November 4th/5th Everett's First Trip to the ER

So here is how it all started...

Friday night Everett came down with a bad fever while we were attending my old works fall festival. He has a costume on outside but we changed before going home. The kid was on fire! I thought maybe he just got to warm in the costume but we were outside but we did go in the bouncer some. My first clue that he wasn't feeling well though was when he won a cupcake at the cake walk and didn't really want it. Vinson was also warm out of his costume so we thought maybe everything was okay. We figured he would cool down as we left and got in the car and aired out a little.

After winning a cupcake

By the time we got home, nothing really changed. We took his temperature with our thermometer which I don't feel is the best (It's a temple/armpit one) but it said 102.9 I think. We called Anthon's mom and here come over with her better thermometer (an ear one) and his temperature was 101 something I think. So we started by giving him some Tylenol or Ibuprofen and piggy backed those every 3 hours. He seemed to do fairly well as long as we kept it in his system but we didn't want to wake him up in the middle of the night all the time so his fever would go back up some in the evenings. We were also using some oils that my friend Marie gave us to try and help. We used peppermint on his chest, on guard on his feet and melaluca on his ears (all mixed with olive oil).

Feeling Feverish

This lasted all weekend so on Monday night we finally decided that we better take him into the doctor so we took him to the Phoenix Children's urgent care. One way we can tell Everett doesn't feel good is by looking at his eyes. It gives him away every time. We got to urgent care and he was doing fairly well but I suspected that he had an ear infection and that was the cause of the fever. We got back into the room and they checked him out. He did indeed have the start or finish of an ear infection in one of his ears. She told us that she would write a prescription but that if he seemed to be doing okay then we didn't need to fill it because we don't want to use medication when something can go away on its on. I think the oils helped.

Can I just brag about how good Everett was at this appointment too! He stepped right on the scale and let them weigh him, he gave no trouble in getting his temp taken or pulse checked, and sat still for them to check his heart and breathing. This was by far the best he had ever been at the doctor.

Minutes after it happened

So after we went over the symptoms, the doctor stepped out of the room to write the scripts and get the discharge paperwork. Everett was being happy and walking around carrying his blankie and a couple toys. He was walking towards me when he tripped and hit his face on the vertical corner of the cabinet next to me. He was not running or anything. I quickly pulled him up to look at him and he had split his lip open. I quickly ran to the door letting them know he hit his head and they immediately came in. They got an ice pack and some gauze for the bleeding and Everett wasn't too upset until he saw blood. I held him tight while sitting on the floor and was crying myself. It killed me to see him hurting and upset and life was just tough in general with having my arm broken and etc. I rocked him back and forth and told him it was okay because mommy had him and he would just say hurt because it hurt. He was such a big boy though and let me hold the ice and gauze on.

After they were able to look at it, they saw it crossed a specific line on the lip that when crossed needs stitches otherwise we could let it heal naturally. Unfortunately at urgent care they are not allowed to sedate people so we had to go to the hospital. There really isn't any way to stitch up a 2 year olds mouth when they are crying without sedating them because the risk is too high of messing up. Getting it stitched up was the best way to reduce scarring as well.

We went to Cardon's Children's Hospital. I called Anthon while at Urgent Care and one of my friends dropped him off at a Circle K and I picked him up to take him with me. They checked us in and then Everett was able to get some napping time in on Anthon's shoulder.

Taking a nap on dad at the ER

They gave him something for the pain at Urgent Care. Once we got into a room they asked us about when he had eaten last, what happened and when he last got medication. They said they didn't want to sedate him until it had been 8 hours since he had eaten. They did shorten that time a little so that we didn't have to wait quite as long. As we wanted they put an IV in his arm which was terrible and then put a big guard over it so he didn't mess with it. It kind of made him look like he had broken his arm then they had a blood pressure cuff on him and a light to check his pulse on his thumb. He stayed pretty content for the most part and either: A) had me lay in his bed with him or B) laid in dad's lap in the chair. He slept a little off and on.

 Once we knew they weren't going to do anything for quite sometime, we decided that Anthon better go home because he had school the next day. Everett wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything while we were there. Silly me thought we would only need one car because I was upset and needed Anthon with me so my Awesome friend Carol came a got Anthon at the hospital to take him home so the Everett and I would still have a car to get home when we got released.

It's been a few months (so it's hard to remember every detail) but I think they started getting everything ready to stitch him up at about 1am. I remember asking them if I was going to be allowed to stay in the room while they did it and they said no. I felt heart broken and had to try super hard to keep from getting too emotional. I was allowed to stay in as they started to sedate him so he could look at me while they did it and not freak out. The time I spent in the waiting area felt like forever.

Everything turned out just fine and I was super greatful that Carol was awake and I could talk to her and it gave me comfort. She probably doesn't know how much she helped but she did. She is the best! Our boys love her too. She does a lot of baby sitting for us and the boys have a blast. When I went into the room he was totally out of it. We were observed for an hour to make sure he was okay and not going to have any problems.

