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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

She’s cleared for everything but the monkey bars now

Just had Ree’s last and final broken-arm checkup (from the accident on Aug 11 where she broke both bones in her left arm) and the orthopedic surgeon pronounced her healed, healthy, and ready for anything. Wooohoooo! Well anything but the monkey bars, that is. He was pretty frank when he said that monkeys bars send an incredible amount of business his way but he’ll never have a set in the backyard for his kids to play on.

Here’s the progress over the last few months:

I don’t have an xray of the arm right after the break and before they put the cast on, which is probably for the best anyhow. I have a vague and fuzzy recollection of someone taking me over to the machine and showing me an xray where one of Ree’s bones was broken and separated (there was a gap between the two halves) and the other bone was broken and one half was pushed over top of the other half so they were overlapping. Ugh. I stayed calm on the outside, but have to admit that I was freaking the hell out and really didn’t hear much after seeing that shocking xray.

Immediately after the successful closed reduction procedure (they knocked Ree out with anesthesia and manipulated the bones back into place) the arm looked pretty good:Aug11AfterSurgery2LRxray_blogAug11AfterSurgeryLRxray_blog

Then the swelling went down and things shifted around, and here’s how the scans looked on Aug 30:IMG_3398LRxray_blogIMG_3399LRxray_blog

That side-view xray was the one that scared me and sent us scrambling for a second opinion. Can you blame me?

Anyhow, we got another xray and a second opinion on Sept 13:IMG_3413LRxray_blog

It still looked bad to me, but the second doc said the exact same thing as the first “She’s young, she’s healthy, it’s healing as expected, no additional surgery (resetting/rebreaking) is recommended, in a year you won’t even be able to tell those bones were broken.” So I calmed down and hoped for the best.

And here are how things stand today. These two xrays were taken on Nov 28 and show remarkable improvement and a whole ton of new bone growth. The bone is filling in and returning to normal just like both doctors said it would. You can’t even imagine the magnitude of my sigh of relief after seeing these scans.SAMSUNG

SAMSUNG

Ahhhhh, it’s all going to be ok... All told, Ree wore the neon pink full-arm cast from Aug 11-Sep 9 (4 weeks), the neon yellow lower-arm cast from Sep 9-Oct 1 (3 weeks), and then the black splint from Oct 1-Oct 22 (3 weeks). That’s 10 weeks of casts and splints right in the middle of summer. Ugh. Little sweetie never complained, just happily went about her business and didn’t slow down for a minute.

It’s a good thing Ree has been cleared for anything, by the way, because the girls were recently tested and promoted to a higher level in gymnastics where they’re on a developmental track that gets them ready for competition.

9 comments:

  1. Glad that Ree is healed and doing well. I can't even look at the xrays without getting queasy. Good luck to the girls with gymnastics, can't wait to hear what they are working on...and seeing video too.

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  2. Oh my goodness! The bones now look stronger than they did before. Yay!

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  3. My son shattered both the bones in his arms last summer and was in a cast for over 8 weeks. This was the hardest time for him. Though where we live, they have a new cast that allows someone to get it wet and swim. He did alot of swimming with the cast on. The only problems we have is that the wrist is a little curved and when the first cast came off, he had an allergic reaction to the cast material.

    All together during a 2 year period, 1 son broke his wrist, then leg and right now has a broken finger and the other his arm. I just want to bubble wrap them both...lol

    Good luck.

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  4. It's really amazing how it can look so wrong but still be perfectly okay. I can certainly see why you guys were freaking out - heck, I would have too! But the latest xrays really confirm that all is well. What a big sigh of relief that must have been!

    Donna
    Our Blog: Double Happiness!

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  5. Great news. I can hardly believe it's the same bone from Aug 30 to now. Amazing how our bodies heal.

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  6. Glad she healed up well! We have a serious aversion to monkey bars too. My son broke BOTH of his arms on them last summer! The children's hospital staff instantly knew what happened and that my my son's arms would indeed be broken when my husband walked into the er with him.

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  7. Anonymous12/01/2010

    Ugh, Casey LOVES the monkey bars. It's her favorite thing. I couldn't even look at the xrays. I will be in trouble if it happens to her!

    Jamie

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  8. So glad to hear and see how well little Ree's arm is doing! Kids are amazing little healers!

    Have fun with gymnastics! Are you at the same place or did you try someplace new? I signed Hannah up for a Parent and Tot class that begins in Feb. Had such fun going with you and your girlies in the past and now looking forward to going with my own little swinging and climbing monkey!

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  9. I'm so glad everything is a-ok. It really is amazing what are bodies are capable of doing, isn't it?

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