Friday, June 19, 2015

A picture's worth a thousand words



But a story puts it into context....

That is little tyke's arm!

I was at work last evening and hubby calls me at about 1730 and tells me that she hurt herself on the treadmill. I was indifferent because she's been acting silly when she's been using it while supervised by me. I figured she got her due for doing something she's been admonished for - figured that maybe she'd learn her lesson the hard way! Hubby told me that she had fallen and hurt her arm and wasn't moving it. I didn't think much of it because if she had fallen from standing she shouludn't have been seriously injured. But I was swamped at work and I went on with my shift.

Around 2200hrs when things calmed down a smidgen at work I called for an update. Hubby said she still wasn't moving her arm, was in considerable pain and wasn't her lively energetic crazy self - so that's major clue #1 - for SOMETHING to stop this kid, something must be very wrong. Unfortunately, hubby had already left for work and no one could bring her to the hospital. So instead they took her to bed.

While I was at work I was talking to evening hospital manager (we're chums) and we were talking about how "we take care of our own" when we're in the hospital or go thru ER - I was "hells no, that hasn't been my experience AT ALL!!!" I told her about my previous meningitis experience and the abcess/fistula times. Then later in the conversation I was talking about little tyke and how hubby said that she was really hurt - she told me that I needed to bring her in just so that she could be cleared. I said that I didn't want to have to wait because I knew certain ER sections would be closed and we would wait FOREVER to be seen.... she said that she would flag my little tyke's name so that we could be seen faster and she would speak to the Dr. there to give him a heads up.

So I got off work - drove the 30 minutes home to pick up little tyke and when I picked her up, just the action of moving hurt (and she was asleep so that tells u the amount of pain!) so I knew that she needed to be brought in to the ER. Drove another 30-40 minutes back to my hospital and checked in. About 45 min later we saw the Dr then 15 min later got the x-ray and immediately saw the break come up on the screen. I believe my reaction was "shitballs!". Went back to the unit and waited for the Dr - another 45 min. He said that he could put it in a sling - I told him in NO uncertain terms that THAT would NOT work for this girl. I told him that her arm would ultimately break further if we just did a sling. So I told him that he needed to find another solution! So off her went.... another 45-1hr later he came back and had me follow him into the casting room where he put a semi cast from the top of her shoulder to her finger tips and then we put a sling on just to support it.

Now we have to wait until tuesday to see the ortho Dr to find out what's going to happen. They could do an ORIF or leave it and hope it heals in alignment. If they want to go the surgery route - it can be done in the first 14 days of injury. The whole issue with all this is that we were supposed to leave tuesday in order to go home and see the eldest graduate elementary school. Now things are up in the air until that appt. AHHHHHHH such stress!!!

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