Where there's a will, there's a way

It has been a tough few days here. Matthew's finger injury has proved to be quite troublesome when it comes to moving in crutches and showering with a full leg cast. The antibiotics have made his tummy icky and given him massive diarrhea, again difficult with your right hand wrapped up and your left leg in a full cast. But we have managed. He only needs one more dose of antibiotics. Crossing my fingers things will get better before our flight tomorrow morning.

This is how we have been showering. No easy feat, but we managed. Notice the glue marks where the heart monitor leads were attached for his minor surgery Monday night. I am still picking it off... they must use crazy glue.

Easter came a little early here. We decorated eggs and the boys got very inventive with colors.


I cooked a large turkey with all the trimmings Thursday evening. Now I don't have to cook before we leave tomorrow thanks to yummy left overs.

Easter bunny arrived Friday morning. The boys got very lucky. It seems that the daddy Easter bunny found some skateboards on sale. Of course, both boys had to get on them and try.





WARNING YUCKY PHOTO TO FOLLOW

And the worst part of the day. I had to change the bandages on Matthew's finger. It had bled a lot and the gauze was almost fused to the scabbing. It took an hour of soaking, pulling, trimming, soaking and pulling to remove the gauze. It looks pretty good I have to say. I added polysporin and bandaged it back up.



We are almost packed up. Just a few more things to do. I am finding it tough to pack. Not sure how long we will be there. Not sure when we will make the move over to Ronald McDonald house. Not sure what the facilities are like. Not sure what I need to bring. Guess it will all work out.

Will update when I get a chance.

Tummy Gurgles

Poor Matthew. This antibiotic he is on has given him brutal diarrhea. I have him drinking some Gatorade, but need to call the pharmacist and see if there is anything that can be done. He has today, Friday and Saturday left of this prescription.

Any thoughts on what I can do to help him?

Inspiration

Have you seen the cover of the latest Good Housekeeping magazine?



Absolutely and whole heartedly agree with Michael J. Fox's quote.

"Happiness is a decision."

Nuff said.

On a side note, my poor Matthew. He is in a full left leg cast, bandaged right hand from his minor surgery, and now, because of the massive doses of antibiotics (I think he is getting massive doses so we can finish before we leave on Sunday seeing the stuff needs to be refrigerated) he now has diarrhea. And we had just mastered balancing on the toilet with that cast. Poor kid, hasn't even complained.

My silver fork

Why is it, when you think things are under control, something flies at you out of left field? I personally attribute it to my silver fork.

You see, some people are born with a silver spoon. Not me. I was born with a silver fork. In many ways it is like a silver spoon. I have a wonderful life, I have a great husband, two fantastic and healthy kids. I have a house, my husband has a good job so I can stay at home with my kids. That has silver spoon written all over it. But it is not a silver spoon. We do struggle for things. We seem to have a few extra challenges that most people don't go through but it seems we always land on our feet. That is the silver fork. The tines of the fork poke me and remind me constantly not to sit back and take things for granted.

Which leads to yesterday.

Matthew had school in the afternoon yesterday because they had a special guest speaker. I arrived at 3:30 with Ryan to pick him up and was met outside the building by his teacher. There had been an accident and Matthew's finger had been crushed by a block. I needed to take him in somewhere to take a look at it, it bled a lot.

I went inside and Matthew's finger was bandaged up and he was sobbing. I thought, I'll take him to a walk in to check it then we'll head home. Picked him up (he can't use crutches with an owie on his finger) and popped him in the van.

We got lucky at the walk in clinic. It was really busy, but because of Matthew crying and my having to carry him because of his cast, I think the nurse felt bad for us. We were back in an exam room within minutes.

The doctor came in and removed the bandages. Honestly, I thought the teacher had over reacted, until I saw his finger. Yuck. It was still bleeding and the nail was pulled half way out of the nail bed. The end of the nail bed that should be covered up and safe was exposed and at a 90 degree angle to his finger.

After an exam, a consult and the doctors unsure of what to do (after trying to pull his nail back into position with no meds) I suggested that maybe the children's hospital would be a wise choice. They agreed so off we went.

