Typically there has to be a part 1 in order for there to be a part 2. And although while in my blogosphere there isn't a part 1, in my real life there was a part 1 and yesterday was part 2, which is now what I am writing about. Although, I will write about part 1 too! Does that make any sense? I am trying to upload pics, but for some reason blogspot/my comp isn't letting me... will continue to try.
Anyways, it all began two weeks ago in a lovely home in the suburbs. A wonderful mother, me, was upstairs reading to her baby before she tucked him into bed for his afternoon nap. In the well manicured backyard(just kidding! Have you seen our backyard, not too bad, but not manicured) the pregnant, tired, lovely mother's two other children, Carter and Ella, and their little friend, Trevin, were outside blissfully playing in the kiddie pool which was at the bottom of the play set slide. Upon closing the door she heard her oldest, super cute son, Carter, screaming his head off down stairs. Now the wonderful mother was a little startled, but was beginning to get use to this type of screaming seeing how it happened the day before when the lovely son got a bee sting in his hand. However, hearing the urgency in his screaming ran downstairs to discover that Carter's right arm was completely misshapen and his elbow the size of grapefruit!!!!
So then reality set in and I was in complete panic mode! His arm was obviously broken, maybe in two spots with the looks of his wrist and elbow. What the heck does a mother do in this situation? Not something you train for. So?? Hospital? Or instacare? Shoes? Where are they? Trevin go home. Ella come inside and get dressed. Shoes? Call Matt. No answer. Comfort Carter who is still screaming his head off. Call Michelle across the street. No answer. Call Matt's cell. No answer. Call Sadi, Trevin's mom. No answer. Get Carter a shirt- only in his swim trunks. No can't get shirt on with his arm. Comfort Carter. Call babysitter- beg to come over even with little brother to watch Ella and Linc while I go to hospital. Don't know for how long. Matt texts- call in a minute. Text back-911!!! Matt calls! "Carter's arm is broken" hospital or instacare?- will call and call back. My shoes? Ella- you stay here. Audrey is coming. Carry Carter in van. Have to pick up his arm to put on seat belt. Sadi, neighbor shows up- suggests we pray. good idea. I will do it- no Sadi you do it. Have purse? Phone? Audrey, babysitter shows up with little brother. Drive away.
Matt called the instacare, which is a million times closer to us than the hospital. They said they have an X-ray machine and can see Carter. After carrying Carter into the place, the dr. looks at him and says take him to the hospital and then probably unto Primary Children's Hospital. Along the way Matt meets us and away we drive. Carter by now has calmed down significantly, but the turns and bumps in the road make him very nervous. We finally get to the hospital and with one look at his arm admit him instantly into the ER. What happened? He tells them he fell off the monkey bar. That would be the first of what could be literally a hundred times of being asked what happened. He is quickly dosed with some morphine and Matt and I begin making what seems like a million phones calls to family about what is going on. Carter, in the mean time, is having his arm x-rayed. He is doing amazingly well and is taking everything in stride. We wait around while Carter watches some tv. I am on the phone calling someone when I notice behind me about 7 nurses, ER Tech, dr, etc. all standing around some screens when at the same time they all let out this big, "ohhh.... My gosh!" One nurse shushes everyone and the ER tech catches me eye, like sorry. I thought, the break must be pretty bad for them to respond that way. More x-rays are done. Dr. shows us the x-rays. 3 broken bones in two places. Two at his wrist and one just above the elbow. He says while he would feel comfortable setting his wrist he is has a call in to the orthopedic surgeon at Primary's to see about the elbow. More waiting........
Call came in, Primary's ortho definitely wants him at Primary's. Dr. would suggest taking an ambulance. Carter then starts to freak out. He does NOT want to go in the ambulance. Wants to take the van. We tell him that mom or dad can go in the ambulance with him. does very little to comfort him. But eventually, despite the cost, we decide it is the best and actually convince him of it as well. EMT guys were super nice and funny. Carter now tells people with a little bit of boasting that he got to ride in an ambulance. It was expensive to have him ride in the ambulance, trust me, I got the gigantic bill today, however, it was rush hour and the break in his elbow was close to nerves that if jarred too much could cause some serious damage. Carter wanted Matt to ride with him and I drive the van up. Also upon hearing that we were going to have to go to Primary's we called Matt mom who was on standby and she then went to our house and relieved Audrey, the babysitter.
