Tuesday, October 30, 2012

GREAT NEWS!!!!

These are Addy's original x-rays from the ER the night she broke her arm.
Clearly you can see how bad the breaks are..
After 8 1/2 weeks, 3 hard casts, 2 soft casts, 6 bone resets & manipulation (with only being under pain killers twice), and about 6 different doctors,
we are happy to say that

Addy got her cast off!!!
She was pretty nervous at her appointment yesterday, but both mommy and daddy were
there to comfort her so that always helps. At one point, a new doctor came in and grabbed her arm. UGH. Addy flipped out. I intervened and informed him she was traumatized. He understood the look on my face, luckily and backed off.  He then proceeded to have Addy touch her own arm and tell him if it hurt. She liked this much better.  He asked her to squeeze his fingers with both fists so that he could see if she had any strength in that arm, which she didn't have much of.
They took more x-rays and one view seemed absolutely perfect but I was not completely happy with the other view. Her bones still look bent to me. I brought my concern to the doctors attention and 
more than one doctor came in to reassure me that they would straighten with growth.
I am still not convinced, but Nate said he feels good about it.

I have a few things I was unhappy about throughout this situation.  First off, I really feel that it was unnecessary to continue re-breaking and re-setting her bones.  She is 4 years old and they should have done surgery. This is my personal opinion and also the opinion of other doctors I have talked to about it.
Second, one of the times they re-set her bones, her doctor had an intern do it.. now, if this was an adult, with the adults consent, go ahead and TRY to re-set it without much experience. But on a 4 year old??? Who already is traumatized?  Besides, it didn't work. He wasn't able to get it in place, so that was a complete failure with my daughter left in excruciating pain.
Once seeing that her bones kept slipping, they should have sent us to a specialist. Again, my opinion and I probably should have just done it regardless, but this was our first bone issue and we didn't know any better. 
After talking around and getting info, I wish I would have listened to myself and done something different.
There's nothing I can do now and we'll just have to hope an pray that she doesn't end up with chronic pain in her arm any time the weather changes or she's playing sports, or writing long essays in college or whatever.
I hope Nate's feelings about this are spot on and that she's going to be okay.
I do tend to be over-reactive at times. I guess time will tell.





Her pour arm had this lizzard-like skin on it. Grandma Johnson helped her get it all off that afternoon. Her little arm seems so fragile right now. I'm just glad that she can start using it again. It's been long overdue.
I'm really worried about it. But we'll see....

5 comments:

Kristy said...

WOO-HOO! I'm glad she finally got it off! Her poor little arm. I was terrified when E finally got hers off (I say finally like it was anywhere near as long as Addy had hers!)...I was so scared that she was going to fall and immediately break it again.

The Staheli's said...

So glad to hear the good news. I agree with what you said about the doctors and the re-breaks. Much of it seemed ABSURD and I was so sad that she had to go through that. So glad she is feeling better and I hope it heals perfectly.

Kris said...

Yea! That IS great news. I can totally understand how you're feeling hesitant too though. What a freaking long process for you guys (especially little Addy). I'm so happy for her and hope she gets her strength back quickly. And it's reassuring for me to know that if/when my boys break a bone I'll know what to do and what not to do thanks to your experience. ;)

Torrie and the girls said...

She's adorable and one tough cookie for going through all that at 4! Way to go Addy. I hope she feels normal soon and that you guys have no more problems! That's great news after such a long ordeal!

Emily said...

horray! that is awesome news. Yeah for Addy and all of you :).