Ian’s teacher does a program in school called “Star of the Week”. Each child gets a turn being the star and the whole week is devoted to them.
Part of the program is that you bring home the stuffed preschool puppy dog, Ginger, the weekend before you are the “Star of the Week”. You’re supposed to share your weekend with the dog and then documented it on a few sheets of paper in the class book that travels around with Ginger. On Monday, you get to tell the class all about your weekend.
Tuesday: you share some of pictures of your favorite things,
Wednesday: you bring in your favorite book and the teacher reads it to the class,
Thursday: you bring in your favorite toy for show-and-tell and
Friday: the whole class makes a poster about what they like about the current “Star of the Week”
Ian was “Star of the Week” last week so we got Ginger on Friday, September 24th.
On Friday, we didn’t do a whole lot because my week had been nutty and I needed a night of down time. Ian spent a good portion of his Friday night playing the Wii while Ginger looked on (on the toy kitchen):
On Saturday, we had a full day planned.
First, Ian had bowling:
Ginger watched Ian bowl:
After that, we headed to Brown’s Berry Patch to enjoy their Fall Harvest Celebration. We planned to do a whole bunch of apple picking!
After an hour long drive, we finally arrived and jumped right into the festivities:
Take a look at this picture of Matthew jumping. He does this thing where he locks his body into this stiff, board position and then flops himself down while holding onto the stiff position. He does this on the carpet, hardwoods, cement floor in the basement, on furniture, our bed, etc. He falls and doesn’t break his fall with his hands. He just flops down, laughs and then goes “I ‘oh-tay’, Momma!”. He does it everywhere and anywhere and with complete disregard to his own safety. It is terrifying!
He was doing it hard core on the pillow jumper:
That picture is the exact reason why I expected to make my first emergency medical visit with Matthew. LOL
After a whole bunch of playing and a quick lunch, we loaded the boys up on a wagon and we walked out to the apple orchard to pick more apples than we could eat in a decade. 🙂
Once we were all set with the apple picking, we headed over to the playground area so the boys could pay while Mike paid for the apples.
Both boys wanted to go to the climber/slide so off we went.
While Matthew tried in vain to climb in the tower area to the right, Ian spent most of the time going down the slide on the left. I positioned myself in the middle so I could keep an eye on both boys.
Just as Mike was making his way over to us, I see Ian go down the slide and hear him crying at the bottom. I rushed over to him, pulled him off the slide (other kids were continuing to go down), and tried to find out what was wrong. A woman standing to the side said she thought he hurt his finger.
We got him off to the side and calmed him down. Ian was holding his left hand in a way that let us know his hand hurt. If we touched his pinky, he would start crying again.
We got Matthew down from the climber/slide and decided to head home. Mike and I came to the conclusion that we were going to take him to see someone as soon as we got closer to home.
We had an hour ride back home and Ian spent the entire time alternating between trying to convince me he was fine (while struggling not to cry) and crying/telling me his finger hurt. He’s really, really afraid of doctors offices so I think he ultimately knew what was going to happen and he was desperately trying to avoid it. He was such a super brave guy. Watching him fight the tears was just heartbreaking. The lower lip was out and he struggled so hard not to cry.
When we got back home, we dropped Mike and Matthew off and picked up Miss Minnie, his blankie, to take to the doctor with us. I got in the drivers seat of the car and we headed over to the Immediate Care on Niagara Falls Boulevard.
When we pulled into the Immediate Care parking lot, I knew it wasn’t going to be a fun night. I literally pulled into the last parking spot. It was absolutely mobbed. I signed Ian in at the desk and asked them if they had a ballpark of how long the wait was. I got the standard “we don’t know” answer but they did tell me there were 20-25 people in line ahead of me, that there were 3 doctors there at the moment but one was leaving in 20 minutes. (Translation: there is a ridiculously long line and the wait is going to get even worse.) They told us to have a seat.
I took Ian over to the seating area and took the last two open seats. Ian talked in his slightly-too-loud 4 year old voice about how we were at the doctors office, his pinky hurts, and random commentary about the people around us (primarily 2 junior high school aged boys in full football gear with ice packs on various body parts). The people around us smiled and laughed at him. 🙂
After sitting there for about 2 minutes, I decided to call home and have Mike check around to see if any other local Immediate Care branches were less busy. He called me back almost immediately and said one that was 10 minutes away only had 5 people in their waiting room.