The ambulance was nice cause once at Primary's they whisked Carter into the ER and into a room with no waiting! That was super! We were seen by nurses who I think administered more morphine. An ER Resident came in and checked on Carter and then the real Dr. and then the ortho resident. We learned that Carter was going to have real surgery and that 2 pins would be put into his elbow and that his wrist would just be set, unless they thought it was bad enough pins were needed. It would take about 45 minutes all together and the Ortho Resident said we had the best Ortho surgeon in SLC to perform the surgery. While getting the Resident into the room took forever, he was very thorough and clear once in there.
Poor Carter in the mean time was doing super considering- luckily for us and him they had Disney Channel there in the room, which was a blessing! He was very hungry though and we felt bad, but he wasn't allowed to eat because of the 6 hour surgery rule. That probably was the hardest part at this point. His arm was wrapped in a "mini" cast and his pain was minimized just his little belly hurt.
We wanted Carter to have a blessing before he went into surgery. There was someone in the hospital who could help Matt administer it to Carter, but we were hoping not to have to use him. Instead at about 6:00, right in the middle of dinner, we called our friends the Nelson's who we were friends with the first time we lived in SLC while attending the U. They lived downtown and we were hoping were not too busy that Matt, the husband, could come to the hospital and help my Matt with the blessing. Despite having a meeting he was suppose to attend in an hour, he agreed to come. It was sooo wonderful of him to come. His wife sent along some dinner for us, which was a huge blessing because we were starving and it was sooo good. And mostly it was just good to see him, we hadn't seen him since being back in the state. So we caught up a little and then my Matt gave Carter a wonderful blessing. And then Matt had to go. Hopefully it won't be too long before we get to see him and hopefully his wife again.
By the time Matt left we had lots more waiting to do before carter was whisked away at about 9 to have the surgery done. Of course we talked again with the resident, the anaesthesiologist, the surgeon performing the surgery, Dr. Higgins. Thomas Higgins actually. And I don't know for sure, but to me his name and his face looked very Irish, but he had no accent, but if he had I wouldn't have been surprised. Matt and I were shown the waiting room and then we headed downstairs to the restaurant and bought some drinks and some ice cream to eat. We headed back upstairs and waited and ate our ice cream.
Dr. Higgins came back quicker than we expected and said everything had gone very well. They did not have to open him up like they thought they may have to and no pins in the wrist. He was rousing now and the nurses will call for us when Carter is awake enough. We felt very relieved and blessed to have had to gone so well. What is amazing about the whole thing is that there was not one speck of blood anywhere during this whole ordeal! Crazy, how modern medicine works.
Carter does well post surgery. He throws up twice, but is fine otherwise. We determine Matt is going to stay the night because I can't fathom sleeping on their pullout chair. My awesome brother, Pat, and his wife, Stephanie, come up to visit Carter as well as bring Matt some over night stuff. We had no plans of spending the night at the hospital, Carter's fall happened at 2 pm that afternoon. Little did we know, eh? Yet we were so thankful for them bringing Matt's stuff up. I finally leave with Pat and Steph at about 1. They drive me back to were we dropped Matt's car off at.
The plan for the next morning was to get up and be our of the house by 8. Matt's mom agreed to come back and watch the kids for us. But Matt called and said that Carter was being discharged soon, so there was no need to have me come up. All hyped up on narcotics Carter came home.
