery. I wish that was the case for Mr. Husband and I.

I read my sister's update and your responses. Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts and prayers! I also realized while reading that I hadn't even told you that he had broken his arm.

Saturday, Dec. 1st, #1 was playing in her room by himself. #1 and Middle child have their beds close together with a just enough room to walk between them and have an night stand. They have really nice beds that have a foot board with posters. #1 was swinging between the beds and fell. He screamed when he hit the floor. Mr. Husband made it in first and I was not far behind.

Mr. Husband said right away that something was broken and that he had to go to the emergency room. I, being an experienced mother of three, did not believe this right away and wanted him to prove it by moving it around. #1 said that he couldn't lift his arm up and Mr. Husband said again to just take him. We left the house about five minutes after it all happened.

#1 was great the whole time we were at the hospital on Saturday. I could tell that he was in pain but was really starting to doubt that anything was wrong again. They took him back for X-rays and it was then that I could tell that something was in fact wrong.

He would go from talking and laughing to a look of horror when the moved his arm in certain ways. He could also not support it for some of the X-rays and I had to hold his arm in place. So my fingers are in some of the pictures.

The tech said that she wasn't sure if anything was broken or not. Some of the spacing didn't look right but it's so hard to tell in little kids. We went back to the room to wait.

So after a doctor came and said that he had fractured his humerus (no idea on the spelling) and that he would need a cast. OK, not a giant deal.

They came in and gave him a splint and sent us with Tylenol with codeine and the phone number of a doctor to give him a cast.

#1 was doing really well. He was really excited about getting a cast and couldn't wait to have his friends sign it. We had an appointment Wednesday.

We went to the appointment. It was for 9:30 and I thought about taking a half day because it shouldn't take long but I'm so glad that I didn't.

We finally got to see the doctor after 11:00. He says that he can't do the cast, he needs to do surgery and he needs to do it tomorrow morning. This wasn't even something that we had discussed in the ER!!!! I was in shock. We went directly from the doctor's office to the hospital for pre-registration.

We had to be at the hospital at 6:30 this morning. #1 was in a good mood and although he was scared and nervous, he was being brave. Mr. Husband and I both took the day off and hung out with #1 Son until they took him back for surgery.

His doctor was so cool! He was telling #1 about the anesthesia and how #1 had to blow into the mask and fill up the balloon. #1 wanted to know what would happen if he popped the balloon? The doctor told him that it couldn't happen but I made a deal with #1 Son, if he could pop it, we would buy him a Hot wheels track.

Mr. Husband and I waited in the waiting room for surgery to be over and in about an hour the doctor came out. He said that everything went really well, he showed us an x-ray that showed both pins and informed us that we owed #1 a Hot wheels track. #1 Son had popped the balloon.

We later found out the #1 had not in fact popped the balloon. The doctor had popped it afterwards but he would not admit it and would keep a very straight face about the whole thing when questioned later. :) One of the nurses confessed that she saw the doc pop it. #1 got to keep the balloon and we got to see the shark that the doctor had drawn on it for #1. #1 truly believes that he popped it on his own and the story is going to stay that way.

We were called back into the recovery room because #1 was having a hard time. He was trying to move around a lot and was in pain. The nurse said that most kids are not in pain when they wake up. They are just confused and scared and he didn't know what was going on. That was true. He was confused and scared but he was also in a whole lot of pain. After almost 10 minutes of us saying that he was really hurting, him screaming two times and his blood pressure and heart rate almost doubling, she finally called the doctor and got an order for pain medicine.

She gave him Demerol. It took four or five doses of Demerol for him to calm down and he really seemed to be in pain until he had that and the Tylenol 3.

It was very upsetting for Mr. Husband and I to see our son in pain like that. (Not to mention upsetting for #1 Son himself but hopefully he will not remember this part.) It was very hard for us to see him scream and say over and over again that he was hurting and have the nurse tell us that it was normal and that he was just scared. I'm glad that we kept telling her that he was hurting and that he got the pain control that he needed but hated it to be like that.

One thing that drives me crazy is the fact that so many people do not believe that children feel pain. That babies do not or that kids don't feel it the same way that adults do. I have felt this way for a long time and this really hit home today again.

Thankfully things have gotten much better since then. #1 has been playing and really is doing very well. He probably could go to school tomorrow but we have decided to keep him out another day. He's already missed the rest of the week. Really, what's one more day? Besides, I can work with him this weekend and he'll be fine. Luckily, he has a mom that teaches the same grade in the same district!! He might not think it's lucky but HA!

He will now go back to the doctor at the end of next week to make sure that everything is Ok. Then two weeks after that to remove the pins and cast and then probably have another cast put on for at least another week.

Thanks for reading this long tale! I am really thankful for all of the good thoughts and prayers.