Waking up

Mesmerized by the light on his thumb

 He was fascinated with the red light they put on his thumb that took his pulse and had a really hard time focusing his eyes. They would shake when he would look at things. It was so sad to see him that way. He was finally able to have some juice and did just fine with that and then eventually he was ready to go but very unsteady so he wasn't allowed to get up and walk around or anything.

We got home a little before 4 and I was grateful to have such amazing people to work for were understanding and take the day off on tuesday. Everett slept with us because they instructed us to stay with him every minute for the first 12 hours or so after being released just in case the sedation was still wearing off. It was great to snuggle him and love on him and be there when he needed me. Anthon went to school like normal and Vinson went to Anthon's parents so we were able to have the whole morning to sleep.

The next day

Everett had a hard time not wanting to pick at this lip and we did our best to keep in clean and moist. When we went in for the follow up, everything looked good they said. It isn't too noticeable now but I can see it more when he has his lips tightened up. We are so forunate that there was no damage really to the inside of the mouth and his teeth.

 And that is how our first trip to the ER went.

A Second Opinion...

So yesterday I was able to meet with a doctor from the Arizona Hand & Wrist Specialists. I had several people recommend this office. I gave my doctor a list of three possible choices for me to see and this office is who they chose. It took a while to get an appointment and I'm not very patient when I should be sometimes. After they finally received my medical records, I was able to schedule 4 or 5 days later.

Anthon and I immediately liked this doctor. He came in and asked what happened and then moved both arms a little here and there to compare and see how they felt. He took x-rays of both arms to compare and looked at my MRI. Rather than look at all of these things on his own he brought them in the room and explained them as we looked at them. Yes there are some angle differences of 5-10 degrees on my left wrist but nothing he felt that surgery would make big differences with. He said my wrist is stiff no matter what direction it is moved and typically its only stiff in one direction for other people. My wrist would be immobile for weeks again if I was to get surgery which would start my range of motion back at zero.

Dr. Frankel felt the best option to start off is to get a cortisone shot and then a static progressive wrist flexion/extension brace. So basically a brace that I can crank to move my wrist back and then once it relaxes and doesn't hurt so much then crank it back a little more. It is going to be a painful process and I will have to be super patient. After looking at the paperwork, it looks like that will be a 4-6 month process.

I suspect it will look something like this. 

We decided to go ahead with process and see what kind of progress we can make. I received the cortisone shot yesterday and man was that intense! Good thing Anthon came along to hold my other hand. I do not recommend getting needles stuck in your wrist (or anything with needles in general). I was so sore by the end of the night that I basically could not use my wrist at all. After taking some tylenol, icing it and taking a shower I felt a little relief but this morning it is feeling way better. I wasn't sure that I would be able to write today if it hurt as bad as it did last night.

The doctor's medical assistant is working with my insurance now to see if they will cover the brace and then they are going to let me know. I can start working out again by the end of the week (Woo hoo!) and then I can also start physical therapy back up next week. 

I am grateful that I found another doctor to get a second opinion and I am very happy with my choice. The other doctor never gave me any other options other than a major surgery that would leave me super sore and immobile for a while longer. 

The Day I Broke My Arm- Oct. 2, 2013

How it happened: I was playing in my soccer game like I do every week. We started playing the game short one player so of course we had to work harder. The games are only played 6vs6 including the goalie. As the ball was going out of bounds, my opponent and I were running to it. I got there first and kicked it down the line as the other girl rammed into me knocking me backwards. I put my left arm back which felt like it bent my wrist back like a rubberband. After that i hit my head too. It took about one second to realize that something was wrong with my arm. I wanted to get up but had to have my friends help me because of the pain. I was feeling an immense amount of emotions at that moment. I was so angry because I knew something was seriously wrong with my arm, there was no foul called on the play, this meant no working out and it hurt like crazy. The Ref said they had someone there that could look at it so they looked and it and poked one spot which hurt and then they quickly came to the conclusion that I just needed to move it and it would be fine. Of course that was a bunch of crap. I could tell by looking at it that something didn't look right.

My friend Keeta happened to be at the game watching Everett & Vinson while I played. She normally watches them at her house or mine but she decided to come. I think it was intervention from someone above knowing that I was going to get hurt. My arm hurt so bad that I had to support it with my other hand so driving was out of the question. The boys were so well behaved.

We made it back to Keeta's house and had Blaine take a look at it. We knew that something was definitely wrong so as soon as Anthon got out of class, he called me. I had sent him a text to call as soon as he was out of class. After telling him what was going on, we decided I better go to urgent care that night instead of trying to sleep on it overnight. We went up to Health First Urgent Care in Gilbert. I heard great things about them there and knew that they had an x-ray machine. We didn't wait long. Keeta was nice and helped me fill out the paperwork. I kept an ice pack on my arm until they took x-rays and it looked scary when I took it off. I had it on for about an hour and my arm/hand had changed a great deal in appearance during that time. Blaine watched the boys until Anthon could get there to pick them up.

