Chloe's broken arm #2. Yup, #2. She broke her left arm two years ago - April 2017. It was quite an experience - we were at the Macedonia baseball fields at one of Ryan's games. And since it was a crowded place with people everywhere, someone called an ambulance and we rode in style to Scottish Rite. She had three different casts over seven weeks at the age of four. It was a long, long, long process, and we thought we were the expert on broken bones.
June 24th, 2019 - Aunt Lolly's birthday! And the day before Jessi's birthday. For Jessi's birthday, I offered to take their three kiddos for the evening so they could have a date night. A whole bunch of them played in the backyard all afternoon, and we worked on this surprise sign and picture and even a birthday cake
Note Chloe's amazing looking left arm! Last glimpses of it.
After presenting Jessi with her sign and singing happy birthday and eating cake with all these kids [right before dinner!], we sent them off on their date. I had made a big batch of homemade spaghetti sauce that always seems to go over very well with this crowd, and then Coleson and I left with six kids in tow to go watch Abby's summer league basketball.
Abby's on the court warming up, the three boys are sitting quietly on the top row of the bleachers, and Chloe and Mari are sweetly playing patty-cake and whatnot in the corner of the gym while I'm sitting on the side of the bleachers, about five feet away. They were not doing anything crazy, in fact I had just thought, this is so cute maybe I should video the little patty-cake-hand-shake routine they were designing. And then just like that, simply standing up on the gym floor [which can be slippery, and she did have flip-flops on, and maybe her feet were a little wet from walking into the gym in the rain] Chloe slipped and fell. If you are a parent, you know the scream. I was down there in two seconds and slid her into my lap. Surprisingly I remember thinking she's calmed down a lot, maybe I was wrong, but then I saw her arm, and there was no doubt. I carried her over to Coleson who looked at her and said you need to go. So I did. I left him [ohhhhhh - I haven't mentioned that he's in a sling at this point with a broken scapula]. I left Coleson there with his broke shoulder, five children, and no car. Abby had about an hour of basketball to play, but even so by the time Zach got back to our side of town, dropped Jessi off [otherwise he wouldn't have had enough room in his car], and got to Cherokee high school, they were all locked outside playing in the grass for almost another hour. But they still beat Chloe and I home by a long time, so I didn't feel too badly for them...
So I got Chloe buckled in and stabilized as best as I could with towels and blankets - I've always said I could live out of my van. Even though I knew they couldn't, I called the CHOA urgent care near us to see if they could cast broken arms. She told me if I knew it was broken to head to an ER. We've been to Scottish Rite so many times by now with both Chloe and Abby, that that's where I wanted to be anyways. It took maybe 45 minutes to get there. Chloe did her Happy Place routine. Once we got there, I was happily surprised at how quickly they took us back. In total, we were there for less then four hours, and home by 1am - much quicker then the last time. Ironically enough, she had the same x-ray tech as the first time. He was looking at her chart and saw his name in there :) So I asked him about the room - I really felt like this was the same ER room we had been in two years prior. He said probably so, there are only three ortho ER rooms. Crazy. Since it was late at night, it was hard to find anything good on the TV, so we watched the Braves game knowing that Ryan and Daddy would be at home watching as well.
When you break both forearm bones like Chloe's done twice now, it's very obvious and visible, which also means sedation and realignment. Once she's comfortable and out, you have to leave the room for the actual realignment part and you return about 15 mins later to a casted, insanely drowsy kid. And for whatever reason, the instinct seems to be to sit up. So I have to comfort her and hold her down and talk to her. And once she started talking - oh boy! If it hadn't been for the situation she was in, it probably would have been quite comical. Okay, it might still have been a little funny. When our quiet, speech-therapy baby broke her arm the last time she wasn't much of a talker yet, but this time was totally different. Oh, and keep in mind, she's been in her Happy Place until now and literally hasn't talked to anyone. Everyone comments on how calm she is and how well she's handling it. She has always handled life by shutting down [although truth be told, she probably comes by that honestly!]. As the sedation is wearing off, she is saying the cutest, most random things. She sees three of me at some point and tells me there are two clocks on the wall. Almost immediately, she asks if the Braves won. Her cast is blue, like the sky, although even that decision was a long, difficult one to make from the depths of her Happy Place.
She was so happy to finally leave and head for home. We got there about one am, thus I was disappointed when she woke up at her normal time. But after a small breakfast, she fell back asleep on the couch and napped for two hours.