I walked back to the lobby, crossed our names off the list and took Ian back to the car. We drove over to the other location, checked in there and was all settled in the waiting room within about 20 minutes. After about a 30 minute wait, we were taken back to an examining room.
Once in the examining room, we had a nurse come in to take his temp in the ear. Ian nearly freaking jumped off the table cartoon-style. The nurse literally jumped back and said “I didn’t expect that reaction!!!” LOL She had to show Ian about 4x what she was going to do to get him to chill enough to take his temp and even then, he was leaning into me/away from her.
The physicians assistant came in next and did a quick exam. She asked Ian to bend and straighten his finger, she touched/squeezed it to see where the pain was, and looked it over. She didn’t think anything was seriously wrong but ordered xrays to be taken.
“Dr Eric” (xray technician) came in next to take us down to the xray room to take “pictures” of Ian’s finger. I stood behind him at the computer and literally thought nothing was wrong (I even texted Mike that I thought he was fine. Clearly I have a medical degree, right? LOL). “Dr Eric” was really great with Ian and even had him come back so Ian could see the xrays. Ian thought the “pictures of his finger bones” was pretty cool.
We went back to the examining room to wait for the PA’s diagnosis and she came in fairly quickly. She told me the bone was broken and I said “REALLY?!?!?!” I literally was shocked. She said (LITERALLY), “I know, I was surprised too!”
Apparently he not only broke the bone but it is slightly displaced. It’s not in a growth plate so it shouldn’t cause long term issues from that standpoint but because it is displaced, it could cause mobility issues. They had us make an appointment to see an orthopedist on the following Monday.
They gave Ian a splint and taped him up. He did the kind of laugh/kind of cry thing when they did that. For the most part, as long as Ian’s finger is left alone, he’s fine. If you touch it or the split comes off, he cries or complains about it hurting. He has been SUCH a freakin’ trouper and has been so brave. I couldn’t be any prouder.
After we got done at the doctor’s office, we headed home and Ian pretty much played the Wii until bedtime. 🙂
(I didn’t post him with Ginger, he did that himself!)
Ian woke up on Sunday and came into our room without his splint on! It seemed to have come off in the middle of the night. We quickly put it back on and got ready for the day.
I had my race first thing in the morning:
After a shower and some lunch, Ian, Ginger and I headed to Orchard Park to see Despicable Me with Mom and Rachel.
After the movie, we headed home to relax before bed time and another work/school week began.
Here are the scrap pages I did for Ginger’s scrapbook:
Monday’s orthopedist update:
We went to see an orthopedist on Monday. We were taken to an examining room immediately when we arrived and a nurse took his temperature. He jumped slightly less than on Saturday. LOL
After a short wait, we saw a student physician assistant who asked a few questions, took off Ian’s splint and did a quick exam. She reviewed his xrays and indicated that someone else would be in to see him.
The physician assistant came in shortly afterward and reviewed the xrays in more detail. He actually took the time to explain the xrays and why they were concerned. He explained that because the bone is displaced at the knuckle, it’s preventing him from straightening and bending his finger. Since he’s so young, they don’t want him to have any permenant issues. After going through the xrays and discussing the issues, the PA then did a slightly longer exam.
Ultimately, he pretty much tried to manipulate the bone back into place. My poor brave boy did NOT like that part. He was doing the brave lower lip thing for a few seconds and then ended up crying pretty hard at the end. I cannot express to you how awful it is to see someone hurting your baby purposely and just having to sit there and allow it to happen. The student PA felt so bad she ended up giving him a bunch of candy afterward to cheer him up. Poor guy.
After the quick torture session, he put a semi-hard cast around the lower part of Ian’s forearm and all of his hand except his pointer finger and thumb. The cast is basically cotton wrap around his skin that was wrapped with flesh colored tape that got hard within 5 minutes. It’s not as hard as a regular cast but it’s more firm than the ace bandage. It’s definitely been more protection than the split was providing.
We go back on Tuesday for more xrays and another exam.
I was told it would take about 4 weeks to heal. If they can’t get the bone back into place with the cast/wrap, worst case scenario could mean surgery to put it back and possibly a pin in the bone. I’m really hoping it doesn’t come to that but I want them to do whatever it takes for the finger to heal and function properly.
I want to get in my car, drive to Buffalo, and hug that brave little man!