Part 2
So we had a scheduled Dr. appt. on Tues. He was going to have his new cast put on- one that fit better because the first one was too big due to the swelling of his arm initially after the first surgery. Does that make sense? More x-rays were going to be done and I then mentioned that last Wed. Carter fell out of back/trunk of a neighbors SUV. Why any mother would let their child ride in the trunk of a car is beyond me, even if it just was down the street. Anyways, the mother didn't see it happen, but said Carter landed on his back and was worried he hit his head. Carter said he hit his elbow. At the time he cried a little bit and then later that evening he complained a lot about his arm hurting. We didn't know if he was exaggerating and liked the attention or if it really hurt. However, I did call the ER and put a page into the Ortho Surgeons up there. No call back and Carter fell asleep fine. The next morning he woke up and did not complain at all of any pain, so I let it be. But I did want the Dr. to make sure it was okay before we put on this new, more permanent cast.
After reviewing the x-rays twice, the surgeon said that his arm had moved and that he needed to have it reset-- today. I felt terrible. Matt and I are normally so anal about stuff like this and this time we took the wait and see approach and the one time we have this approach we totally get burned. So what was suppose to be a regular 1 hour long visit to the Dr. ended up being an all day ordeal! It was difficult and crazy.
However, I was so grateful not to have my other kids. I was going to take them with me because it wasn't suppose to be that big of a thing and everyone in the office is super nice so I thought it would be no big deal. Luckily, my sister offered to watch them for me. Man was I grateful they were not there. The visit and all the stuff following to get the surgery(and that is what they called it) set up took about 2 hours. We were going to be able to do the surgery at the surgeon's office building because they had a mini-ortho hospital set up in the basement of the building. so we didn't have to go to Primary's, which I thought was nice, but later turned into a little bit, or a lot, of, nightmare. More about that in a minute.
so we had 2 hours to burn in downtown SLC before we needed to go back. Initially I told Carter we could go to the Discovery Center, but quickly realized that little time would be spent there due to travel and parking time and time spent getting lunch for me, and a lot of money would be spent getting in. When I told them this it didn't go over very well. I was hungry and wanted to get lunch but Carter, who couldn't eat again because of the 6 hour surgery rule, wasn't thrilled with me getting food. I agreed that I wouldn't eat the food in front of him, but did end up getting some yummy Cafe Rio. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal and that I could wait to eat until 2:15- no worries. We ended up going to the downtown library, which I had never been to. It was really pretty and we had a nice time there- even Carter. We pulled some books about motocross and BMX biking and looked at them and then played some computer games. It was good because it was nice and cool inside and pretty low key for Carter and his arm, whose cast was cut in half and put back together with an ace bandage. After more thinking about it going to the discovery center would probably not been the best idea for his arm that was still broken!
So back at the waiting room of the surgeon's office we met with the insurance lady who told me that it was going to be only covered at 70% up to $3000 because he was out of network. Well, I know he was out of network here at his offices, but in-network at Primary's and I then proceeded to tell her what I knew regarding this situation. She said to make sure to check with the insurance in the next day or two to work it all out. Well, having learned with Carter's arm that waiting isn't always the best, I had Matt check into it right then and was told the same thing. So having the surgery performed today at this facility was going to cost us at least 3K!!!! So then I called insurance and was told while it is the same surgeon and we were only doing as told by the same surgeon who performed the original surgery but that it wasn't going to covered as in-network. URG!!!! I was then transferred to someone who would be able to help me find a new pediatric orthopedic surgeon who could perform the surgery the same day because I was not going to go home with carter's broken arm in an insufficient cast. Meanwhile the nurse came out and told us they were ready for Carter. I had to tell her I could not have them do the surgery because it was not going to be covered as we initially thought. Anyways, super long story short after spending over an hour on the phone with the insurance people and crying to the receptionist and calling the insurance people a swear word and have the surgeon himself call the insurance people, we were authorized to have Carter have the surgery performed. I was relieved and grateful. I was also so ready and told the insurance guy that I was ready to go to Primary's ER, which would have cost them much more, I am sure then just having the surgery performed in the office. What could have been more ironic was that the same Dr., Dr. Higgins, could have been the one to perform the surgery on him if he were the on call surgeon. all worked out, though, only took 2 hours longer than thought to have him have the surgery.
