7.07.2014

Stratton’s broken arm

A couple of weeks back Stratton fell off the monkey bars at Excel and broke his arm. I picked him up from school and he was screaming. I was fairly sure that he was just being dramatic since it had happened minutes before I got there to pick him up. I took him straight to see Brandye at her house. She suggested we go to a firstcare clinic and get it x-rayed, then she could log into the system and view his xray from her house and see what was going on. I am not going to go into major details about the initial visit to a firstcare clinic other than it was a less than desirable experience and THANK GOODNESS for my sister-in-law Brandye and the fact that she works for the best ortho docs in town. Talk about the VIP treatment. I’m not necessarily one that likes to have strings pulled for them, but when it’s your kid and they are in pain (and I mean he was in MAJOR pain) some special favors are worth it. Plus it’s really nice to have an aunt that can run back to her office and grab the right tools and come to your house to split your broke elbow instead of spending the night in the ER. So, after x-rays they thought he needed a pin put in his elbow but after they got him back into surgery it only needed to be re-set. He got a cast, then we went back a week later and it looked good so they reinforced the original cast. He will wear this till the 21st and hopefully be able to get it cut off at that appointment.

Friday Morning at Jonesboro Orthopedics and Sports Medicine clinic. We had the place to ourselves since they don’t see patients on Fridays. . . but the doc called in the radiologist just for us : ) Stratton was pretty good considering. He was starving and thirsty, but Brandye said not to let him eat just in case they needed to do surgery. Good thing we held him off! They sent the x-ray to the doc and Brandye who were in surgeries, the doc read them and said that he needed a pin and in less than 2 hours Stratton was back in the OR. Amazing.

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Waiting to be taken back to surgery. He’s so calm and nonchalant.

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He showed out a bit in pre-op. They told us that the “juice” they give them to help them relax would make him sleepy. Haha. We just laughed and told them nope. Not Stratton. Get ready for the show! It’s like it takes his normal personality and just revs it up to the max! He was telling stories and just talking to everyone and being so silly. He had the entire pre-op room laughing. Pretty sure at one time we had about 10 doctors and nurses around his bed. The doctors and anesthesiologist couldn’t even talk to us because Stratton was talking so much!

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After surgery they brought him back up to a room and he went back to sleep for 2 hours! Not surprisingly since he only slept about 2 hours the night before. When he finally woke up he was cranky- of course and wanted a popsicle! They left his IV in just in case he was to get sick and they needed to give him meds, and he DID NOT like that AT ALL. He wasn’t all there either. He said “I’m so de-confused”. Poor guy!

We got home a little after 5pm. Margie and Terry had come to town to get Arden and take her home with them so we could all rest a little. My mom was in Jonesboro at the hospital with Papa, and daddy had come up when he found out Stratton was having surgery so they both came to the house to see him for awhile too. We ordered pizza and Stratton ate a little but not much. For most of the night he was in good spirits and enjoyed the company of all 4 grandparents! He slept well Friday night and didn’t have any more pain medicine. By Saturday morning he was playing and running around like normal.

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Tuesday was swim day at Excel. I felt bad sending him since he would have to stay at school with the handful of kids who don’t like to swim or whose parent’s won’t let them swim. So I let Stratton come to work with me. He actually did really good. We had lunch with Aunt Brandye and Uncle Dillon at Sue’s. Brandye gave us some more CoWrap for his cast and Stratton got a cupcake!

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He didn’t take a nap, however until we got in the car to go home that evening then he crashed! In like 2 minutes he was OUT.

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Monday the 7th, at JOSM Waiting to see Aunt Brandye

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Strong guy.

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Strong girl, too!

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New and Blue!

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A few days later he was back at my office and I thought his blue cast needed some decorating! I think I did a pretty good job considering how wiggly he is!

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What an experience! And it’s a tough time of the year to be in a cast! It’s hot and you can’t go swimming with a cast! Too bad he spent the 4th in a cast and his birthday! But it will be off soon! I’m not complaining! At least he didn’t have to wear it for 6 or 8 weeks!