Update and my little artist

Hi. Sorry I haven't updated lately. We have been so tired, and not much has happened in the past few days. We did go to the orthopaedist Wednesday, and everything looks good. The bones are lining up well. He is still having quite a bit of pain, especially now that the bones are closer together and "Knock" each other more. But, we are getting better at the routine of getting ready. I don't think we are going to know what to do with all our free time in the mornings when all this is over. :)

Do you remember when the blog was all about Eric? Well, I thought I would throw some E into the mix. He is such a great little artist and also has aspirations of becoming an astronaut. He tells me all the time that he wishes he could go to the moon. The planet he most wants to visit is Jupiter. Here is a picture he drew on 12/12/07. I know that was over a month ago, but I am just now getting around to posting it. His drawings are pretty detailed. This is of an astronaut next to a rocket.








On January 3 he drew this picture of a dinosaur. He was so proud of his drawing that we didn't really get on him too hard about the fact that he had used a pen to draw on the back of one of his puzzles.

Hard night

Last night was our hardest night. Robert felt very bad. He had fever and chills. The shaking from the chills really hurt his arm. He was also very nauseated. We were up until after 2:00 and then had to get up at 6:45. He is very weak today. Please continue to pray for us as he heals.

Robert's contraption

Several of you have asked about Robert's sling/brace combo. Here is a picture. He first has on a compression sleeve and compression glove. Then he has another sleeve of some sort on top of that. I really don't know what it is for. Then above that he has a 4 part brace that straps together and then straps around his upper body. His lower arm is in a sling. This goes around his neck. Then there is a wedge platform that attaches to the sling and straps around his stomach. This is oh so fun to adjust and take on/off. He does not take the sleeves off, but we have to adjust the brace several times a day. And he has to remove the sling and wedge for dressing.



He has a lot of bruising and some swelling right now. Here is a picture of some of the bruising that is visible above the compression sleeve. His shoulder is also very bruised from the brace. The strap for the brace has rubbed his skin raw, so we put an extra t-shirt between the strap and his other shirt. This helps keep it from slipping and rubbing his underarm.

Ortho visit

This went very well. The doctor was encouraged by how well Robert's arm appears to be doing with the brace. He stated that it should be able to heal on its own. He said that the two bones are being held together by the soft tissue that surrounds them. He said that thankfully this tissue was not damaged and this is one reason he thinks surgery may not be necessary. He pointed out that Robert has a fracture up to his shoulder, so if he put a plate in, it would run from his shoulder to about 2 inches above his elbow. This would not be a good situation. He said if we have to do surgery, it will be a rod, which requires drilling a hold in the bone and inserting the rod. He said these can slip out, which requires drilling another hole. So, we really don't want to go that way if we can help it. We asked him how long the intense pain should last, and he said 2-3 weeks until those bones get set. Robert also has to sleep in a recliner until that time. The angle of the bones has improved and is no longer pointing toward the back of the arm. All in all this was a very good visit. Although the technician performing the x-rays kept getting the wrong view, so they had to take 9 x-rays. I am starting to wonder about all the radiation he has had lately... We will return to the orthopaedist on Wednesday for further follow up. Thank you so much for all of your prayers. We were glad for a more definitive answer about his arm. Now, on with the healing.

Friday

Today is our follow up with the orthopaedist. We will be going this afternoon. I will try to get on here tonight and update with what he says. We have a lot of questions for him. Getting ready this morning still took forever, but we are getting better at it. Robert was able to shave himself with his left hand. I was pretty impressed with that. I figure by the time all this is over, he will be a pro with his left hand, and I will be an excellent nurse! He was exhausted after work yesterday. The straps from his brace are rubbing him raw, but we did some things to try to help that last night and this morning. My little boy is coming home today, and I am so ready to see him. I have been grateful that Robert's parents have kept him this whole time, but I am starting to miss him like crazy!

Update #2

Robert did go to work today. Getting ready was so much harder than I think either of us thought/expected. Anytime his sling is off, he is in a great deal of pain due to the shifting of those bones. Once those start healing, I think it will get easier (I really, really hope!). He got pretty queasy from all the pain and had to stop for a while at one point. He is doing okay today, just very tired. But, he is taking it easy while there.

Update on Robert

I am sorry I didn't post last night. I know some of you may have been looking for an update on the orthopaedist visit. It went fairly well. He said it is a very bad break, it has 4 pieces that are just barely holding on. He said it was caused by some type of twisting motion. He still wants to pursue non-surgical if possible, which we are happy to try. He said if Robert needs surgery, then he will have to put plates in his arm. The bone was mostly lined up correctly, but it was angling some toward the back of the arm, which isn't good. Robert went to a different place to get fitted for the brace and splint contraption. This went terribly. We assumed that he would be fitted at the doctor's office and knew they would give him a shot or something, so we did not have any pain medication with us. Robert was in a lot of pain during this process, and the guy who fitted him was pretty incompetent and kept having to take it off and on and readjusting it. Poor Robert fell asleep in the car on the way home. He had to rest for a while after all that, but the brace/sling seems to be helping with the pain. We are going back to the orthopaedist on Friday for another x-ray to make sure the bone is angling back to where it needs to be. Robert is going to try to go to work today. Getting ready is going to be interesting... I am sorry I didn't post last night. We were so exhausted. But, thankfully we both rested well last night (still in recliners).