Once finally back in the prep room we got Carter put into his gown, which he thought I was making fun of him for calling it that, but luckily the nurse backed me up on that! Anyways, we filled our time playing I Spy and the rhyming game. Eventually at about 4:30 I was starving and asked Carter if he minded I ate. He said it was fine and he would just try and not pay attention to the fact that I was eating. I felt guilty, but I was starving and I am 6 months pregnant and all I had for breakfast was a lousy bowl of Fruit Loops. Again luckily, the nurse at this time was like, do you want to watch some tv? And once the tv was on Carter wasn't even aware that was I was in the room.
About 20 minutes later the surgeon came and got us. I walked with Carter for as far as I could go and then I hugged and kissed him and away he walked down the hall with the surgeon and didn't even look back. I couldn't believe how little he looked walking away, yet how mature he acted walking away to a surgery were he was going to be totally knocked out, with a surgeon he barely knew.
The surgery was suppose to take only 20 minutes, but ended up taking 40. When the surgeon came to see me he told me it took a lot more pushing than originally thought it would to get it back to where it needed to be. I felt so bad, knowing that if I just would have brought him in last Thurs. the surgery would have gone a lot easier. About 15 minutes later the nurse came out and got me to tell me he was awaking.
He awakened a lot quicker this time than last, I think because the anesthesia wasn't as strong. He drank and ate quicker and didn't throw up this time either, which was nice. We were able to leave about an hour after the end of the surgery. I told him earlier in the afternoon that after we left the surgery/office building that he could get whatever he wanted to eat- ice cream, McDonald's whatever. We asked the nurse if that would be ok and she said yes, so for dinner Carter had a big 'ol Maggie Moo's ice cream Marshmallow with oreo, kit kat and sprinkles! What could be better when you are 5?
We finally for home at about 7:30. We left at 9 that morning. It was a long day. The worst part of it all is that having it reset basically means that it was like having it broken that day, which means 4 weeks longer than expected in a cast. Which I think puts him into the beginning of the school year! Urg. We are definitely going to be keeping a close eye on him and keeping him out of trunks of SUV's!
Anyways, it all began two weeks ago in a lovely home in the suburbs. A wonderful mother, me, was upstairs reading to her baby before she tucked him into bed for his afternoon nap. In the well manicured backyard(just kidding! Have you seen our backyard, not too bad, but not manicured) the pregnant, tired, lovely mother's two other children, Carter and Ella, and their little friend, Trevin, were outside blissfully playing in the kiddie pool which was at the bottom of the play set slide. Upon closing the door she heard her oldest, super cute son, Carter, screaming his head off down stairs. Now the wonderful mother was a little startled, but was beginning to get use to this type of screaming seeing how it happened the day before when the lovely son got a bee sting in his hand. However, hearing the urgency in his screaming ran downstairs to discover that Carter's right arm was completely misshapen and his elbow the size of grapefruit!!!!
So then reality set in and I was in complete panic mode! His arm was obviously broken, maybe in two spots with the looks of his wrist and elbow. What the heck does a mother do in this situation? Not something you train for. So?? Hospital? Or instacare? Shoes? Where are they? Trevin go home. Ella come inside and get dressed. Shoes? Call Matt. No answer. Comfort Carter who is still screaming his head off. Call Michelle across the street. No answer. Call Matt's cell. No answer. Call Sadi, Trevin's mom. No answer. Get Carter a shirt- only in his swim trunks. No can't get shirt on with his arm. Comfort Carter. Call babysitter- beg to come over even with little brother to watch Ella and Linc while I go to hospital. Don't know for how long. Matt texts- call in a minute. Text back-911!!! Matt calls! "Carter's arm is broken" hospital or instacare?- will call and call back. My shoes? Ella- you stay here. Audrey is coming. Carry Carter in van. Have to pick up his arm to put on seat belt. Sadi, neighbor shows up- suggests we pray. good idea. I will do it- no Sadi you do it. Have purse? Phone? Audrey, babysitter shows up with little brother. Drive away.