Arrived at the children's and my husband met me there 20 min later to pick up Ryan who was still in tow. Matthew's finger was still bleeding and had almost bled through the second dressing but he was in better spirits. Craig and Ryan headed home at 5:45 and Matthew and I waited. We were in an exam room about 30 min later. The doctor took a look and decided to do X-rays. He agreed, the nail needed to be put back but wanted to give Matthew an IV so he would not feel the freezing or have to watch the procedure. That is where our wait began. It was a busy night, the procedure rooms to give IV's were very busy.

X-rays showed he had a small fracture but nothing but time could heal that.

We finally got to a procedure room about 10:00. They gave him some IV drug that knocked him out. They repositioned the nail. It popped back in nicely. Then they stitched through the nail and attached it to his finger. Gave us a really strong antibiotic and when Matthew was awake enough, we left about midnight.

He slept until 9 this morning and now we need to run out to pick up our prescription. He says his finger hurts a bit but refused pain medication. He is tired, but generally doing very well. He should be back on his crutches in a few days, just in time to go to St Louis. We need the stitches removed in a week... we are in the Shriner's hospital on Monday. I have a feeling some one there could help us out with that. We are home, happy, and back on track. Things could be far, far worse.

So all in all, it may have been a difficult day, but thanks to my silver fork, things are all in perspective again. I am one lucky mom.

What can you do in a full leg cast?

This is what I want the boys to do



This is what they decided to do while I was busy with laundry.




So the answer to What can you do in a full leg cast?

Anything you can think of.

Crazy

Things are just crazy right now. I am trying to get everything organized so we can be gone for 4+ weeks. Spending some time answering emails, trying to find out how long I need to be there, getting flights, accommodations, things for Matthew to do and keep busy, Easter, seeing friends one last time before we go, birthday parties, birthday gifts for my niece who turns 3 while we are gone, canceling appointments while we are gone, trying to shut down my home business for the interim, transferring email addresses so I can access stuff, not to mention getting enough cuddles in with Ryan who will miss us terribly.

Yuck, not liking this, and I only have 10 days left.

Crutches

Matthew went to school today. When I dropped him off, I noticed his p/t was there and had just finished up with someone. I chatted with her about Matthew and his cast and his trip. I asked about getting crutches. Her first response "any other kid, I would recommend crutches, Matthew is so fast and so adaptable, he can probably get away without them" But after some more conversation, she decided that he should get some for the exact same reason Sue said (thanks Sue, you were spot on!). She was worried that hobbling for 6 weeks could take its toll on his hips and toes. So off I went in search of pediatric crutches.

Turns out that is no easy feat. Let me re-phrase that, it is no easy feat for some one who was casted outside of the city. In order to get those crutches, I needed to have a letter from an orthopedic doctor from the hospital. She said I could go and see one of the doctors there and they would write up a letter for me. Had to laugh, with my luck I would see Matthew's surgeon who was not impressed with me taking Matthew to see Dr. Dobbs.

I went to plan B. Called all over the city. No one had pediatric crutches, except for one place. Yay! I picked them up and took them to the school so Matthew could try them out with the p/t there. No go. Even though they were rated for kids 4 feet and under (Matthew is 3 feet 9 inches) they were too small.

Back to the store I went. Turns out no one rents crutches that size, you buy them. So I went to trade them in for a bigger set. No go. The next size up was for 4 foot 6 inches and taller. They were way too big. Turns out the man at the store was another angel in disguise. He said he had an idea. He had a broken set of adult crutches in the back. He took off the leg extender from those and put them on Matthew's set. Perfect fit. No charge.

Gosh, this road we are on is hard, but we have found such wonderful helpful people along the way. We are so lucky.

As promised, here are some photos from the trip.

Matthew in the airport with the birds he bought, one for him, one for his brother.

No Mommy, I am to tired to get up.

In the exam room. Did I mention he got a stuffie EVERY time he went to a new area?

One last photo of his foot before casting.

New best friends waiting for a spot in the casting room.

New friends and new casts.

Resting at Haven House.

On the plane ride home with his new collection of stuffies thanks to the Shriner's.