Anna update
Jun. 20th, 2003 02:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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annathepiper and I are finally back from the hospital. Anna's upstairs in bed. I can't go to sleep yet. She can because she's really severely doped up. I can't yet.We went out biking to Lake Forest Park for lunch and back on Burke-Gilman with Steve Hastings and on the way back (most of the way home) she got a little behind again and tried to catch up and her front tire hit my back tire (I think) and I hear a yelp and then some crashing and then a shriek and she's tumbling over on the ground and then fortunately face up but kind of in a heap. And I jumped off my bike and ran over and told her not to move, and her right arm had an extra bend in it that wasn't her elbow or her shoulder but was bent at 90 degrees so I start telling Steve to phone somebody RIGHT NOW and he does. While we're waiting and I'm trying really, really, really hard not to scream and holding Anna's arm immobile while getting her to lower her legs gently and slowly to the trail, a couple of people stops and one of them is an MD, and he does a lot of first-triage testing. Then fire-station paramedics get there pretty quickly and work on her for a while, but it takes 20-25 minutes to get an ambulance there because it has to come from Northgate. It takes about an hour to get to the hospital.
Anyway they fiddle around with it for another HOUR - but at least they've given her some painkillers by then - and keep screwing with it before they finally take her back into X-Ray, and then in X-Ray they try to move her in a bad way and the nerve damage it was a miracle she hadn't had yet happened so now she has nerve damage and can't do things like moving her thumbs towards "thumbs up" and can't lift her fingers much on that hand.
That was around 6:30 or so. I grabbed dinner while she was in X-Ray. That's also when
mamishka found us. Mimi had come down with Rebecca in her car but ended up not saying long as that was too many people. But she went home and bought Anna a big purple monkey balloon and flowers, which she liked even being heavily sedated.Anyway, then there's too much pain so they bring her back out and FINALLY - I don't remember what time it is for a lot of this stuff anymore - give her more painkillers and look at the X-Rays they managed to get. The right arm bone is snapped completely in half midway between the shoulder and elbow but the elbow seems okay and the shoulder seems okay, so they decide that it's okay to set and splint the arm, which takes another hour or so, and put her on another IV drip, and do a lot of nerve testing, and decide that it's only stretched and should come back fine on its own in anywhere from six weeks to six months. And they give her some suggestions for what to do about it to help in the meantime.
Then they go back for more X-Rays and that goes okay, but every time there's a state change it takes another 45 minutes to an hour. Eventually she has a sling and more painkillers and a prescription, and we make it out to the lobby where Rebecca's going to load us into her car after I go downstairs and fill the painkiller prescriptions, and when I come back up with some lemonade from the vending machine I give Anna a sip and the throws up all over the lobby. And so we go back into the ER again while they debate whether to give her anti-nausia drugs and another drip IV but she mostly wants to come home and so after getting a new sling and getting the other stuff cleaned up as much as we can we try again and make it to here.
That was around 2am. Anna to bed and I fed the birds and did a bunch off vital things and I'm trying to figure out where and how I can sleep now because I can't sleep in the same bed with the giant splint and pads and besides we can't take the chance that I'd roll over and bump into her or something and I don't know what I'm going to do about that yet. I'll probably just sleep on the floor beside the bed tonight because I'm too tired to think of much but I wanted to get this posted so people know.
It'll be a bunch of weeks before it's fixed and maybe six months for the nerve, and right now she really can't do much of anything with that arm at all, or the rest of her body either because anything that makes the right arm move turns into screaming pain and should be avoided anyway because of the possible movement. They said it should start to be less horribly bad in a few days but for the time being I'll be mostly doing everything.
I'm hoping tomorrow that she'll be okay to leave alone for a while so I can go buy some things we need and then come back. Rebecca's said she's going to help out and Mimi probably will too and that'll be good. I'm going to bed now though so I'll post a more coherent version when I get a chance.
Oh, they don't think surgery will be needed but she'll be going back on Saturday and again next Friday (but to a different place in the system) for more examinations. So that's all I can type right now.
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Date: 2003-06-20 03:37 am (UTC)And poor Dar, too...hope you get some rest.
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Date: 2003-06-20 04:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 05:22 am (UTC)Sorry, I'm kind of sitting here rocking back and forth. I hope she'll do ok, especially with the nerve damage. Give her a hug for me. At least it isn't one of the joints. Thank goodness.
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Date: 2003-06-20 05:40 am (UTC)Ten year olds heal quicker and easier, but for what it's worth, it did heal without much problem. I had to go to physical therapy from having my arm in a cast for two months (I couldn't straighten my arm all the way when I first got the cast off) and the first week or so after the break was pretty miserable, but if the break was as clean as mine (and it sounds like it) it'll probably heal just fine.
I did have some localized nerve damage but nothing that affected anything away from the break site. Hopefully the issues with her thumb and fingers are less actual nerve problems (possible, but it doesn't sound like it) and more with the tendons being terribly abused (which was a problem I had for a while, at first).
My thoughts are with you both.
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Date: 2003-06-20 06:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 06:03 am (UTC)(Terri from LexFa)
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Date: 2003-06-20 07:07 am (UTC):-(
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Date: 2003-06-20 07:07 am (UTC)Hope the nerve damage is repaired soon. Even a dislocation will cause this sort of problem.
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Date: 2003-06-20 07:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 08:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 08:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 09:31 am (UTC)Thanks for letting us know!
Poor Anna :(
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Date: 2003-06-20 09:33 am (UTC)I'm so sorry! This sucks! Send Anna my love. I wish I could be there with her. :/
And just for the record, one more time, no one else is allowed to get hurt or have tumors or anything. No more hurting!
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Date: 2003-06-20 09:59 am (UTC)Good job holding everything together and being The Strong One, kiki. That's hard shit to do. I'll be thinking of both of you this weekend. I broke my fingers once, which is nowhere near arm-breaking, but it was horrible that day, worse the next (i didn't go to the doctor that day) but a lot better the day or two after that.
best wishes
Date: 2003-06-20 10:57 am (UTC):(
Cathy
Ouch!
Date: 2003-06-20 11:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 11:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 12:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 01:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 04:17 pm (UTC)Best wishes, both for her recovery and your coping with it.
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Date: 2003-06-20 06:07 pm (UTC)Hang in there, take care of things the way they're supposed to be taken care of, and get well soon Anna!
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Date: 2003-06-21 11:09 am (UTC)--wyndenai
Fast Healing, and Rest.
Date: 2003-06-21 09:11 pm (UTC)Peace & blessings,
Meryt
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Date: 2003-06-22 10:34 pm (UTC)I am SO SORRY!!! If you need ANYTHING that I can help either of you with from here in Oregon, just ask. Anything.
Starsong
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Date: 2003-06-23 10:39 am (UTC)I'm a friend of
Wishing you luck and energy,
A.
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Date: 2003-06-27 05:32 pm (UTC)healing thoughts, wishes and prayers.
*hugs*