Matt called the instacare, which is a million times closer to us than the hospital. They said they have an X-ray machine and can see Carter. After carrying Carter into the place, the dr. looks at him and says take him to the hospital and then probably unto Primary Children's Hospital. Along the way Matt meets us and away we drive. Carter by now has calmed down significantly, but the turns and bumps in the road make him very nervous. We finally get to the hospital and with one look at his arm admit him instantly into the ER. What happened? He tells them he fell off the monkey bar. That would be the first of what could be literally a hundred times of being asked what happened. He is quickly dosed with some morphine and Matt and I begin making what seems like a million phones calls to family about what is going on. Carter, in the mean time, is having his arm x-rayed. He is doing amazingly well and is taking everything in stride. We wait around while Carter watches some tv. I am on the phone calling someone when I notice behind me about 7 nurses, ER Tech, dr, etc. all standing around some screens when at the same time they all let out this big, "ohhh.... My gosh!" One nurse shushes everyone and the ER tech catches me eye, like sorry. I thought, the break must be pretty bad for them to respond that way. More x-rays are done. Dr. shows us the x-rays. 3 broken bones in two places. Two at his wrist and one just above the elbow. He says while he would feel comfortable setting his wrist he is has a call in to the orthopedic surgeon at Primary's to see about the elbow. More waiting........
Call came in, Primary's ortho definitely wants him at Primary's. Dr. would suggest taking an ambulance. Carter then starts to freak out. He does NOT want to go in the ambulance. Wants to take the van. We tell him that mom or dad can go in the ambulance with him. does very little to comfort him. But eventually, despite the cost, we decide it is the best and actually convince him of it as well. EMT guys were super nice and funny. Carter now tells people with a little bit of boasting that he got to ride in an ambulance. It was expensive to have him ride in the ambulance, trust me, I got the gigantic bill today, however, it was rush hour and the break in his elbow was close to nerves that if jarred too much could cause some serious damage. Carter wanted Matt to ride with him and I drive the van up. Also upon hearing that we were going to have to go to Primary's we called Matt mom who was on standby and she then went to our house and relieved Audrey, the babysitter.
The ambulance was nice cause once at Primary's they whisked Carter into the ER and into a room with no waiting! That was super! We were seen by nurses who I think administered more morphine. An ER Resident came in and checked on Carter and then the real Dr. and then the ortho resident. We learned that Carter was going to have real surgery and that 2 pins would be put into his elbow and that his wrist would just be set, unless they thought it was bad enough pins were needed. It would take about 45 minutes all together and the Ortho Resident said we had the best Ortho surgeon in SLC to perform the surgery. While getting the Resident into the room took forever, he was very thorough and clear once in there.
Poor Carter in the mean time was doing super considering- luckily for us and him they had Disney Channel there in the room, which was a blessing! He was very hungry though and we felt bad, but he wasn't allowed to eat because of the 6 hour surgery rule. That probably was the hardest part at this point. His arm was wrapped in a "mini" cast and his pain was minimized just his little belly hurt.
We wanted Carter to have a blessing before he went into surgery. There was someone in the hospital who could help Matt administer it to Carter, but we were hoping not to have to use him. Instead at about 6:00, right in the middle of dinner, we called our friends the Nelson's who we were friends with the first time we lived in SLC while attending the U. They lived downtown and we were hoping were not too busy that Matt, the husband, could come to the hospital and help my Matt with the blessing. Despite having a meeting he was suppose to attend in an hour, he agreed to come. It was sooo wonderful of him to come. His wife sent along some dinner for us, which was a huge blessing because we were starving and it was sooo good. And mostly it was just good to see him, we hadn't seen him since being back in the state. So we caught up a little and then my Matt gave Carter a wonderful blessing. And then Matt had to go. Hopefully it won't be too long before we get to see him and hopefully his wife again.
By the time Matt left we had lots more waiting to do before carter was whisked away at about 9 to have the surgery done. Of course we talked again with the resident, the anaesthesiologist, the surgeon performing the surgery, Dr. Higgins. Thomas Higgins actually. And I don't know for sure, but to me his name and his face looked very Irish, but he had no accent, but if he had I wouldn't have been surprised. Matt and I were shown the waiting room and then we headed downstairs to the restaurant and bought some drinks and some ice cream to eat. We headed back upstairs and waited and ate our ice cream.
Dr. Higgins came back quicker than we expected and said everything had gone very well. They did not have to open him up like they thought they may have to and no pins in the wrist. He was rousing now and the nurses will call for us when Carter is awake enough. We felt very relieved and blessed to have had to gone so well. What is amazing about the whole thing is that there was not one speck of blood anywhere during this whole ordeal! Crazy, how modern medicine works.
Carter does well post surgery. He throws up twice, but is fine otherwise. We determine Matt is going to stay the night because I can't fathom sleeping on their pullout chair. My awesome brother, Pat, and his wife, Stephanie, come up to visit Carter as well as bring Matt some over night stuff. We had no plans of spending the night at the hospital, Carter's fall happened at 2 pm that afternoon. Little did we know, eh? Yet we were so thankful for them bringing Matt's stuff up. I finally leave with Pat and Steph at about 1. They drive me back to were we dropped Matt's car off at.
The plan for the next morning was to get up and be our of the house by 8. Matt's mom agreed to come back and watch the kids for us. But Matt called and said that Carter was being discharged soon, so there was no need to have me come up. All hyped up on narcotics Carter came home.
Part 2
So we had a scheduled Dr. appt. on Tues. He was going to have his new cast put on- one that fit better because the first one was too big due to the swelling of his arm initially after the first surgery. Does that make sense? More x-rays were going to be done and I then mentioned that last Wed. Carter fell out of back/trunk of a neighbors SUV. Why any mother would let their child ride in the trunk of a car is beyond me, even if it just was down the street. Anyways, the mother didn't see it happen, but said Carter landed on his back and was worried he hit his head. Carter said he hit his elbow. At the time he cried a little bit and then later that evening he complained a lot about his arm hurting. We didn't know if he was exaggerating and liked the attention or if it really hurt. However, I did call the ER and put a page into the Ortho Surgeons up there. No call back and Carter fell asleep fine. The next morning he woke up and did not complain at all of any pain, so I let it be. But I did want the Dr. to make sure it was okay before we put on this new, more permanent cast.
After reviewing the x-rays twice, the surgeon said that his arm had moved and that he needed to have it reset-- today. I felt terrible. Matt and I are normally so anal about stuff like this and this time we took the wait and see approach and the one time we have this approach we totally get burned. So what was suppose to be a regular 1 hour long visit to the Dr. ended up being an all day ordeal! It was difficult and crazy.
However, I was so grateful not to have my other kids. I was going to take them with me because it wasn't suppose to be that big of a thing and everyone in the office is super nice so I thought it would be no big deal. Luckily, my sister offered to watch them for me. Man was I grateful they were not there. The visit and all the stuff following to get the surgery(and that is what they called it) set up took about 2 hours. We were going to be able to do the surgery at the surgeon's office building because they had a mini-ortho hospital set up in the basement of the building. so we didn't have to go to Primary's, which I thought was nice, but later turned into a little bit, or a lot, of, nightmare. More about that in a minute.
so we had 2 hours to burn in downtown SLC before we needed to go back. Initially I told Carter we could go to the Discovery Center, but quickly realized that little time would be spent there due to travel and parking time and time spent getting lunch for me, and a lot of money would be spent getting in. When I told them this it didn't go over very well. I was hungry and wanted to get lunch but Carter, who couldn't eat again because of the 6 hour surgery rule, wasn't thrilled with me getting food. I agreed that I wouldn't eat the food in front of him, but did end up getting some yummy Cafe Rio. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal and that I could wait to eat until 2:15- no worries. We ended up going to the downtown library, which I had never been to. It was really pretty and we had a nice time there- even Carter. We pulled some books about motocross and BMX biking and looked at them and then played some computer games. It was good because it was nice and cool inside and pretty low key for Carter and his arm, whose cast was cut in half and put back together with an ace bandage. After more thinking about it going to the discovery center would probably not been the best idea for his arm that was still broken!
