Broken Arm

Sunday after church the Bishop said he needed to meet with me and in my head I thought it must be about Tyler's new calling to the High Council and was confused why he needed to meet with me. Of course it turns out the meeting had nothing to do with Tyler, and actually the Bishop was giving me a new calling- First Counselor of the Primary Presidency. I'm not super worried about it. I think it'll be a lot easier than last time I was in it- less kids and primary is only and hour long.

Sunday evening (around 9pm) everything had been really nice and I was busy working on my Lego art when I heard the usual running of Penny going to do a handstand against the coach and then everything went haywire. Penny shrieked and Tyler was freaking out. I guess Tyler heard the bones in her arm snap, thought it was the couch and then saw that her arm was at an angle and he did not react well. I tried not to think too much about it and look too hard at her arm because I knew I would probably freak out as well and one of us needed to be calm. He was in a huge rush to go so I wasn't able to find her crocs and instead threw some tennis shoes in the car. Then he got upset when I said we couldn't go to the nearest hospital because I had heard awful stories about it. We chose a hospital after a phone call with Caroline (who visits the hospital often with her kids), and were heading there when Tyler got dizzy and had to pull over. I drove us the rest of the way there and then dropped them off at the door. The car ride was rough with Penny freaking out (understandably) and me trying to calm her down. Telling her to breathe and trying to find any positive thought I could about having a broken arm- like maybe a pink cast, and friends getting to sign your cast and all the attention ;) It was hard to come up with good things.

At the hospital Penny ended up walking in with just 1 shoe. I had started to put one on and never got the other one on. Once inside I thought things would move quick with a broken arm but that was a silly thought. They did not move quick. The lady checking us in kept telling us how she had a daughter named Penelope too and kept telling Penny that her name was a strong name. I'm sure she was trying to distract Penny but it wasn't super helpful. Penny was in so much pain. They got us back fairly quickly but it was a good hour before they finally gave Penny pain medication. I hate how long she had to suffer for. Then a lady came in and did an xray with a super fancy machine that looked like a tablet. Both bones were broken. The doctor came in and informed us that they would use conscious sedation on her (ketamine) and then attempt to set the bones. Of course a lot more waiting before that happened.

When they finally drugged her up and attempted to set her arm, it did not go well. Both the nurse practioner and er doctor struggled- her bones just would not set in place because there was nothing to hold them together. Since they were unable to properly set the bones in place they sent an xray to an orthopedic surgeon to figure out if they should do anything else before releasing us. 

During that wait time we encountered the funniest Penny we have ever experienced as she came off the drugs. She would wake up, say silly things and then just randomly pass out. Bluey was playing on the TV during all this so some funny things were related to Bluey. She sang the whole Bluey theme song, told us she hated Bluey and we should change the channel. Told us she loved Bluey. She asked if she was dead and if this was heaven. Was Bluey in heaven? She told us not to take videos (but we did). I took her glasses at one point and so she freaked out and wondered why everything is blurry. Then she called me a liar and stealer for taking them. She asked what time it was and how we were surviving not being able to sleep. At one point each time she woke up she shouted good morning to a different place- good morning New York! Good Morning Germany! It was on my bucket list to break a bone in Germany! Good morning UK! She worried about the Bishop knowing that she had taken drugs and begged us not to tell him. She said the thing in her nose was for old people and she didn't understand why she had to have it. She called the blood pressure cuff evil. She shouted she was hilarios and then passed out. She also informed that she did not want metal in her arms because popular kids don't have metal in their arms. All this was the only "bright" spot in a really rough night.

Hours later the orthopedic surgeon finally saw her xray and said he would send a resident to try to set it again and cast it, hoping that would help the bones stay in place so they wouldn't slide too much. And then hours later the resident came and they gave Penny ketamine again and this time it was really hard for me to watch her go through the pain of them trying and failing to set it once again. There were times she would wake up crying in pain. I was frustrated because they weren't successful in setting the bones so it all seemed pointless to me. Tyler thought it was good they did a cast because it protected her arm better. It was hard for me to see that in the moment.

She wasn't funny coming off the drugs this time- I think she was just so tired at that point. Finally, at 6:30am, they were done messing with her arm and the ketamine was out of her system enough that we could go home. We left the ER with pretty much a guarantee that she would need surgery.

When we got home (7am Monday morning) Penny and I went straight to bed in my bed- since she couldn't climb into her loft bed and I wanted to be close to her in case she needed anything. Tyler- the trooper- went and got her some Motrin and then he passed out in the guest room. I was grateful for Lucy helping with Ruby so we could get some rest. Mostly Monday, which was Memorial Day, was us trying to recover from the all nighter we had just pulled. Our original plans were to go to the Toledo Zoo so that did not happen. We did do a BBQ on Tyler's new camping stove for dinner though so a little semblance of normalcy.

