The Spazmanian Devil

Jamie has a new nickname. I was telling my brother the story I'm about to share with you. He waited a beat and said something to the effect of, "Did you ever think your son is a bit of a spaz?" To which I emphatically replied, "YES!" So I've been calling Jamie "The Spazmanian Devil" here lately because of the way he trips, fumbles and jerks his way through life here lately.

"What prompted this?" you ask. The short answer is: Jamie's pizza cracked his wrist. He told his Big Brother that he was attacked by a pizza. The long answer is a bit more complicated.

Jamie has ADHD. It seems to get progressively worse each year. He isn't particularly hyperactive, but he is more and more twitchy, inattentive, impulsive and (at times) annoying as time goes on. This is particularly true in the summer months and on school holidays, because I don't like the side effects of his medication, so I won't give it to him if there's no school. But I've discussed that before, so I won't bore you with it again.

Anyway, the night of Monday, July 26, I splurged (after a trip to Half Price Books to unload several unwanted DVDs and books) on a trip to Pizza Hut for me and Jamie. Jamie would not sit still in the booth, fidgeting, squirming, twitching and such in his eagerness for the food to come. While doing so, he somehow got one of his sandals hooked up underneath the booth - but didn't realize it until the pizza came to the table. When it finally arrived, Jamie tried to jump up to get to the pizza and serve himself before I could. Unfortunately, with his shoe hooked up under the booth, all he wound up doing was launching himself up out of the booth on onto the floor - HARD!
As just about any kid would do, he instinctively threw his left hand out to try to catch himself. But he landed on it at a funny angle and - at that moment - I heard a little popping noise (we were the only ones in the restaurant). As Jamie was trying to get up, he put weight on his left hand and immediately said "OW!" and cradled his hand/wrist to his chest. He finally got back up in the booth and said "My wrist hurts!" Thinking he was probably just exaggerating, I went to the manager to ask for a bag of ice. I put it on his wrist and we commenced eating. (Note: I didn't immediately rush him to the ER for several reasons: 1) He's at a klutzy stage and hurts himself. all. the. time. If I rushed him to the doctor every time he fell down, I'd be drowning in medical bills. 2) It was storming really bad outside - as in the rain was falling sideways. 3) We were both very very hungry and I wasn't about to leave until we had eaten our fill. Do you know how long an ER wait can be?)

After we finished eating, I took the ice off his wrist to see how it was doing. It was 1/3 again the size of his right wrist. I had Jamie try to move his hand around and rotate it on his wrist, and he said "ow! ow! OWWWW!" Hmmm, okay, we were off to the ER.

Luckily, it was a fairly slow night at the children's ER and we were fortunate that they had an orthopedic specialist there already attending to another child who had hurt a bone. We got in fairly quickly (30 minute wait), had Jamie's vitals done and were in a room not too long after that. The ortho came and looked at his wrist, ordered X-rays, gave ibuprofen, etc., then said she'd be back after the X-rays were developed to see what was what.

Two Hannah Montana episodes later, the doc came back and said the X-rays were inconclusive. The area of his wrist that is hurt (she explained) is a low-blood flow area and is really hard to tell on an x-ray if it's cracked. Also, the swelling was making it harder to tell because the swelling could actually be holding a crack together so you can't see it on an X-ray. When she tried to manipulate his wrist, he was nearly in tears. Since she couldn't tell if it was a sprain or a possible hairline crack, she decided it was best to err on the side of caution and left orders for his wrist to be put in a plaster splint/half-cast type deal. A nurse came in an wrapped his hand, wrist and arm in cotton, then they put a strip of plaster around his thumb, encased half his wrist and up his arm on the side where Jamie had pain. Then the whole thing was wrapped in Ace bandages nearly up to his elbow. He was instructed not to get it wet and not to take it off, and to follow up with his pediatrician in one week.

This past Monday, we had a follow-up appointment with his pediatrician. He unwrapped it, took one look at it (still swollen, bruised and a bit misshapen) and said, "Go see an orthopedist." Originally, the orthopedist wouldn't be able to see Jamie until the 16th; however, a last minute cancellation got us in yesterday - with 45 minutes between when I was called and we had to be there.

