I broke my kid.

Ever since Santa brought Mady her big girl bed for Christmas, she has had a hard time staying in her bed. Once every couple days she will come into our room for one reason or another.. the same thing happened Tuesday, January 22^nd. Monday was a holiday, MLK Day and we were all returning back to school / work Tuesday. When she came into our room for the second time during the night, AK immediately sat up and said, “Madelynne get back upstairs and into your bed right now!” She walked away crying so I got up and met Mady shuffling herself upstairs with tears pouring off her chin. I picked her up like a baby in my arms and carried her to her room.

Me: “Madelynne, would you like mommy to lay down with you in your bed for a little while?”

Mady: “Yes, just for a little while please.”

Standing right beside her bed, not a foot higher from her mattress, I tossed her onto her comforter to her right side for her to lay down. She yelled out, “Momma! You hurt my shoulder!” She landed on her right shoulder by accident, but I didn’t pay it much mind. I just told her to be quiet that she would wake her sister. She rolled over to her right side like I told her to do and whimpered for a bit until she fell asleep. When she rolled onto her back a while later, she again yelled out, “Ouch! My shoulder Mommy! You hurt it!” We repeated the process of “Mady. You need to be quiet and stop whining, it’s 230a and you need to sleep!” Finally after another 30min I decided that maybe, just maybe, I in fact hurt her shoulder. I felt both shoulders and then tried to lift her right arm, she couldn’t lift it higher than shoulder height. That’s when it donned on me… Crap. I’ve probably dislocated the poor kid’s shoulder! L I bribed Mady to go back to sleep by bringing her a cup of juice and promising that if it still hurt in the morning we would go to the doctor. It worked and she went right to sleep. I headed back downstairs to a snoring AK. When I crawled into bed, I told him “I think I may have broken our kid. She said her shoulder hurts so you will need to take a look at it in the morning”. Who knows if he heard me or not.

I got up early in the morning and left for work around 6am. AK texted me about 645a and said, “What happened last night. You broke our kid!” We talked it over for a couple minutes and it was apparent that she wasn’t going to school. AK took Annabelle to Kelly’s while I called the pediatrician and they referred me to Ortho-On-Call. Since the Ortho place didn’t open until 9am, I had AK bring Madelynne to me at work until I left to take her. He dropped her off around 815a and we left at 830a to head to see the doctor. Her arm was really bothering her and she wouldn’t move it more than a few inches from her side. I felt absolutely terrible L

We arrived at Ortho-On-Call. It’s like a Patient First specially for Orthopedics. I loved it. Walk-in only and only a standard $35 co-pay. We filled out the 6 sheets of paperwork and then I took Mady potty while we waited. In the restroom, I went to pick her up to set her on the potty .. under her arms just like I had always done, and she screamed. That quickly I forgot she was in pain! DOH! Fail again mom. We wiped her tears and I apologized for forgetting. Scurried back into the waiting room and about the time we sat back down, Mady was being called back.

A nice lady doctor came in to see us. She asked where it hurt and Madelynne wouldn’t say anything. She was terrified they were going to hurt her worse. I too, was terrified they were going to hurt her. The nurse asked to herself, “is there any swelling?” and just as I was to respond, “no.”, she said, “Oh yes, there is some swelling going on..” Then all I could think of was, “Ashley. You knew last night you dislocated her shoulder. Now it’s swelling and it’s going to make putting it back in, that much worse. Way to go. This was NOT the time to procrastinate!” She left the room and then another doctor came in. I had the chance between doctors to explain to Mady that they won’t hurt her, and if she wanted them to make it feel better, she needed to answer their questions and talk.. When the next doctor arrived, Mady was much more co operable. He asked her to lift her arms to her side. She wouldn’t lift much more than a few inches. Then he felt her shoulder for a few seconds and seemed puzzled. Finally he grabbed her around her ribs and went to lift up and Mady cried. That seemed to set off a light bulb for him and he told me, “Mom, were going to do some Xrays to see whats going on. Ok?”

Xray’s. How exciting! Pictures on the inside of our body , and we don’t even have to smile!

Just a few moments later, the nice lady came to us to take us back for the Xray. I suited up in a lead drape and we strapped the same around Mady’s tiny little waist. Two pictures and she didn’t move a muscle. So proud. When we walked out to leave, I could see her Xray developing and tried to find something that looked abnormal around both shoulders.. I couldn’t see anything and thought to myself, “Hmm. Maybe she’s just really bruised somehow. It would be my luck to bring her all the way here for nothing. I hope we at least find some answers today!”

The male doctor walked back in and said: “Well mom. You didn’t dislocate her shoulder.”
Me: “Whew, that makes me feel better. Now we get to go to school!” – talking to Mady.
Doctor: “No, you broke it.”
Me: “HER SHOULDER! I broke my kid’s shoulder!”
Doctor: “No, you broke her collar bone.”Me: “Oh my God, Im the worst Mom in the world!!!!”

