Justin's Summer Break(s)

A photo journey through Justin's past 4 weeks:

In the hospital he had such a great drug induced sleep that he will never remember it. With a bone to reset and 3 breaks to cast for healing, Justin's summer became an adventure full of new experiences.

We had planned to go with the cousins to Egin Lake and Justin was insistent that we still go. He did not complain once, even though he had to hold his arm up out of the water the entire time. It must have been so sweaty wrapped up in the saran wrap (our MacGyver attempt to keep it somewhat dry).

The park was not quite as much fun as the lake. Though he didn't have to worry about getting his cast wet, he found that it is very awkward to climb with one arm. Still, no complaining but we did get a little pout every now and then.

Having his arm wrapped didn't seem to slow him down much while camping either. He still played with the fire like he always does, ran around in the woods like he belonged there and managed to get just as dirty as ever before. I was glad that the camping came before his new cast simply because of the camp fire smell and mountain dirt that soaked into his old cast. When the doctor cut the first cast off he was teasing Justin about how bad it smelled and how dirty it was. As he pulled it apart to take it off dirt fell onto the floor and his arm showed not only a new tan line but a new dirt line.

And finally, his new pink cast. The doctor questioned him 3 times to make sure that he really wanted to have a pink one and Justin was quite sure. His dad was a little disgusted with his color choice but he was good to set his opinion aside to be the first one to sign Justin's cast. Justin has found that he likes the shorter cast better because he can do more but that it is a little more painful to have movement from his elbow. The smaller cast does give him better use of his fingers so now he can write with his right hand but it still looks as scratchy as when he used his left hand. Luckily he will have it off when school starts. During Webelos scout camp he got a piece of wood stuck in the cast and that evening he spent about an hour digging down inside of it with a butter knife to get it out.

Other than not being able to do any gymnastics (he has figured out how to do rolls across the floor with his arm sticking out, but that's just goofing off, not really gymnastics) or to go swimming, he has continued to do most everything that he did before. His new skills include left-handed eating, writing and computer mouse-ing as well as one-handedly managing to put on his own shirt, fill the dishwasher and fold clothes.

At the appointment last week they x-rayed his wrist again. The doctor was so impressed with how quick it is healing that he is going to let him get his cast off on August 6th. That totally made Justin's day. Because of the way the breaks were and how it had cracked into the growth plate, and because of how active he is, the doctor initially told us that Justin would wear the cast longer. I guess the herbs, paired with all of the prayers in his behalf, are doing a great job for a speedy recovery.

The Details:

On June 24th at around 5:30 pm I received a call while driving home. It was Derek, in a panicked voice, telling me that Justin had fallen out of a tree and they (the mother next door) thought that Justin had a broken or dislocated shoulder. I pulled into the neighbor's driveway about 2 minutes later to find Justin laying on the grass under a tree. When I knelt down next to him I saw his big blue eyes full of pain and tears and a little bit of shock. Once we got him to sit up I could see that his shoulder was pitched forward and his elbow was sticking out behind him, at least from what I could see with a sling on. (I didn't give it much thought at the time but once we were with the doctor and saw the severity of the breaks I was very grateful to my neighbor for putting his arm in a sling to keep it stationary.)

In a matter of minutes I dropped off the two little boys with Derek and Erika and we were on our way to Community Care. Justin was very brave but I could also see that he was trying to tough it out and hide his pain, even through the few sobs and tears that came.

When we got situated with the doctor he removed the sling and Justin's hand fell, literally. It looked like there was nothing connecting the hand to the arm. Four x-rays later we found that he had 3 breaks in his wrist, one of which was through the growth plate, and one of the bones was sticking out under the growth plate, protruding slightly into his skin. The doctor quickly but gently wrapped it up, gave him a pain killer and referred us to a neurosurgeon. His shoulder was fine, it had just looked different because he had been holding it weird to compensate for his wrist. They also took an x-ray of his thigh because he was limping so bad but nothing was broken, thankfully. It was sore enough from landing so hard that he limped for about a week.

That first night was so hard on him. He was nauseated from the pain meds, which still left him in pain, and he couldn't find a good position to sleep in. After a very sleepless night and a day spent sitting as still as possible because every movement seemed to hurt him we met with the neurosurgeon (appointment set later in the day to allow some of the swelling to go down). Once the doctor looked at the x-rays and we discussed the options he called up to the hospital to arrange for an IV with Demerol and Vicodin so that he could reset and cast Justin's wrist.

Watching the doctor reset his bone was interesting. They first gave him an IV which he didn't even flinch at, probably because he had so much pain elsewhere. Once the drugs started to kick in he peacefully went to sleep. The nurse lifted his eyelids and shined a little light in them, no response whatsoever. They moved his arm around a bit and still no response. Then they began to unwrap his arm and Justin moaned a little bit. The doctor was holding his arm up at the elbow and the nurse had ahold of his fingers. When the doctor let go of his arm it was dangling with by the fingers with the nurse holding it up. Then the doctor took his wrist and started to move the bone back into place. Justin immediately sat straight up with his eyes wide open and screamed, throwing his head back and forth. It was a little disturbing because I could tell that he wasn't awake at all but his body was still responding to the pain. It only took a couple of minutes and they were finished. Justin has no memory of it at all, which was part of what the doctor was trying to accomplish.

As Justin was slowly coming out of his induced sleep stretched his eyelids up and said "can I just sleep here tonight, it feels so good". I told the nurse we could wait until he woke up completely on his own before leaving. After the awful night he had had before I wanted him to get as much sleep as possible. They did eventually kick us out (really it was only 2 hours) but Justin was still very groggy as they moved him to a wheelchair, wheeled him out and put him in the Yukon. He did walk into the house but not without assistance, and he zonked out on the couch until the next afternoon, a good 48 hours of sleep. He even slept through Hyrum and Nathan poking at his face and a handful of friends that showed up to give him cards.

It took a couple of days before we saw our Justin emerge from the pain, drug and shock induced silence that he was hiding in. It was odd to have him sit so still and quiet and it had me worried that more was wrong than just the broken wrist. I've spent years trying to get Justin to quiet down and when it happened it didn't seem natural. Now that he is back to his talkative, noisier than necessary self I know he is going to be fine. As soon as his cast is off he will probably climb the same tree.