New Cast and A's Bday

I know, these are the pics you are after so even though it might kill me, I will go out of chronological order. :-) We went in this morning to get Emily's real cast...

I tried to prep her and get her ready but as soon as we got there, she was convinced that they were going to hurt her. She wouldn't let anyone touch her arm or even look at her directly in the eyes. So when the nurse took her splint off, she whipped her arm around behind her back and held it there. The look she gave was so defiant, it would have been impossible to misinterpret. It's a long story (that involves chocolate and the ipad and even gummy bears) but we did finally get her arm out and after much screaming and a couple gallons of tears, we had a new cast.

She has an appointment in four weeks to take another x-ray and see how it is doing.  At that time they will decide if she needs a short cast for another week or two or if she is fine to not have a cast at all.  Dad is taking her to that appointment, I will make sure it is during his time off!!  A saw?  Yeah, I'm not going to that if there is any way to avoid it!

When I asked for a picture in the hallway, she said, "Yeah, but my no wook." (Yeah, but I'm not gonna look. Pout.) Shown below.

Then a guy walking down the hall with his son just plopped him down next to her and told her to take a picture with the baby...suddenly she was all smiles.  Wasn't that sweet?!  Not Em, the guy!

At home, smiles were fast and easy.  Back with sister, she feels safe.

Everyone wants to know if K is jealous of the pink cast.  No.  She knows what it is.  She is, however, a little jealous of the attention.  This evening I was informed that tomorrow we were going to play lots of pretend games (she listed them all), just us and no one else.  Since tomorrow is school for Em, I agreed and K's whole countenance changed.  Guess we will color, paint, and play lions and tigers and bears, oh my!, instead of running errands and going to the library like we usually do.

We also survived our first bath thanks to some good advice about Glad Press n Seal from cousin Kari.  We might be spacing baths out a little more...or investing in Glad.

Yep, that's T-Rex attcking the cast.

Then we went through all the clothes in the 'too big' bin and found some pj's that went over the cast and despite the fact that it is in the 50's these days, pulled out the summer gear to find as many tank tops as we own.  (Kids' sleeves just aren't conducive to large casts).

She was very mad at first about the pj's because they were too big and didn't fit her feet.  Then I told her they were brand new and she was going to get them first, before K, and she seemed to calm down and then, looking at me with a sly smile, asked me for a picture so she could show K.  Such a younger sister!

On Sunday we went to A's bday party.  I know you think we are crazy but Em was already bored of watching TV (after one whole morning) and was starting to drive us up the wall, not to mention stress Mom out because she doesn't seem to notice she has a broken arm that's not in a cast yet.  Anyway, we gave her some of the pain meds they prescribed and headed out.

These two are showing you their tatoos.

I love these bounce houses!  SO much fun for all!

Daddy had Emily duty for most of the party.  Yep, my shirt, her vest, pj bottoms and shoes...just trying to keep her warm.  Everyone who saw her, greeted her then asked if she was on pain meds.  It was so funny!  Her eyes were half drooped and she was totally cool with everything.

They made strawberry planters decorated with Strawberry Shortcake...guess what the theme was?

Can't be a bday without drama...but we sang anyway!  :-)

And K got her smiling again...Happy Birthday Girl!!

Not to mention showing me how well her dress twirls.

A one-armed kid can't do much.  Glad we have a real cast now.  She will learn to use it and gain some of her independence back.

Oh yeah, this is what I am talking about.  She breaks her arm but still puts the couch on the play table and then climbs up on it so she can read a book.  Ah!!  Pray for me!  I have to believe God will heal this bone, in spite of Emily.

Well, the adventure has just begun...a month, maybe six weeks seems like an eternity to me right now!  She is super independent and does not like to ask for help!  And well, I'm her Mom, guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  God Bless!!

Em's Broken Arm

Well, since virtually everyone knows that Em broke her arm yesterday, I figure this makes a far better story if I just tell it from the beginning of the day...

Let's see..."the day" began dark and early at 5:30am. I had arranged with a friend to come over to be here when the girls woke up so I could bail out and go to my cousins' race that began at 7:30am. You all know my cousin, the one I do races with, Kenny. Well, this was his fiance's first ever triathlon, so I really wanted to be there to cheer her on. It was a very foggy, hazy morning and quite cool, especially for us this time of the year.

I missed the main start, but made it for Sarah's start...

Kenny came out of the water first...

Who smiles after swimming and while running to get on a bike you ask?  Apparently my soon to be cousin.

In the transition area, getting ready to bike...

Sarah did great...just kept going, never stopped...a great feat for a first timer!  And she even had to put her chain back on her bike at one point.

Kenny decided to try the mountain bike race instead of the road race.  Apparently it was incredibly difficult, not just with hills and technical obstacles but also a sandy patch.  Fourteen miles later, he was worn out!  :-)

Once again, who smiles?  Ok, someone finishing their first triathlon!

Victory for the about to be newlyweds!!

Once they were done and ready to pack up, I headed back home, got the girls some lunch and put them down for a nap they did not take.  Why?  They have a sixth sense of when you really want them to nap and they set their mind to resist.  :-)

Anyway, in the afternoon, we heade over to our cousins' house where we were introduced to car washing time.  I loved it!  Such a creative idea!  This is B, so careful not to get shaving cream on his hands.

And K, tongue out in concentration...

Em spent some time with the dogs.  She must be getting more gentle since dogs are starting to trust her.  A great sign in my mind.

Cousin Kari was here from MN so we were having a great time visiting and enjoying the sun.

And oogling over how ridiculously tall J is getting.  Seriously?!  He turned 5 a couple weeks ago.  Five!  I just kept watching him, amazed that he could be that big.  :-)

Anyway, back to the story...we were having such a wonderful time!  Kisses for cousin Kari...

Playgrounds for the kids...

And then for whatever reason, Em decided it was time to let go of the swing.  She fell and right away we could see that her arm did not look quite right.  She wasn't really using it at all so we headed straight to the hospital.

Apparently we headed to the hospital along with half of LA.  We sat in the waiting room for three and a half hours before we even got an x-ray, then another hour before I started to start prying.  Em was doing so well I started to wonder if her was even broken.  All I could think was, "How could a child with a broken arm sit here for hours on end just chatting with us and watching the tv...no tears?  She is either the toughest kid on the planet or it's just not broken."

If her arm hadn't just been sitting by her side, lifeless, I think I would have taken her home.  Unfortunately she is SO tough that it fooled the triage nurse and that was part of the long wait.  Instead of writing down "broken arm" he wrote "swollen lower arm".  Really?  I went to the ER for a swollen arm???  So every kid who came in went before her in priority.

Anyway, after the x-ray I finally lost my patience and went to the nurse to ask if we could just go home.  She looked up Em's chart and then told me she wasn't allowed to say anything, but she would not leave under any circumstances.  I smiled at her "lack of information" and went back to my seat.

We finally got to go in to the back and then sat in a hallway for a little while.  This time around it didn't take long for me to go looking for someone.  The idea that my daughter's arm was broken and she hadn't had any help or pain meds for over six hours was killing me!  I found a nurse and kindly asked if we had gotten lost in the mayhem and at least could she get my daughter some pain medicine.  This finally got the ball rolling and a dr came to see her.  He showed us the break and it was in both bones but they had to set it and that required a whole team to watch her while they sedated her and did the procedure.  Oof Dah!  All I could think was, "It took over five hours to get a bed...in a hallway...how long will it take to get an entire team together???"  So, after a brief discussion with Kari, I sent her home to stay with K so M, who is used to staying up all nigt, could come take a shift with Em.

Of course, the moment she left it all started to move quickly.  So I was left alone to deal with hysterical Em.  Yes, I know I said she was awesome, which she was, charming the pants off everyone and still using all of her good manners, but as soon as the drs showed up and tried to even just put 'stickers' on her for monitoring, she completely lost it.  Then they had to put an IV in and well, it was over.  They are always surprised at how strong she is, so even with one arm not in use, they had to call in another nurse to hold her still.  She kept asking every nurse who came in, "Pwease be berry nice and gentle," in her sweet little voice, half cracking in fear and every one of them melted.  It was so sad and sweet all at the same time.

The sedation was everyone's concern since she had reacted so poorly as a baby to the primary medication they use for that.  We were trying a new medication so they wanted to be sure their ducks were in a row, which took a little longer too.

Anyway, she cried on and off from then until they sedated her, more upset about the tape than the needles.  The drs kicked me out for the setting of the bones, which later I was grateful for.  I was so tired by then that when they first sent me out, I was just standing there, ten feet away, watching what they were doing and when she resisted the sedation and started arching her back, the dr looked at me and said, "You can leave now, Mom."  It was like being woken up.  I looked at him and it slowly registered, so I went to the bathroom and tried not to think.  :-)  

Well, all of that and it was over in ten minutes.  She survived with no complications, which might be an Emily first. :-) And this is my little girl not even 15 minutes after she woke up.  I can't get over how strong she is!!

They put a splint on, which will stay for a couple of days to wait for the swelling to go down before they put a cast on.  We kept telling her she was going to have a pretty pink cast just like Auntie K and she was happy about that...and then they didn't put it on.  Ahhh!  Oh well, by then it was 2am and she was too tired to care.  Once she ate and proved she was all right, they let us go.

Dad finally made it, but he missed it all.  Should have sent for him five hours sooner!!!

We got home at 2:30am and went to bed.  Believe it or not, I had a hard time falling asleep.  Nothing like a 21 hour day to mess you up!  When I woke up the next morning, my clock said 8:30am and I thought it was broken since I knew K had to be up.  I had such a big headache that I wasn't sure if I could walk (dehydration is my guess).  But I went to check on the girls and found them in Kari's bed, K reading to the other two.  It was so cute!

Well, to top it off, I was on this week for teaching Sunday school, so I bailed out of the house as soon as I got up and spent an hour and a half with 14 four year olds.  Good times!  :-)  We have a birthday party this afternoon and school tomorrow morning and friends from Germany coming to visit this week, so, I will sleep some day...maybe next week?  I just hope we can get Em in to the ortho to get her cast on early this week and take care of all that before they show up.

She should only need to wear the cast for three weeks and then be done...assuming she heals quickly.  Thank you for all your prayers!  Please pray for a quick and painless remodeling of the bone!   God Bless!!