A Christmas Miracle

On December 6th, Owen was involved in a gym mishap that lead to x-rays for his left arm.  These indicated a fracture on his radius near the elbow, so they put him into a hard splint and a sling until we could see the specialist.  Owen was crushed.  Not only did he have no use of his arm, but he was banned from gym until the doctor cleared him.  Sledding was also out.  :(


Almost a week later, we get into the Orthopaedic in Cadillac, who ordered another round of x-rays. Nothing!  If I had not been present at both, I would have questioned whether it was the same arm.  Owen was given the all-clear.  Upon returning home, he promptly got dressed and went out to sled on our hill.
YAY!

A Lucky Break!

Monday Owen and I made our way to the Orthopedic doc for the purpose of getting his cast.  When the doc looked the x-rays from last week, he had some hesitation.  Seeing only a "maybe" for a fracture, he had new shots taken of the arm and they looked clean...SOOOooo---NO CAST!  To quite the very exuberant 5-year-old, "I'm free!  I'm free!"

On other fronts--we are armed with epi-pens and an appointment with our allergist in April... and no allergic reactions since last Thursday.  We have our preliminary guesses on the culprit as being peanuts, but it's hard to say without the testing.   Blood work will be done next week, and the full skin test in April .  If there are further issues that will be sped up.  For now, we are avoiding nuts, strawberries, and shellfish.  Mitchell is a little sad with the loss of peanut butter.

Lucy is mending well.  The bruises on her nose are turning yellow, and the scrape is slowly healing up. YAY!


Other achievements:

 Mitchell:

• Reading above grade level.  He's really enjoying chapter books now.
• LOVING math and science.  He is very excited about learning his times tables.
• Can you say, Lego-maniac????
• Is itching for T-ball season to come again.

 Owen:

• Reading on his own now!  He is way proud of himself and very excited to check books out at the library.
• He loves math centers at school.
• Is planning every splash he's going to make in the Pirate Pool in Florida.
• Still loves puppies/dogs.

Lucy:

• Loves to sing and dance, "actually".  
• Has recently been seeing galloping around the house, waving a "lasso" singing, "I'm a cowboy!  Yippee yay!  I'm a cowgirl!  Giddyup!"
• Just got her clothes moved into her closet like a big girl.  She was very helpful with the changes/re-organization.
• In response to me asking "Who made you so pretty?", she looks disgusted with me and says, "You, Mom!  In your tummy!".

Breaking News, Breaking Noses, and Breaking into Hives

Report is back from the radiologist. Fractured radius for Owey. His cast will be put on Monday morning.  Here he is in the temporary one.  He was a very good sport while waiting for and watching Lucy and Mitchell have their swimming lessons.


Lucy, however, had a hard time waiting for Mitchell after her lesson.  While sitting directly next to me on the bleachers, she somehow manage to oooze off the bench and ricochet of the metal framework on her way to the floor.  She wound up with a very bloody and scraped up nose.  She apparently tuckered herself out, because she fell asleep in the car on the way home after only about 1/4 mile.  The calmness, though, was far too short-lived.

Upon returning to the Rogers' household, we were making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches upon request.  Mitchell scarfed his down in less than two minutes, and while making a second one, I noticed that he was again breaking into hives.  He had just had his steroids and some Benedryl, but not knowing if it was going to progress as fast as last night, I called Papa Denny up to the house on the chance I had to take Mitchell to the ER again.  While we watched him/the hives, we made contact with Dr. Kevin. After we verified meds and doses, it was determined that I should just watch him for a few more minutes, because the steroids had likely not gotten into his system yet.  If he had any heavy feeling in the chest again, we were to go to the ER. 

Let me just say that waiting is not my strong suit on my best day, let alone when my son's health and well being is at stake.  Papa Denny and I did wait though, and thankfully, no further spread of the hives, and in fact the redness started to decrease.  WHEW!  At least a temporary sigh of relief.  In the meantime, I am left feeling like I am playing Russian Roulette with Mitchell every time I feed him.  We've been keeping track of the foods eaten at the trigger meals.  We have a visit to an allergist in our very near future.  Unfortunately, he has to be off the steroids before he can have testing done, so I would feel he'd be without any sort of protection while we wait...

The kids are all sleeping, and I am hoping that we awake to a better, or at least less eventful day tomorrow. 

Broken, Battered Boys

Wednesdays are usually cosmically good to me.  Yesterday, Wednesday had other plans (although, I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it was still good to me.  Things could have been far worse.)

I am teaching my 3rd graders in the afternoon and Owen is escorted to my room after a playground injury.  He fell from the monkey bars and hurt his arm.  I checked him out, noticing that there were no bruises, bumps, or massive swelling, but that he did not want to rotate his arm.  A little tylenol and some resting in my room followed.  His pain did not get better, so after school I brought the kids home and Ken also gave him the once over.  He then piled Owen into the car and went off to get some XRays while I stayed home with Lucy and Mitchell and made dinner.

As we are sitting around the table eating, Mitchell starts complaining about his wrist itching.  Ken calls to say he is on his way home with Owen.  We are finishing up dinner, so I get some benedryl for Mitchell and check him out.  I instantly realize that this is far more than a random itch.  He had a red, raised, blotchy rash of some sort on his neck, up and down his arms, and covering 80% of his back!  At this time Ken walks in the door, complete with Owen in a temporary cast and sling.  I call him over to Mitchell,  he gives his inspection, and we decide that he needs to take Mitchell to the ER.  I begin the nervous mother waiting game while I get Owen dinner and get the youngest 2 into bed.  1 hour goes by.... a 2nd hour goes by... I am freaking out with nerves, not knowing anything.  I finally get a call from Ken shortly after 8 saying they were just leaving the hospital, but they had to stop at the pharmacy before they came home.

When they do get home, and after I get Mitchell settled in and in bed, I actually get to hear the details on both son's health.  Owen's Xray shows some irregularities on the radius.  We are waiting now to have the orthopedic doc in town review the xrays and tell us if the cast needs to be permanent, or if the temp can come off after a few days.  I learned that Mitchell was given a breathing treatment and steroid shots at the hospital to treat what was likely a food allergy rearing its ugly head.  What the culprit was is yet to be determined... they were all foods we've had regularly, so it will take a bit to figure out which one needs to be avoided.

Oh, and did I mention that the kids are scheduled to start swimming lessons, today?????  Owen will be devastated if he has to miss out on this session.  He's been counting down the days for 3 weeks!

So today I am home with the kids, letting everyone (including myself) recover from the crazy day yesterday.   I am going to go finish wrapping the kids in bubble wrap, so when I have more news I will post again.  :)