This was a Monday night. I mentioned to several people in the ER that we we're supposed to leave for vacation on Friday afternoon. The consensus is that's no problem, just try to get into the ortho before you leave - usually you go a week out. So I make an appt for Friday. The PA we had liked the first time around, Ed, was off Thursday and Friday, bummer. But then Chloe's fingers start swelling and getting alarmingly worse, so I called and changed the appt to Thursday. We went to the Old Milton location, and at the time I was happy with the PA we saw. I had fully expected them to cut her cast a little to relieve the pressure on her fingers. But after an xray that showed her bones were actually mis-aligning themselves and spreading themselves back out, she wanted to keep as much pressure on the bones as possible. She wasn't concerned about the swelling since Chloe could still move her fingers and feel them and this and that and whatever. She mentioned if the bones didn't start correcting themselves, we might have to go back to Scottish Rite for sedation and realignment and basically starting over. But she wasn't concerned at this point, and I left feeling reassured and confident about leaving town. We made our next follow-up for the next Monday - after a full week plus of vacation. Fortunately with Ed in Cumming.
So Friday we left town and spent the first night at Nana's in Greenville where we left Maya. I actually spent that whole night in Chloe's twin size bed as she sobbed off and on all night. She was so pitiful. But fortunately, she seemed to be getting a little better as the days went on. A lot of driving has it's benefits - she was able to rest and raise her arm. And once we got to Rhode Island and the pond and the pool, the waterproof cast cover was a vacation-saver for sure. She wore that thing around a lot and was still able to have lots of fun!
Her fingers certainly had us worried, and we were constantly asking her to wiggle them and whatnot. By the time we got home and got to that Monday appt, I think we were all a little apprehensive about what to expect. She had started to mention that her arm itched in a few places, but I didn't really think much of it, and we did the tricks - tap the cast, scratch the other arm, etc. Her appt that afternoon was at 1:30 and fortunately it was only Chloe and I. Grandma and Grandpa had come to town with Henry and Emily, so they stayed home with everyone.
Ed was NOT happy about the swelling at all. He immediately said, it's this one band by her wrist that's too tight [and I could see it as soon as I knew what to look for]. All we have to do is a little cut, relieve the wrist and fingers, and it doesn't affect the forearm. He took an x-ray, which showed her misalignment up to 18%. So he's going back and forth about what to do - 18% is still acceptable and most doctors and insurances won't cover trying to correct it, and yet he doesn't think it's acceptable and its getting worse and if we wait it'll be surgery. So he finally decides just to go ahead and cut the little strip by her hand if nothing else, when the head doctor calls with the okay to take off the entire cast and try to realign it in the office.
Cutting off a cast isn't supposed to hurt. Chloe had it done three times two years ago. The nurses always demonstrate on themselves how it might tickle but it doesn't hurt your skin. Well, Chloe is screaming. I'm holding her down. Aside from holding down Abby for the IV in her head as a baby, it's one of the hardest things I've done as a mom. They finally get the cut and then start peeling back the cast. Yeah, my usually quiet and calm Happy Place dweller is screaming inconsolably. Turns out her skin is a MESS. And peeling cotton that's stuck in your messy skin is insanely painful. Ed called them fracture blisters. Little alligator skin bubbles all over her arm, worse by her wrist, that would literally pop and drip liquid as he ran his fingers over them. And that spot on her upper arm that she mentioned a few times felt itchy was completely raw and red and skinless, as was a spot on the bottom of her elbow. My poor, poor girly.
Nurse Janice. Amazing. Totally sent from God :) She spent almost four hours with us that Monday. Cleaning Chloe's arm and applying cool towels - her skin was burning hot to the touch. The cold towels would warm up in seconds. She had sterile water that she would dab on Chloe's arm to clean and soothe it. Ed was taking pictures and sending them to doctors and someone at Scottish Rite. He mentioned at some point sending us down there to the ER, but decided they couldn't do anything more then we were doing, so fortunately we were able to stay put. Chloe was treated to a blue Powerade and Goldfish - the real reason we go to CHOA?! I told her I could just buy her one at home if she really wanted the Powerade that badly. Eventually they decided to put a plastic liner of some sort on her arm - no way they could put anything like cotton on it again. But something about the plastic pinching her skin too much to leave under a tight cast. So they create a soft cast over this plastic sleeve and eventually send us home with an appt for 8am the next morning. And when it's not any better on Tuesday, they clean her up again real good and send us home with another appt for Wednesday morning at 8am.
