Deja vu? Can this really be true?

Days (literally two days) after his first cast on his left arm came off (and two hours after our visiting family left back to Michigan), he broke his right elbow. He was playing in the basement with a neighbor friend. Supposedly, they were jumping over the bean bag chairs and galloping around the basement. Jack cleared the bag the first time, but fell on his arm wrong after his second attempt. All I heard was "it's broken" being screamed and I knew our plans for the day had just changed. When I got downstairs, I could tell from across the room that his elbow was not quite right. So off we went to the pediatricians office. She sent us back to our orthopedist, Dr. Gavin. After some waiting for him to get out of ER surgery and meeting with another doctor, it was concluded his elbow was for sure broken and pretty badly too. By the time Kris got to the doctor's office, we had a plan to meet at the hospital later that evening for surgery. Poor Jack hadn't eaten all day and had to wait until after his surgery to eat anything.

We finally got a call around 7pm to bring him to the hospital. Kris took Henry home with him and I stayed with Jack. After all the prep work, Jack was finally ready for surgery at about 8:45 or so. He was nervous, but very brave. He really liked his orthopedist which made things much easier. As soon as Dr. Gavin walked into the room, Jack got much calmer. They finally took him into the operating room which I was able to go into since they wanted me to be around when they put him under. It is a very odd and sad experience watching your child go under.



The surgery was only about an hour and went well. Jack came out of anesthesia pretty well. He requested lots of popsicles, cups of juice, and crackers. The boys was hungry! Since it was so late when he got our of surgery, we were able to stay in the pediatric unit overnight. I must say it was a pretty cushy set up. I had my own pull out bed and Jack had quite the set up. He loved that he could watch movies and that his bed moved in all kinds of ways. I was so glad that we were in the hospital overnight so that the nurses could help manage Jack's pain.

By morning, he was doing well, but pretty sore. Kris and Henry came to get us around lunch time. Since it was my birthday, we stopped at my favorite sandwich place (Panera's) to get one of my favorite sandwiches (Chicken Salad). Jack was so brave and was a pretty good patient. That night for dinner, Kris made my most favorite meal (fresh mozzarella with basil sandwiches). It was a great day to end our day!


Jack wore his hospital gown for almost the whole week after his surgery. It was the easiest shirt to get on without too many tears or the use of scissors. He, of course, chose a blue cast and Kris did a great job with a Darth Vader drawing on it.