Isaac updates
Oops, sorry I didn't update sooner on Isaac's injured arm. It was an eventful few days.
To recap: on Wednesday afternoon he fell off the monkey bars and landed on his elbow/arm. That evening he was being very cautious with the arm and insisted that I buckle him into and out of his carseat, help him get undressed, etc. -- and started crying when I took his sweater off (because lifting the arm up even a little bit was painful).
He slept fine Wednesday night but by Thursday morning the arm was no better and definitely looked swollen. I called the school to let them know he would be late or absent, and called the doctor's office when they opened at 8:30. Unfortunately the only opening they had was for 11:15. So we took Ruthie to preschool and went back home, where Isaac actually played quietly by himself for a while, letting me get a little work done.
Then we went to the dr office and saw the nurse practitioner. She didn't poke and prod the arm much, but asked questions and didn't take very long about deciding, which I thought she would, that x-rays were warranted. So she gave us a referral and an ibuprofen and off we went.
The radiology lab is in Arlington and it didn't take us long to get there. A nice older woman took a whole bunch of different films of Isaac's arm from various angles, and then said we could go home. The NP had said that if the radiology tech thought she saw something alarming, she would tell us to wait in the waiting room while the radiologist read the films; so I thought the fact that she dismissed us was a good sign.
Right next door to the radiology office was a Brigham's (ice cream store that also has food) so I figured we might as well get some lunch as it was well past noon by this point. So Isaac and I both had grilled-cheese sandwiches and french fries. Then he ordered ice cream, and I was debating whether to be "good" and get frozen yogurt or "bad" and get real ice cream ;) when the waitress brought Isaac his cone, and she had given him the wrong flavor. He asked for mint chocolate chip and she brought regular chocolate chip. So, well, we couldn't let the "wrong" cone go to waste. ;) So I ate it and Isaac got his mint chip and while he was eating it I thought I'd check my phone messages at home.
And there was a message from the radiology technician woman, saying that there was a problem with the films and could we please come back to re-do some of them. Oh man, was I ever glad that we hadn't driven all the way home to hear that message and have to turn around and go back. We were still right there. So we finished our ice cream and walked back over.
It seems that there was a line on one of the images, which they thought was a scratch on the film but they wanted to do it over just to be sure. Meanwhile, they also wanted to take a film of Isaac's uninjured elbow, so they could compare it to the hurt one. The NP called me while they were doing this, and explained that they were checking for dislocation of the elbow. Since kids' bodies are in such flux, it can be hard to tell what's a dislocated joint vs. just the way this particular kid's joints are. Hence the comparison with the other elbow.
Anyway, after they finished that second set of films, they had us wait in the waiting room until the radiologist (whom we never actually saw) looked and verified that they didn't need any more images. Then we were dismissed again. While we were driving home, the NP called again to say that everything checked out: no break, no dislocation, but a lot of fluid in the elbow. She recommended regular around-the-clock ibuprofen, and an Ace bandage for school.
By the time we got home it was already 3:00 so there wasn't much point in pretending I was going to get any more work done. Oh well. The next day, being Friday, I wrapped Isaac's arm in the Ace bandage and sent him off to school. I made sure to tell both his teacher and the head of afterschool about the arm, since he was still needing help with things like putting his jacket on and off, and similar. But the arm healed rapidly after that, and by now it's pretty much back to 100% as far as I can tell. Whew!
Oh, and did I mention that we were doing all that driving around to doctors and such, in my mom's car? Because I had finally decided it was time to take mine in to the shop for this grinding noise it had been making for a while. In the midst of all the medical stuff I got a call from the mechanic to give me the bad news. Long story short, it needed lots of brake work and cost me almost $1800. Sigh. :(
In cheerier news, I found out on Thursday that there's a spot available for Isaac in the afterschool program at Ruthie's preschool! I had put Isaac's name on the waiting list last month, but they didn't make it sound too likely that he would get in. But something opened up and he'll be starting there today (just got a call to confirm as I was typing this).
I'm a little bit nervous about how he'll adjust, since he has a lot of friends in the old afterschool and we don't know whether there will be anyone he knows at the new one. (He was happy and exciting when he first learned about it, but mainly he seems to have been under the impression that he would be able to play with Ruthie and Baz - which isn't the case, unfortunately; the afterschool kids aren't allowed to interact with the preschool kids. And over the weekend I think the "newness" of it hit him and he started balking a bit. But I'm crossing my fingers.) Aside from that, I'm REALLY happy about this, because having to go to just one place to pick up both kids is going to make my commuting life SOOOOOO much easier. The new afterschool costs only $2/day more than the old one, which is no big deal, and they will pick him up with a van from his school and drive him to the afterschool location. Hopefully he'll find the van experience fun, and not one of those riding-the-bus horror stories that are endemic in pop culture. ;)
To recap: on Wednesday afternoon he fell off the monkey bars and landed on his elbow/arm. That evening he was being very cautious with the arm and insisted that I buckle him into and out of his carseat, help him get undressed, etc. -- and started crying when I took his sweater off (because lifting the arm up even a little bit was painful).
