Casting Calls

Around 10:00 Tuesday morning we started getting ready to leave for Tipton's orthopedic appointment. Originally we were all going to go, and George would stay with Lilli in the waiting room. But we decided that it would be easier for everyone (especially George!) for George/Papa and Lilli to stay home. Lilli was not happy. We started to put on our shoes and Lilli said "I coming, too!" I explained that she wasn't going to come, that she was going to stay home with Papa. And she replied "But I'm a princess!"

We eventually got out the door with out Lilli (and she did fine staying home with Papa.) I was a nervous wreck on the way to the doctors office. Just dreading what was to come, but trying not to show my fear to Tipton, who was nervous enough all on his own.

They called us back and looked at the x-rays we had brought with us, then they took a few more. The doctor, Dr. Miller, came in and took off the 'sugar tong' cast. Then he 'reduced the fracture.' I managed to hold myself together while Tipton screamed and cried through that. Then they put him into a full cast - halfway up his bicep. Then they took him for another x-ray.

The doctor wasn't happy with the reduction. So they cut off the cast. They used a little circular saw. Tipton freaked. (Honestly, I freaked a little, too.) He kept screaming that they were cutting him and that it hurt. I kept expecting to see blood flying up off the saw blade. But of course there was none. They have a guard on the blade so it will only penetrate so far, and they do it all the time. But still - a little nerve wracking.

Tipton continued to scream while they 'reduced the fracture' a second time. I had to lie across his body to hold him down. He was screaming things like "Stop it! You're hurting me! Don't touch me! You're DONE! Say that you're done! It hurts! Get your hands off of me!" etc. I lost it during that. I tried to hold it together but I was crying right along with him.

He continued to scream while they put another cast on him. He continued to scream while I carried him down for yet another set of x-rays. He screamed all during the x-ray. He screamed while I carried him back to the casting room.

Dr. Miller looked at the new x-rays. Tipton's are was now PERFECT. Perfectly straight. You couldn't even see where it was broken (well, I couldn't anyway.)

Tipton finally started to calm down (stopped screaming) when they finished putting the last layer of the cast on. He has a full cast - goes almost up to his armpit. His arm is bent at the elbow. His cast glows in the dark.

Dr. Miller said that judging from the x-rays, it looks like his arm was broken at a 90 degree angle (the bones were at 90 degrees.) I told him that was pretty much what it looked like to me. Pretty-freaking-awful. But now it is perfect.

Oh, and while all of this was going on, I kept getting phone calls from Dave...

A coworker had to drive him home from work because he was in so much pain from his kidney stone. After being in intense, agonizing pain for two hours (the pain meds having NO effect), Dave called 112 (like 911 in the US) to have an ambulance come and take him to the hospital.

I freaked. (I think this was during Tipton's second set of x-rays.) I called my friend, Betsy, to ask her if she could have her husband, Martin (the one who brought him home from work) find out where Dave was and what was going on - that he had just called an ambulance to take him to the hospital. I was maybe a little hysterical after having just witnessed the first reduction of Tipton's fracture.

Martin grabbed his laptop and went to the hospital in search of Dave. He found him on a gurney in a hallway. They had admitted him, taken his vitals, drawn some blood and then left him on a gurney in the hallway. No pain med, nothing. For three hours. (Welcome to socialized medicine.) So Martin sat with him, fired up his laptop and had Dave work with him on a presentation they were to be giving the next day. Possibly the best thing for Dave - got his mind off the pain and eased his stress about not being able to get any work done.

Eventually the pain subsided on it's own (much like it had the day before - on it's own.) Eventually a doctor wandered by. Dave was released, again. After sitting on a gurney in a hallway of the hospital for over three hours. The doctor didn't do anything, didn't offer him any other pain management. Nothing.

When Dave got home he took a jar out of the recycle and peed into it. (Note: They did not have him pee while he was in the hospital, even though he was there because of a kidney stone.) He said it hurt to pee. Then he felt better. He looked to the bottom of the jar and sure enough - there was a 3mm stone in the bottom of it. He had 'passed the stone.'

I am sooooo glad that he has passed the stone. I am sooooooo glad that Tipton's arm has been set properly and that he's in a proper cast.

It was a very emotionally charged day. This is definitely one vacation that we will never forget!