So back at the waiting room of the surgeon's office we met with the insurance lady who told me that it was going to be only covered at 70% up to $3000 because he was out of network. Well, I know he was out of network here at his offices, but in-network at Primary's and I then proceeded to tell her what I knew regarding this situation. She said to make sure to check with the insurance in the next day or two to work it all out. Well, having learned with Carter's arm that waiting isn't always the best, I had Matt check into it right then and was told the same thing. So having the surgery performed today at this facility was going to cost us at least 3K!!!! So then I called insurance and was told while it is the same surgeon and we were only doing as told by the same surgeon who performed the original surgery but that it wasn't going to covered as in-network. URG!!!! I was then transferred to someone who would be able to help me find a new pediatric orthopedic surgeon who could perform the surgery the same day because I was not going to go home with carter's broken arm in an insufficient cast. Meanwhile the nurse came out and told us they were ready for Carter. I had to tell her I could not have them do the surgery because it was not going to be covered as we initially thought. Anyways, super long story short after spending over an hour on the phone with the insurance people and crying to the receptionist and calling the insurance people a swear word and have the surgeon himself call the insurance people, we were authorized to have Carter have the surgery performed. I was relieved and grateful. I was also so ready and told the insurance guy that I was ready to go to Primary's ER, which would have cost them much more, I am sure then just having the surgery performed in the office. What could have been more ironic was that the same Dr., Dr. Higgins, could have been the one to perform the surgery on him if he were the on call surgeon. all worked out, though, only took 2 hours longer than thought to have him have the surgery.
Once finally back in the prep room we got Carter put into his gown, which he thought I was making fun of him for calling it that, but luckily the nurse backed me up on that! Anyways, we filled our time playing I Spy and the rhyming game. Eventually at about 4:30 I was starving and asked Carter if he minded I ate. He said it was fine and he would just try and not pay attention to the fact that I was eating. I felt guilty, but I was starving and I am 6 months pregnant and all I had for breakfast was a lousy bowl of Fruit Loops. Again luckily, the nurse at this time was like, do you want to watch some tv? And once the tv was on Carter wasn't even aware that was I was in the room.
About 20 minutes later the surgeon came and got us. I walked with Carter for as far as I could go and then I hugged and kissed him and away he walked down the hall with the surgeon and didn't even look back. I couldn't believe how little he looked walking away, yet how mature he acted walking away to a surgery were he was going to be totally knocked out, with a surgeon he barely knew.
The surgery was suppose to take only 20 minutes, but ended up taking 40. When the surgeon came to see me he told me it took a lot more pushing than originally thought it would to get it back to where it needed to be. I felt so bad, knowing that if I just would have brought him in last Thurs. the surgery would have gone a lot easier. About 15 minutes later the nurse came out and got me to tell me he was awaking.
He awakened a lot quicker this time than last, I think because the anesthesia wasn't as strong. He drank and ate quicker and didn't throw up this time either, which was nice. We were able to leave about an hour after the end of the surgery. I told him earlier in the afternoon that after we left the surgery/office building that he could get whatever he wanted to eat- ice cream, McDonald's whatever. We asked the nurse if that would be ok and she said yes, so for dinner Carter had a big 'ol Maggie Moo's ice cream Marshmallow with oreo, kit kat and sprinkles! What could be better when you are 5?
We finally for home at about 7:30. We left at 9 that morning. It was a long day. The worst part of it all is that having it reset basically means that it was like having it broken that day, which means 4 weeks longer than expected in a cast. Which I think puts him into the beginning of the school year! Urg. We are definitely going to be keeping a close eye on him and keeping him out of trunks of SUV's!