He slept fine Wednesday night but by Thursday morning the arm was no better and definitely looked swollen. I called the school to let them know he would be late or absent, and called the doctor's office when they opened at 8:30. Unfortunately the only opening they had was for 11:15. So we took Ruthie to preschool and went back home, where Isaac actually played quietly by himself for a while, letting me get a little work done.
Then we went to the dr office and saw the nurse practitioner. She didn't poke and prod the arm much, but asked questions and didn't take very long about deciding, which I thought she would, that x-rays were warranted. So she gave us a referral and an ibuprofen and off we went.
The radiology lab is in Arlington and it didn't take us long to get there. A nice older woman took a whole bunch of different films of Isaac's arm from various angles, and then said we could go home. The NP had said that if the radiology tech thought she saw something alarming, she would tell us to wait in the waiting room while the radiologist read the films; so I thought the fact that she dismissed us was a good sign.
Right next door to the radiology office was a Brigham's (ice cream store that also has food) so I figured we might as well get some lunch as it was well past noon by this point. So Isaac and I both had grilled-cheese sandwiches and french fries. Then he ordered ice cream, and I was debating whether to be "good" and get frozen yogurt or "bad" and get real ice cream ;) when the waitress brought Isaac his cone, and she had given him the wrong flavor. He asked for mint chocolate chip and she brought regular chocolate chip. So, well, we couldn't let the "wrong" cone go to waste. ;) So I ate it and Isaac got his mint chip and while he was eating it I thought I'd check my phone messages at home.
And there was a message from the radiology technician woman, saying that there was a problem with the films and could we please come back to re-do some of them. Oh man, was I ever glad that we hadn't driven all the way home to hear that message and have to turn around and go back. We were still right there. So we finished our ice cream and walked back over.
It seems that there was a line on one of the images, which they thought was a scratch on the film but they wanted to do it over just to be sure. Meanwhile, they also wanted to take a film of Isaac's uninjured elbow, so they could compare it to the hurt one. The NP called me while they were doing this, and explained that they were checking for dislocation of the elbow. Since kids' bodies are in such flux, it can be hard to tell what's a dislocated joint vs. just the way this particular kid's joints are. Hence the comparison with the other elbow.
Anyway, after they finished that second set of films, they had us wait in the waiting room until the radiologist (whom we never actually saw) looked and verified that they didn't need any more images. Then we were dismissed again. While we were driving home, the NP called again to say that everything checked out: no break, no dislocation, but a lot of fluid in the elbow. She recommended regular around-the-clock ibuprofen, and an Ace bandage for school.
By the time we got home it was already 3:00 so there wasn't much point in pretending I was going to get any more work done. Oh well. The next day, being Friday, I wrapped Isaac's arm in the Ace bandage and sent him off to school. I made sure to tell both his teacher and the head of afterschool about the arm, since he was still needing help with things like putting his jacket on and off, and similar. But the arm healed rapidly after that, and by now it's pretty much back to 100% as far as I can tell. Whew!
Oh, and did I mention that we were doing all that driving around to doctors and such, in my mom's car? Because I had finally decided it was time to take mine in to the shop for this grinding noise it had been making for a while. In the midst of all the medical stuff I got a call from the mechanic to give me the bad news. Long story short, it needed lots of brake work and cost me almost $1800. Sigh. :(
In cheerier news, I found out on Thursday that there's a spot available for Isaac in the afterschool program at Ruthie's preschool! I had put Isaac's name on the waiting list last month, but they didn't make it sound too likely that he would get in. But something opened up and he'll be starting there today (just got a call to confirm as I was typing this).
I'm a little bit nervous about how he'll adjust, since he has a lot of friends in the old afterschool and we don't know whether there will be anyone he knows at the new one. (He was happy and exciting when he first learned about it, but mainly he seems to have been under the impression that he would be able to play with Ruthie and Baz - which isn't the case, unfortunately; the afterschool kids aren't allowed to interact with the preschool kids. And over the weekend I think the "newness" of it hit him and he started balking a bit. But I'm crossing my fingers.) Aside from that, I'm REALLY happy about this, because having to go to just one place to pick up both kids is going to make my commuting life SOOOOOO much easier. The new afterschool costs only $2/day more than the old one, which is no big deal, and they will pick him up with a van from his school and drive him to the afterschool location. Hopefully he'll find the van experience fun, and not one of those riding-the-bus horror stories that are endemic in pop culture. ;)