He must have seen the color wash from my entire face because he quickly began to explain how common a break of this nature is. Surgery won’t be necessary unless things don’t begin to straighten out on their own. My fears were that she could have punctured a lunch, but fortunately the break was in an Apex direction and facing up, away from her lungs. Although a disadvantage to that is the bone is completely susceptible to being touched/hit/bothered which is very painful. They put her little arm in a tiny sling and gave us a copy of her Xray and appt card to follow up with Advanced Orthopedics next Monday for another Xray.

I snapped a picture of the Xray and sent it to the friends/family that were already aware she was hurt and they all sent their well wishes. Meanwhile I asked Mady what she wanted for lunch, she said Wendy’s. You got it girl! I ordered her a cheeseburger and chicken nuggets and French fries and a frosty! She can have anything her little heart desires today! After lunch, we both took a nap after our eventful morning and she slept well. I have been giving her Motrin around the clock and I hope it continues to keep the pain at bay.

Three things that make a broken collar bone a nightmare:

·         Coughing. Her wicked cold-that-will-never-go-away, cough is really bothering her pretty bad. I hope it goes away soon for her sake.

·         Getting dressed. She cannot get her arm into a shirt sleeve and then pull the shirt over her head or feed her other arm into it. Of course it would a high of 25 degrees outside this week with snow. She doesn’t have any button up, flannel shirts or anything so we’ve resorted to either:

o   PJ Shirts

o   Cardigan with a big tank top underneath

·         Carseat belts. I still have Mady in the 5pt Safety Harness in the carseat, and the shoulder strap sits directly on top of her broken bone at her neck. I don’t really know an easy way to fix this, and I can’t sacrifice her safety by not using it so we just try to avoid car trips and bumps in the road the best we can.

With all that said. Our soonest priority is to bedazzle Mady’s sling and make it as shiny and awesome as we can. I see a Michael’s trip in our very near future

UPDATE!

January 28th.

We had our follow-up appt this morning with the Pediatric Othropedic Surgeon at St. Francis Hospital. Let me start by saying again for the millionth time, I HATE that hospital. It's a pain in the you-know-what to park. Walk. Find anything. The money is clearly in the hospital, but seriously.. everything about the way it functions and operates is crap. Temper-Tantrum Over. My apologies.

We arrived for our appt. Mady was sporting her new awesomely decorated by, yours truly, sling with rhinestones bedazzling all over it. We filled out only one form since they had our records from Ortho-On-Call, made new friends in the waiting room and then immediately called back. The rooms were spacious and nurses were all very polite. When the doctor came in.. he plopped down and basically just hung out with Mady for a couple minutes. He was so non-chalant, I had a hard time taking the appointment seriously. Mady LOVED playing with him. He felt around her shoulder for quite some time until I guess he felt what he wanted and she finally said, "Ouch! That hurts!" He was nice and apologized and said he found the boo-boo spot. He then talked to her a little more, laughed at her jokes and grabbed her hand and began walking out the door to find stickers. I was like "Umm... can we chat, doc? I mean. I need to know whats up." They came back a couple minutes later with a pile of stickers and each had a lollipop in their mouth, and brought me one too. How kind. lol Mady and the doctor made a game of rubbing the lollipop on their toungue as fast as possible to change their toungue colors. Adorable.

Finally, Dr. Reece and I talked.

The only difference from last week to this week is that the swelling is mostly gone. He reported that there is slight bruising, but I can't see anything.. that must be something he can feel, i don't know. The bone no longer has that swelling and fluid around the two broken , so they are laying onto one another which is becoming more and more painful. I was given two options:

• Surgery. They could take care of it this week, go in, reset the bones, put a wire in and remove it later. The bones would be where they need and we can begin the final recovery process from this whole fun event.
• Figure-Eight Immobilizer / Wait another two weeks. The immobilizer essentially wraps around both shoulders and fastens tightly near her shoulder blades on her back. It pulls her shoulders back and her chest up, which seperates the bones in her collar bone so they don't lie on one another and then can lay down correctly in the next couple weeks. This will allow up to buy another two weeks and see what her bones do and avoid surgery.

I went with Option #2. I told the doctor that all I want is for her not to be in any further pain and for the process to be over as soon as possible. However, I also want to avoid surgery if we can. (I confess, I really don't want any more doctor bills. We're thisclose to paying off Annabelle and I can't bare the thought of taking on a surgery with my crap insurance). I also really don't want to have to put Mady thru a surgery either, and if I can keep her comfortable for another two weeks and it works the way we want and avoid surgery, than it's a win. But it's going to require some fingers crossed and I hope we don't venture another two weeks of this, and then end up needing surgery anyway. That would really stink.

So here's to hoping everything works out the way we pray it does! I hope Mady gets more comfortable in the immobilizer, one thing is for sure. The kid will have fantastic posture for the rest of her life! haha.