I know, I know. Over a month and a half between posts. In my defense, October was a very busy month for us. The twins had soccer games the first two Saturdays of October. The third weekend, we did their family birthday party. The last weekend was cousin Isabella's birthday party and the twins' friend birthday party. Add in our fall photo session taken by myself, the pictures I took of Amanda and Tony's family, and then having a photographer take ours as part of a fundraiser for the multiples group and you can see that we haven't been home much.
As if all that wasn't enough, little Hannah, the resident daredevil, decided to throw us a new one and break her arm.
It all started with this lovely kitchen I bought her in August when I started watching the extra baby. Hannah seemed bored at home so when I saw that someone from my multiples' group was selling this and they lived in Lakeville, I bought it as fast as I could. It's been a good buy. Hannah loves to cook food with it. Unfortunately, based on it's close proximity to the couch, Hannah would also occasionally try to climb on top of it.
On Tuesday, October 15th, I was upstairs about to print off an activity page for the school-agers to do when Ellie got home from school when I heard a crash and crying. I ran downstairs to see both Hannah and Sophia crying. Carter, ever the little policeman, was quick to fill me in on the story. Hannah had climbed on the top of the kitchen, fallen and landed on Sophia. I knew the instant I looked at Hannah and the way her right arm was hanging that it was broken. Poor Sophia didn't get much comfort even though she was crying harder as I knew instantly that I had to get Hannah to the ER. A couple frantic calls later as I tried to get someone to answer their phone to come sit with the other kids, Amanda arrived with her girls in tow and I raced off to the ER. I'm still not sure if she ever understood what I said on the phone in my crazed, hysterical voice other than that I needed her to come over and watch some of the kids!
Hannah did indeed have a supracondylar fracture of her humerus. The ER doctor sent the x-rays to an orthopedic surgeon and they decided that it would be better to do surgery to set bones, muscles, tendons, etc correctly the first time rather than to need surgery in the future in case the muscles and tendons didn't get placed correctly when the bone was set. So poor Hannah, after having to have x-rays done twice, was prepped for her first (and hopefully only) surgery.
The thing on her left arm is called a no-no. Basically it's purpose is found in it's name. It wrapped around and covered her IV so she couldn't pull it out or tamper with it. I kept her right arm covered for all pictures. You're welcome. It's an image I will never get out of my head and I decided no one else needed to see it too.
After a quick 20 minute surgery, Hannah got to spend the night in the hospital so they could make sure she was fine after surgery. The surgeon placed two pins in her arm to help keep everything in place while it healed. It was a very unpleasant night as she woke up crying a lot and I rotated between sleeping with her on the hospital bed and on the uncomfortable and cold couch in the room.
For the first week, her arm was in a soft cast. This was basically a bunch of gauze and a few ACE bandages.
However, after a few days at home, Hannah adjusted to life with only one arm. We did have to duct tape the top and bottom of the soft cast as she would pick at it and try to pull it off.
Because of the cast, for 3 weeks Hannah only had a bath every other night instead of the usual nightly one. Since I had to wrap her arm in a plastic bag and hold it over her head while I washed her hair, it was hard to get all the snarls out. Add in a child who hates getting her hair brushed and wasn't able to roll around much while she slept and this is what the back of Hannah's head looked like!
She still looked beautiful from the front though!
After one week in the soft cast, we went in and they removed the soft cast components and put on a hard cast. Hannah told everyone that she wanted "blue" for her cast but when looking at the color choices, she picked out purple. I think we need to spend a little more time on our colors!
I felt much better after the hard cast was on as it seemed much stronger and sturdier than the soft cast. As soon as Hannah felt better after all this, she went back to her daredevil ways, cast and all. The hard one at least seemed to better withstand her adventures!
So Belle had to trick or treat with a purple cast on her arm. Thankfully the Belle costume fit over her arm. Otherwise Hannah spent the three weeks she was casted wearing Ellie or Carter's shirts.
Three weeks to the day of the ordeal, she had her cast removed. Poor Hannah cried while they cut her cast off because the little saw machine was noisy and scared her. She screamed while they removed the pins (I had to look away. Yuck!). And she cried while they did final x-rays. It didn't help that her appointment time was during the middle of naptime. She had a slight infection where the pins were but after 5 days of antibiotics, that cleared up. It took the poor girl several days to start to move her arm around again. Now she seems to have full movement in it again. She had an appointment this week for a follow up and it looked like everything is as it should be. Of course, when the doctor wanted to see her arm and tried to touch her, Hannah yelled "Give me my arm back." I'm guessing she's feeling better!
It was quite the adventure but thankfully it is over already. Little ones heal quickly so she only needed to be casted for 3 short weeks. The surgeon does want to see her again in 3 months for x-rays again and only time will tell if everything is ok with her growth plates. He seems confident everything is lined up correctly so I have faith in his confidence!
And as a side note, after much debate regarding the kitchen, it has been moved several feet from the couch. Jake was in favor of turning it into bonfire material but I overruled that by simply sliding it over a bit. Hannah loves the kitchen and Sophia already stands at it so I know it will be played with for years to come. We will never put tall furniture right next to the couch again though!
No comments:
Post a Comment