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Monday, June 29, 2009

A Pop, Pop, Poppin'

Baylees baptism was on Saturday morning. It was beautiful, she was beautiful and I will do another post on that later. I have to get this one down before all of the good stuff leaves my little brain.

After the baptism, we had lunch with the fam. We had a rousing good time (as usual) and everyone took off around 1 or 2, I really have no idea because I wasn't paying attention. I took a little siesta and then we headed out to an early dinner to round out the day. After dinner I was feeling kind of yucky (stupid ovaries) and went to lay down. At which point, the screaming began. I tried to ignore it. In fact I tried really, really hard to ignore it. But when Savannah came upstairs yelling, "Mom, Mom, Mom. Calebs arm, arm, arm." I ran downstairs.

Felix was in the driveway holding a screaming Caleb, even from inside the house, I could tell there was something very, very wrong with his arm. Most kids arms aren't shaped like a U. Hmmmmmm, I grabbed him, hopped in the back seat of the car and sent Savannah to get my shoes and purse. Once we had all necessary items (especially the daddy) we headed to the InstaCare. Caleb was still screaming and after 15 minutes Felix finally went and asked if we could talk to a nurse because we weren't even sure if the InstaCare could treat him.

We were sent back to the triage room, the nurse came in took one look and got the doctor. The doctor took one look and said he thought that Caleb fractured both bones in his forearm and we either needed to drive up to Primary Childrens ER or UVRMC ER. We chose UVRMC because we didn't have any gas in the car and we didn't want to stop just then. We drove down to Provo and signed in at the completely insane ER.

About 30 minutes later we were in triage and they said we aren't going to give him anything for pain because he is going to be knocked out when they set it. GGGGRRRREEEEEAAAAATTTT.

About an hour later we had the x-rays done. The wrong x-rays were ordered, but when the x-ray tech saw the first x-ray (which showed his radius in two pieces and crossed) she did the right x-rays...just to save time.

Time apparently wasn't our issue. We went back to the ER waiting room and about another hour later we finally got called back to an ER exam room. FINALLY. This all started at about 6:15 and it was now 9:15. And with no pain meds...it was very, very interesting. The nurse came in and started talking to Caleb and of course, the first thing that Caleb wanted to tell him was that he had three cats names Odin, Aris and Sephie. The nurse said, oh yeah, I have chickens. Caleb perked right up and said, Chicken...ooooohhhhhh, that makes me hungry.

And the giggles began. Everytime someone would ask Caleb how is was doing, he would tell them, "I'm fine. My bones hurt, but I'm fine." After seeing the doctor, getting in touch with the Orthopedic doctor to get in line for having his arm set, we spent most of our time (after the IV) shooting each other with syringes full of water. Hey, just because you are at the hospital doesn't mean you have to be bored to tears. Besides, if they didn't want us to squirt each other, they shouldn't have given us the syringes in the first place...and maybe, just maybe we could bug them enough that they would bump us up on the list and we could get out of there faster (NOT).

We finally got in to the Orthopedic room at about 10:30. Caleb told the doctors all about how he broke his arm, and there was blood in his bones (called marrow) and how he was sending mom and dad home and he was staying with his new friends. I think they would have kept him.

Then the sedation began. I love Ketamine. It really is a fun drug to watch. They prepped Calebs arm, hung a massive weight from it and worked on it until you heard a heart stopping pop. They removed the weight and took a million real time x-rays as the finished massaging the bones back into place. It was wicked cool to watch. Felix didn't even pass out, which was even cooler. After Caleb was casted we headed back to our exam room to wait for him to come out of his stupor.

It didn't take long for him to start coming out of it and you know, he was one of the funniest drunks I have ever seen. When he was able to talk Felix asked him if he was feeling better now that his arm was fixed. And with the most awesome slurred speech a four year old could muster he said, "I don't sink so." Very sing songy, very cute.

A few minutes later Felix asked him if he was Mommy's boy or Daddy's boy (a constant war in our home). He didn't respond, so Felix and I kept talking to each other. A good 3 to 5 minutes later Caleb said, "Mommmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeezboy". Right on dude.

Once he was awake we started the discharge procedure. We get to follow up with the orthopedist on Thursday to see if there was a secondary fracture in his wrist (we couldn't see it on Saturday night because of the manipulation for his Radius), and make sure that the bone is starting to mend.

It was a long, long day and night. Full of wonderful things, not so wonderful things and as a mommy, wonderment at how tough her kidlets are (especially since there was no pain meds until 12:30 when we got home). WHOA.

Lessons Learned
1. Hospital staff on a busy Saturday night really need some comic relief (that is what the Morgan's are for).
2. Calebs tolerance for pain, PHENOMENAL.
3. Having a U shaped arm is kind of gross lookin'.
4. Watching a 4 year old move his U shaped arm is really gross lookin'.
5. There is no reason to stop enjoying life just because you happen to be hanging out at a hospital.

4 comments:

Megan said...

Wow that sucks! Poor kid...I hope he heals really fast! My mom just did the same thing yesterday, but she has to get surgery for hers.
Good luck, and if you need anything just yell over the fence. If I don't hear you Bosco will tell me your there! ; )

Cheryl said...

Holy cow! I hope he will be ok. So not fun for you guys! Sounds like you had one interesting Day!

The Ridgeways said...

You crack me up, but I so agree I would have thought the whole process "wicked cool" as well. Hope he heals fast for you with no permanent damage, poor kid!

Christy said...

Again, happy I can sit back and watch and enjoy the Morgan show! I'm glad Caleb is alright. One thing I am wondering, is this a new type of break/experience in the Morgan Medical Drama? If you need something, holler! :) love ya tons!