One Sunday in early October, the 2nd of Oct. to be exact, we were out for a family walk on a nice new path in Wilsonville. It was a wet day, but that didn't stop the kids from wanting to play on a school playground that bordered the walking trail. Keenan's favorite thing to do at playgrounds of late, is the monkey bars--something he has been successful at for the past several months. He falls off sometimes, which all kids do. Unforrtunately, this time he apparently fell on his right arm (none of us witnessed the fall). He, of course, cried--but not very hard. We looked at it and nothing looked differently. He cont'd to complain, but mostly about having to continue to walk because we hadn't started our actual walk yet when the kids got sidetracked by the playground. After 15 minutes of complaining, we turned around and went home. Well, long story short. 4 hours later when Keenan's arm started to swell, we called the Providence advice line and were sent to the Milwaukie Providence ER where Keenan's arm was x-rayed and found to be broken in 2 places. After seeing an Orothopedic surgeon two days later, we were given further bad news: the break in Keenan's Ulna was too close to the elbow joint and so surgery would be needed to place a pin in his bone. Bummer.
So here is Keenan wearing his splint at Emanuel Hospital for an "out-pt" surgery. We arrived at 9:00 in the morning and didn't leave until 4pm in the afternoon. He doesn't look too thrilled in this picture, but he actually had quite a bit of fun riding the small cars and playing video games in the kid's waiting room.
This is the silly Keenan we know and love.
Waiting in the pre-op room and trying to keep Keenan occupied. He had already been given a dose of a relaxant and it was quite entertaining to see him start to act a little "drunk."
Post operation. Keenan slept for a VERY long time. He looked so peaceful.
Back to his usual crazy ways. In many ways, that cast did not slow him down one bit. Writing and eating were another story. He already had a difficult time writing with his right hand and so if you can imagine the struggle he had trying to write with his left. . . . Eating with his left hand was actually easier than I thought it would be. In fact, after he got his cast off, he continued to eat with his left hand for several days afterwards. He may have never stopped if we hadn't prompted him to use his right hand.
Last photo before we headed to the Dr's office to get his cast off.
4 weeks later and the cast is off! I had never witnessed a cast coming off and didn't really know what to expect. The technician said it would only tickle Keenan and boy, was that true! Keenan squirmed and kicked (the technician, yikes!) and I had to contain his flailing body parts while his cast was being "sawed" off. I brought Keenan's sling as recommended because his arm obviously would need some transition time from bent to straight. He gladly wore it pretty much the rest of the day, but by the next day he was as good as new :).
Epilogue: Later x-rays show the arm to be healing very nicely. Bummer thing is that in 5 or so months Keenan will have to go back into surgery to have the pin removed. Sorry, kiddo! :(