We saw the orthopedist, and he examined Jamie - only to find out we STILL don't know if it's broken or not. We were sent to have Jamie fitted for a custom steel brace to immobilize his wrist (at least he can take it off to shower, but has to put it right back on afterwards), and told to go back to the orthopedist next Thursday, after getting new X-rays of the wrist on next Wednesday. At this point, I just want someone to tell me what's wrong with it, why it's still hurting him, and how long it will take for the swelling to go down and his wrist to be back to normal. But it seems that's beyond anyone's capabilities. In the meantime, he can't use it, can't play his violin, can't go swimming, can't go on rollercoasters, ride his bike or scooter (verboten so he doesn't fall and injure it worse), etc., etc. This is making for one lousy end of summer for a certain boy.

I guess that's what he gets for being a Spazmanian Devil. ;-)

The Ankle that Will Not Heal

UPDATE (6:55 PM): Jamie has been referred to an orthopaedist and ordered to wrap his ankle for additional support. His is not to play in the tournament next month. He is not to engage in physical activity involving running, standing for long periods, excessive movement, etc. until he sees the orthopaedist. He could very well be laid up for the most of the rest of the summer if he wants his ankle to heal enough for him to play soccer in the fall. I'll be calling the orthopaedist tomorrow for an appointment. Once we visit him/her, I'll post an update on his condition. Jamie is very upset about the tournament and the prospect of a whole summer without riding his bike or skateboard and no active play. He's very bummed, but understands the necessity of it. I'll keep you all posted. Thank you all for your concern on Jamie's behalf.


Jamie's ankle, despite him (mostly) staying off of it as he was told by the doctor, refuses to stop swelling and continues to be very painful. This worries me greatly. The doctor originally said it should be fine in a week he can go back to his active self. Well, he can't go back to his active self if he can't move it in certain directions without crying. So, I called the doctor's office this morning to see what they had to say about it. As soon as they heard it was still swelling and very painful, they told me to bring him in. They wanted me to bring him in first thing, but I couldn't because no one else would be at work to open up shop at 8:30. So, I made an appointment for this afternoon. I will be leaving shortly to go pick him up and take him to the doctor. Probably we'll have to go another round of x-rays. I don't care, I just want them to figure out what's going on and fix it. I'll keep y'all updated.

Crazy Week...and it's Only Tuesday!

Whew! This week has already been insane. First, I didn't get to indulge in my normal phone conversation Sunday night (which I always look forward to) because I had tons of homework to do and Rachel's wisdom teeth were coming in and causing her major pain, to the point I almost had to run her to the hospital.

Yesterday, I got a phone call that Jamie had hurt himself at daycare and may need to go to the doctor. So, I go pick him up and his ankle is the size of a tennis ball and his knee was starting to look like a cantaloupe. So, I call the doctor's office and they can't see him until 2:45, so Jamie got to go back to work with me (with an icepack and lots of movies to watch on my laptop computer) until it was time for the appointment. We get there, and since Jamie is so active in sports, the doctor wanted to be sure nothing was seriously injured. Jamie and I head off to the ER for x-rays, and wait around there forever. Oh, did I mention Jamie can barely hobble at this point so I'm carrying him everywhere?

Jamie gets x-rayed, and luckily nothing is broken. He's sprained his ankle and wrenched his knee, so he's in pain, but thankfully nothing is broken. But he can't go to daycare today (Tuesday) because everyone is going on a field trip to ride horses and hike. Doctor has left strict orders that Jamie is to stay off his ankle and knee for a solid week. So, Jamie comes back to work with me today to sit in an unused office with his leg propped up, a large stack of movies to watch, pages to color and paper airplanes to fly. Also, Jamie's kind of upset about all this because he was looking forward to the field trip and was supposed to go to soccer camp next week, but the doctor says no physical activity for a while, ergo no soccer camp.

Luckily, Jamie can go to day care for the rest of the week, he just isn't allowed to run around with the other kids. He'll be stuck on the sidelines while everyone else gets to play.