Tuesday Penny was feeling good which was nice. She had got a really good night of sleep. I had bought tickets for us to go see "Lilo and Stitch" that afternoon and Penny wanted to go still so we went. I am glad we did, it was a nice distraction from all the things. The movie was cute, and made me cry, but they definitely changed some stuff and some changes were good and some were meh. Like I think they made Stitch a little less naughty and I appreciated that but the sister needing to leave Hawaii to be a marine biologist is a little weird...I mean how can she not be one in Hawaii? 

Wednesday morning Penny had her appointment with the orthopedic surgeon. The waiting room had some colorful people who were the kind of people who feel entitled to things that they are not entitled too. Then our visit with the surgeon went exactly as we suspected- we were told Penny would need surgery to put rods in so they could properly set her bones. Even though we knew it was coming, it was still not happy news. They called later that day and scheduled the appointment for Friday. It was good that we could at least get it over with so she could start the healing process.

Wednesday night was Seminary Graduation and Tyler was speaking at it. Since Penny was still feeling good, we decided to all go. I wasn't able to stay the whole time but I at least got to hear Tyler's talk. He talked about Sherlock Holmes and focusing your studies on what matters. I left early with Ruby so I could attend a Zoom meeting for High School Soccer. I should have just stayed at the graduation because the meeting pretty much gave me no new info and mostly focused on the fact that not everyone is going to get a lot of play time. I think we already know that.

Since we had bought the Toledo Zoo pass online Sunday and hadn't been able to go Memorial Day, I thought Thursday would be a good time to use it. A last hurrah before her surgery. Right as I took a wrong turn on the freeway and was lost and in traffic- the hospital called about billing. I could not focus and answer how I wanted to pay for Penny's surgery and I informed the lady of this. She was rude and said I had until noon to call back. But then she didn't leave me a number and when Tyler tried the one she called me from, it did not work. So while he was at home trying to track this lady down, the girls and I were at the zoo having a much better time than him. There were a lot of field trips there so it was more peopley than we would have liked but we still saw a lot of fun animals. Ruby loved the Aquarium with all the fishes, and sharks! She also got to pet a goat. We saw monkeys swinging and playing and we got to watch a mommy and baby elephant eat. The baby elephant even went running which was cute. I didn't take too many pictures but it was a good time.

Tyler had zero luck in reaching the billing lady. He was essentially told, after calling 7 different numbers that he would have to wait for her to call him. And of course as soon as we started our drive home, she called. It was so frustrating. I told her my husband had been trying to reach her so she asked for his number. She was actually pretty rude about it all but in the end, she called him and arrangements were made. We now have a lovely payment plan so we didn't have to take a bunch out of savings. I swear we can never get ahead financially.

Friday Penny had to be at the hospital at 6am. Tyler decided he wanted to take her so I ended up at home watching the rest of the kids. I wish I could have been there too but I felt bad asking anyone to watch Ruby. I did wake up with Penny to send her off. She was very tired which made her very emotional. That was hard. They were able to set both of Penny's broken bones with rods during the surgery but they ended up having to do 3 incisions instead of the promised 2. They were not able to give her a pink cast since they just did a splint so that was super disappointing to her. She has to wait 2 weeks before she can get the permanent cast and HOPEFULLY that one will be pink! She apparently woke up from the surgery feeling very sad about the lack of pink. She was very sad on off for the rest of the day- these sedation meds were not as fun as the last. Penny spent her time back at home watching TV, and feeling blue. 

Also Friday, I discovered that the house across from us was up for sale and my parents decided that they wanted to buy it. I called the realtor and she called my mom and the ball got rolling. It would be so nice for them to have a place right next to us.

Saturday we had talked about going to Penny's last soccer game so she could cheer on her team and get the medal at the end but it did not work out. She was in a lot of pain so she needed to take the big pain meds which make her sleepy. After putting lunch on the table for Penny, Tyler and I went across the street to check out the house for my parents. It was in really good shape and seems perfect for them. There's just a weird smell. When we came back from looking at the house, Penny was slumped over in the kitchen chair, fast asleep. The rest of Saturday was rough for Penny- she didn't feel great and was emotional. I just hung out with her for moral support. Tyler took Ben to his last soccer game, Ben's team did not win.

Saturday night Grace and Jason came by and dropped off a sweet gift for Ruby- a blanket,a stuffie and candy. It really brightened Penny's spirits and was so thoughtful. It was also nice to be able to talk with them about the rough week Penny had had.

Pics from this week: