Thursday right after Brandi got to school, she bumped her nose on a metal bar at the top of the slide. I had to take her a clean shirt. When I talked to the secretary at the school she told me that Brandi's shirt was covered in blood. It wasn't. It was just a little bit of splatter, but a new shirt was warranted anyway. Who wants to go through the day with a blood spattered shirt?
The secretary also told me that Brandi was hit with a ball. When I found out it was a metal bar and that it had bled for 10 minutes or so, I was upset that they didn't let her have ice for it. But I held my tongue because I didn't want a repeat of last year's principal debacle. (though the principal thinks we are bffs since she found out I know J. Scott Savage. We so are not.)
Today Brandi had another soccer practice with the club soccer team. On the very last play, she got hit in the nose with the ball. She told me she heard it crack when the ball hit. Then she had a mouth full of blood. I am pretty sure that if it wasn't broken before it is now. She says it itches but it hurts to touch. And she can't breath. And it is swollen and her eyes have dark shadows.
It is hard to tell when she has a bruise. In fact, I can't remember ever seeing a bruise on her, but I am sure she has had them. She is just dark enough that they are hard to see. And if you were to look at her nose, it probably wouldn't look swollen, it would look like your stereotypical African-American nose. But for her, that is swollen.
So much for tea parties and baby dolls. I still get bumps, bruises and broken bones. Even if she is a girl.
(If you look closely at the bridge of her nose, you can see a darker line running across it. That is the bruise. And see the darker circles under her eyes? )
So, last night Jake and his friend said they were going to run up to Josh's house and would be back in 5 minutes. It takes 5 min to get to Josh's house so I said, "Do you want me to time you?" Jake said 10 minutes then and Josh said better make it 15 just to be safe. I said I would time them, they got on their bikes and left. At 20 minutes I was thinking to myself, "I told you so". Just a couple minutes later Jake and Josh came walking in and I was ready to say neener, neener to them or some such silliness when Jake said, "I crashed.... bad" I turned around expecting blood all over and could only see a couple of scrapes that needed cleaning. However everytime I touched his arm to clean out the elbow or hand, he would wince and gasp. I felt around but could find nothing to concern me. He kept saying he couldn't move his fingers, or turn his wrist, so I dug out a sling thinking that it was probably just sore from impact and if I immobilized it for a bit he would feel better. I told him that if it didn't feel better in 30 minutes to let me know. In 30 minutes, he let me know.
I asked him, "On a scale of 1-10, what is your pain level?" He said, "8." We both started laughing because it reminded us of this:
But he was serious so I looked at it again and his fingers looked a bit grey so I started investigating further. He had a small bump on his wrist that kind of concerned me, so we headed to the emergency room because of course it is after 9 pm.
X-rays showed a break in the radius, but not just any ordinary break. No, a small piece of the bone had twisted at an awkward angle. Jacob had the choice to either grit his teeth and let the doctor move it into place or be sedated. I said if he choose the gritting teeth option, I was headed to the waiting room. He choose sedation.
We moved rooms, he got an I.V. and some warm blankets to stop his shivering (nerves), the orthepedic came and looked (he was there setting 2 other broken arms and a little girl with a broken leg came in as we were leaving). Jake then got some fast acting anesthesia and the dr. moved his arm to a special x-ray machine.
The meds weren't in a high enough dosage and Jake tried to get up off of the bed. It took the respritory guy, two nurses another dr. to hold him down enough the nurse could give him more meds. By the time the second dose took full effect, the orthepedic was done and wrapping Jake's arm in a splint. From the moment of first dose to Jake waking up enough to be coherent- 15 minutes. First dose to splint, 5 minutes. Jake, of course, remembers none of this.
I guess he was dreaming because when he started waking up and talking to us, he thought he was in an episode of Stargate SG-1. It was pretty funny. One of the nurses told me that he was impressed with the job I have done raising Jake because how good he was and of all the things he didn't say and do as he was coming out of anesthesia. He said he hears a lot of horrible things from kids and Jake was one of the more mild mannered ones he has ever had. Jake is a good kid. Love you son.
You may have to click to make it bigger, but the dr. drew a line
so you can see where the break is, but you can definately see
the bend in the bone
The next picture was taken .2 minutes into the manipulation. The dr.
drew a mark so you can see where the break is
He has an appointment with the orthepedic next week. Jake has a splint for the rest of this week and then next week if the bone is still where it should be, it will be cast in a short cast. Yay, just in time for band camp! The dr. was teasing him saying that maybe he should add a drum stick to the cast next week.
Brandi is feeling left out and wants a cast and me to cut her food for her, and to not have to do chores for a week and to be able to sit on the couch and watch movies. She suggested that perhaps she will break a leg during soccer. I just looked at her. Silly girl.
Posts