X-ray results were that I fractured my radius and chipped the styloid process off of my ulna as well. They put me in a splint and sling and sent me on my way. The next day I was able to meet with my Primary Care doctor (Homewood Family Medicine- Love their office & staff). They were able to give me a list of references to see an Orthopedic doctor.

I wasn't able to get an appt. until monday so I wore my splint for 5 days before I was able to get in. Sleeping was practicall impossible. I returned to work that Thursday morning even though I broke my arm the night before. I had to put off starting as the Personal Trainer for the Aspire Kid's Sports Center Boot Camp for another week but that's just the way it goes sometimes. I'm proud to say I never missed a whole day of work after breaking my arm. Work is important to me and we can't pay the bills if I'm missing work. My boss Steven has been super understanding and for a week or so gave me some extra hours off to rest here and there when we weren't super busy. Trying to keep my arm comfortable was quite the task. It felt best when holding it above my head and resting it on top of my head. I also rested it often on a pillow at work and sitting on top of a box. Bathing, getting dressed, or doing my hair very difficult along with doing several other things such as opening anything, carrying things, driving was even mildly hard. Anthon got to experience helping me dress, putting my hair in ponytails and tieing plastic bags over my arm. Sometimes baths were the easiest because then I could just hang my arm out of the tub. I had to pick and choose what to wear. Some pants were too difficult to button on my own while working and sweatshirts wouldn't fit over my cast (because I couldn't get my fingers out the end.)

I met with the orthopedic doctor that Monday and of course they put a cast on me and I told them I would only take a cast if they had orange ones and they did! There office is super nice! Dr. Toth also said that my radius was tilted and may require surgery. That made me nervous and I hoped for the best. I went back in two weeks, he said I didn't need surgery as of then and to come back in about few weeks. I also got a new cast that visit because mine was becoming more loose (I got another orange one). After getting a new cast I was actually more comfortable because it stabilized my arm better and kept it from wiggling.

I was in a cast for 5 weeks before I got it taken off and I was super excited to get it off. My arm looked super sad though. Lots of atrophy (shrinking) occured. It was still very swollen around the wrist. That swelling combined with the shrinking has caused a very funny shaped/looking arm. I had a lot of dead peeling skin on my arm as well. I was able to wash it at the office there and it felt so good to do that and scratch. They put me in a brace which I was to wear for 5 weeks all the time except when not at risk of falling. I didn't have to wear it at my desk and was able to shower without a plastic bag. YAY! I did still have to wear it while I slept though.

The weekend after I broke it, Anthon was out of town for a job interview in Utah. That was a difficult weekend. I remember crying the night before he left, wondering how I was going to survive. I couldn't change any diapers for the boys because it was painful and no one wants poop on their cast. Thanks to my friends, the Parkers, the Meyers and my family for being so helpful and making that weekend bearable.

After getting my brace, I started Physical Therapy a couple days later. Who knew it could be so painful? Since I wasn't allowed to have any movement in my arm for that long, everything was tight and weak. We have been able to get some of the strength and some of the pain to subside but its still tight, weak and painful. After about 4 weeks of physical therapy I didn't make as much progress as I would like or as the therapist would like so we thought there may be some underlying issues. There is still a great deal of swelling on my ulna side (pinky side).

I went back to the doctor back on Dec. 17th and expressed all of my concerns. The doctor felt that most of the problem was just stiffness and weakness but went ahead and ordered an MRI anyways. I went an got an MRI the next day I think and that was interesting. Fortunately it was an open one where you can still see out the sides. Due to some technical difficulties with equipement I had to lay there still for an hour. I was able to get the report back before I left for vacation and have a tear in my TFCC. It's like the meniscus of the wrist. It explains the pain on my pinky side. It also said a few things about my radius but nothing that ended up being a big deal.

I went to the doctor tuesday for official results. The doctor told me that I did tear my TFCC which I knew and that he still thinks most of the problem is stiffness but that there was a hand & wrist specialist new to the office that he wanted me to meet with him. Good news was that the specialist was already on his way over and he was able to see me that day. He told me he wanted to do surgery to fix the tear in my TFCC, re-break my radius, take a bone graft from my pelvic, put it in there to raise my radius higher than my ulna (because it's not) and straigthen because it is sitting tilted. He also told me I broke my scaphoid which wasn't caught intially but healed nicely. It would take 2.5 hours for the surgery and they would have to keep me overnight. I'm not quite ready for that so I have decided to get a second opinion. I'm hoping to have answers next week. That is all I have so far.