Summer or Bust!
If I was a car window decal kind of person this might be something Id do.
I love summer.
But this year this would be followed by... Bust.
Prepare yourself for a pity party blog post. Without pictures. Because I have hit my photo limit and need to figure out what to do.
Bust. Like a big ol bust in the arm.
It happened Friday. The boys were out riding bikes and Brody used his super power- or his "I'm going way too fast" power on his handle breaks and came to a dead stop- causing him to go head over handlebars.
He jumped right up and we inspected the damage. Gross shredded knee and shoulder- but he wasn't screaming about any of that- he was holding his left arm at a crazy angle and sobbing because of it.
We have friends in high places. Like Ortho PA's. Plan was to wait just a bit until he could come take a look and give his opinion. Then Brody said "I don't feel good" and just sort of fell back on the floor and passed out, woke up and puked. We loaded him in the car and headed for the worlds most expensive ER. Despite him having a helmet on, I was worried about a concussion.
X rays confirmed yes, definitely broken left arm. No concussion.
He had to be put out so they could manipulate the arm and get it back into alignment. The needle was devastating.
Brody and anesthetic is a funny thing. He kept telling us to turn off the dizzy spell, then there was talk of Zombies and fairy dust. When the doc told him to go to a "happy place" in his head he kept repeating "family reunion, boating" over and over. Funny that that is his happy place. The things you discover!
X rays afterward showed that the bone still wasn't aligned. Repeat process.the 2nd time he was put under I just started bawling. For his arm, and that he hurt so badly, for gratitude that his head was fine, relief that at least asleep, he was unaware of all the yanking and twisting and force on his arm. I cried because summer was going to suck. I cried about the thought of huge bills from the ER, radiology, anesthetic, orthopedics, pharmacy.. I cried because Dev works his butt off for a company that provides extremely expensive insurance with mind blowing deductibles before anything actually kicks in- its infuriating. I cried because I was crying and there really wasn't a good reason for ME to be crying!
Yesterday was the day of fate. To find out if surgery was needed or not. Brody was so worked about it. Blinking back tears most of the day. It was a sweet moment when I peaked in at him knelt in prayer and asking that his arm be better and that he wouldn't need surgery or needles. I shared his same prayer. They did another set of x rays and decided that no surgery was needed - yahoooo!!! BUT- the bone had to be manipulated again- by the orthopedic specialist. So we went to the surgery center yesterday- Brody had to get in a hospital gown and they put him under anesthetic.. again!
Arm fixed and a new, super heavy duty front and back cast is on- with ace bandages- he is still really swollen- so this cast allows for the swelling to happen. Next week we will go back, again, and he will get a true cast- above the elbow and then all the way around his hand. It's heavy and hot, itchy and not waterproof.
(Eventually he will be able to have a smaller cast that is waterproof)
I get that this is just a broken arm. Happens all the time- way worse things that can happen. But it still is just rotten and hard. This type of confinement and limitations for a kid like Brody is honestly torture. He is active and rowdy- he's pretty much amphibious and loves the water- he lives outside in the summer. We are heading to a family reunion (his happy place) next week and I think it will be fun, but it will also be so sad and hard for him to not be able to go tubing or skiing, wake boarding, jump on the trampoline, swim ect- especially when all his cousins are. Torture.
What do I do the rest of the summer?? I really am out of ideas. We were outside today making a pulley system between the top and bottom decks- the type of thing that usually he is all about. He lasted about 25 mins before he was too hot in his arm and his neck hurt from his sling from holding up his heavy arm. He went back in. And moped around complaining of boredom and misery. My patience is already running out. Mostly because I don't have an answer! If he can be outside, and in water, he is 100% entertained and happy. I have given so many other ideas- we have played games and done cool projects but all he wants to do is swim and make a water world behind the wood pile, or ride his bike. TV is definitely being overly used- but even that isn't cutting it. We went for a drive today and had the widows down- he said from the backseat that he was closing eyes and pretending he was riding his bike really fast- and I cried again! I know he's not dying and that this will end fine and that it is one summer- but it breaks my heart. Stupid broken arm robbed us of happiness! How's that for dramatic. But today this is how I feel.