Wednesday's appt was pretty rough, it's about here that we're hitting the bottom. Her skin is still red - angry as Ed calls it - and has these big pussy blisters on it. Everything's oozy and her soft casts get nasty just in the 24 hours that we've been going in between appts. Ed collects the ooze on his fancy over-sized q-tip thingy to send off to the labs and goes ahead and starts Chloe on antibiotics in addition to the Benadryl, Motrin, and calcium/vitamin D supplements. They wrap her up again and we have another appt for Friday morning at 8am.
Meanwhile, my parents leave with Ryan and this is our week to have Henry and Emily. We've been looking forward to this for months, but it's pretty hard. Chloe can't do much, and I'm a worried mess about her. Without a hard cast, things like the playground and pool just aren't even an option. And with her antibiotic, we're supposed to keep her out of the sun. Happy Summer?!? Fortunately, Abby was an awesome "counselor" at Camp Aunt Amy. And the sweetest next door neighbors ever, Kayla and Kinsley, were great helpers too. We managed to have some fun I think and hope!
Chloe's next appt on Friday morning was pretty bad too. Ed called twice over to the labs, angry that he still doesn't have results. Chloe is still all red and yucky and isn't making any progress. We decide that even the soft casts have to go in lieu of being able to air out her arm. Ed and mostly Janice teach me how to layer her sleeves and the sugar tong and then wrap it all with ace bandages and sling it all by myself. I'm beginning to think a basic nursing class should be a requirement for all moms?! :) So whenever we're at home, Chloe's arm is to be free - resting on cool towels, we can apply some vaseline, that sort of thing. And I can wrap if we have to go anywhere. Ed also proceeds to give me his personal cell phone number, which I figure isn't a good sign. And Janice tells me when he leaves the room to be sure I use it if needed, Ed doesn't mind a single bit and he's worried about her, and doesn't give his number out to just anybody. Great. While happy he cares so much, it's a little unsettling at the same time. He also tells me things to watch for and reminds me to take her to Scottish Rite ER anytime. Yikes.
Meanwhile, we still have Henry and Emily, Grandma and Grandpa still have Ryan in Florida. Taking Chloe to Florida for the weekend as planned is no longer an option. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Grandpa and Uncle Brian for meeting me halfway in Tifton on Saturday to swap kiddos. I just couldn't handle the thought of leaving Chloe all weekend [and Coleson still has a broke shoulder and can't drive that far and/or swap around Henry & Emily car seats].
Chloe finally started to turn a corner that weekend! Airing out was exactly what she needed. And probably the antibiotics were working by then too. And for me, having Ryan home again and the five of us together under our own roof for the first time in over two weeks was a nice mental boost that I didn't even realize I needed so badly. By Chloe's appt on Monday she was really looking good - at least relatively! And Ed finally had the lab results - staph and bacillus. Which I guess is relatively good too - merca is the big scary one that he was worried about. A hard cast is still not really an option as she's not healed, so we continue with the Mommy system of bracing and airing out. And we go a whole week before the next appt!
Although, Friday after that appt, Chloe wakes me up telling me she itches and sticking her red feet in my face. She's got these little red bumps all over her feet and her right arm. They get worse and starting spreading up, and - surprisingly and annoyingly it took a little convincing - we get an appt with her pediatrician. At first I'm thinking hand, foot, mouth. But the bumps are all over her back and chest by early afternoon. Our appt is at 2:20. And the first bumps by her ankles and getting bigger and redder. I'm thinking she's the one-in-a-million who is going to get measles or chicken pox or something crazy like that despite being fully vaccinated. Turns out they're hives and an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. Didn't guess that. She was about nine days in with only a dose or two left to go! They gave her a dose of Benadryl in the office - we had quit that and the Motrin on Wednesday since she was doing so much better. They said to continue on Zyrtec once a day and stop the antibiotic right away. That did the trick! She got better pretty quickly.
By her Monday morning appt, she was looking great. Hives gone, the infection a distant memory, just a few patches of dry skin on her recovering left arm. Four weeks from the break. Everybody is super happy for her! Her bone misalignment peaked at 23 degrees, but is actually getting better even without the pressure of a hard cast. It's been quite a long road, but she's avoided hospitalization and surgery!! Ed presents her with an easily removable, much more comfortable, forearm-long brace to wear instead of the Mommy-made soft casts. Her elbow is free! And with the antibiotics done, she gets the okay to enjoy the sun again. Ed says she can swim, but she needs to wear a brace for that too so she doesn't try to rotate her arm in the freedom that water provides. I sometimes catch myself thinking about how much better she's doing, and I have to remind myself that she does still have two very broken bones. But sooo, sooo much better and a happily ever after. Three weeks until the next appt!!!!! That'll be seven weeks from the day she broke it.
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