We were all hoping that she would just be able to get casts on her arms and not need any type of surgical intervention. But the breaks were both severe enough, that they required popping the bones back into place. [cringes]
This required putting her to sleep since there was no way to do such a thing with her awake and aware of that pain. So we had no choice but to take her back to the hospital so the doctor could do his job and get her arms fixed up and casted.
I was pretty scared of this, even if I knew it was safe and that the doctor wasn't even going to be cutting her. But to think of my daughter not waking up or having a horrible reaction to the medicine, or stopping breathing -- you name it. I worried about it.
And as some of you know, I have reasons for not really trusting doctors or hospitals given that someone else very close to me almost didn't make it thru a routine surgery that was supposed to be no big deal. So my nerves were shot. I was panicked.
And this was the first time Harper actually cried too. She didn't cry from pain when any of this happened originally, but her fear of this procedure and the IV needle and the medication, got the best of her. She was pretty upset and hysterical when I first told her what we had to do.
But she's so amazingly strong, that she held it together and was brave and walked into this mostly ready to get it done. She was still scared of the needle, but she didn't even feel it when they put it in. The nurse was really good.
And the orthopedic doctor was an incredible guy. Very nice, very capable, and he put all of us at ease. He used to be a staff doctor for one of the NFL teams, so I knew he was very good at what he did if they trusted pro football players with him.
But he came in and talked to us and made Harper feel comfortable with him to the point she said she felt she could trust him. And he let her pick out what colors she wanted on her casts. He told her he had hot pink and purple, which are the favorites amongst most little girls. But no, my daughter said those colors were lame and she wanted black and red so she could look cool.
Once they started giving her the medication to make her sleepy, they told us we should probably wait outside. The doctor didn't want us seeing what he was going to do cuz he said we'd probably pass out. And I'm sure he's right cuz I was already feeling shaky and woozy just watching them put her to sleep. And being in a hospital like that always makes me uneasy anyway.
So we left the room and I had no idea how long it would really take. But about 10 minutes later, the nurse came in and said we could come back. Wow. That was fast. At that point, they were just finishing up the casts, and she was already semi awake. The stuff doesn't last long at all. It wasn't a regular general anesthesia like where they're out for hours. Its just designed to last for about 20 minutes I guess.
At first though, she was kind of whimpering and crying and flailing around. They were holding her legs down and another nurse was holding her right arm, while he finished casting the left, because she almost hit herself in the face a few times. The problem was though, her nose itched. They put an oxygen thing on her and I could see her twitching her nose and trying desperately to scratch it.
So I told them to itch her nose and she'd probably stay still. So they did that, but it didn't help enough, and she kept sitting up and rubbing her nose on the doctors hand....lol But she was still totally out of it and asleep at this point really. But she started coming to really fast. They took the oxygen out of her nose after she opened her eyes.
At that point, she looked at the nurse holding her arm still and asked them when they were gonna get started. The nurse told her they were already done and Harper goes, "holy crap are you serious?!" That cracked everyone up. But then she just turned into a HUGE chatterbox and would not stop talking to everyone.
She was slurring her words like a little drunk person and saying, "wow I feel good!" She was so relieved (and also drugged up) that she was just talking a mile a minute and didn't even realize we were in the room again. When she saw me she smiled and went, "hey dad....hey...hey...hey come here" It was hilarious to see her that way actually cuz she was having a good old time at that point.
She told everyone about her pets. Her cat and her snake and her frogs. And she wanted to come over to some nurses house to look for frogs. And she told the doctor she missed him while she was asleep. And she was rattling on about how she wished she was a poisonous dart frog so she could bite the boy who did this to her.
It's definitely interesting seeing your child all drugged out like that. And the doctor laughed and told me we better watch out for her in high school cuz she seemed to enjoy this medication a lot. Oh boy....but he wasn't wrong. I was just sooooo freaking relieved to see that she was okay and not sick or scared anymore. She was actually happy.
But he told me it was the medicine making her talk a lot, which cracked me up. This is how she always is. She doesn't slur her words normally, but my daughter is never, ever quiet unless she's scared or really sick. When she's not talking a mile a minute constantly, that's when we know something is very wrong.
They took more xrays at this point, which I got to help with. That was kinda fun. And I had asked her then if she was in pain, and she said her left arm hurt pretty bad. So I asked them to give her some pain meds. But they kind of dilly dallied on that, so that when they finally said they'd do it, she told them it didn't hurt anymore and she was fine. So they held off so she wouldn't get sleepy again.
And when the xrays came back looking good and all the bones were set in place properly, they said we were done. We could go. The whole thing took about 2 hours all total. She didn't even need any help walking out of the hospital cuz the medication was already worn off. It's amazing how that works.
We came home, ate lunch (she was starving since they didn't allow her to eat beforehand) and then she said she wanted to go to her friends house. We told her she could do that once she had the casts on and if she felt okay. And she said she did and the doctor had told us she was good to do whatever she felt up to doing. So we let her go.
It's amazing to me how quickly she can bounce back from something like this. Much faster than I could. I just wish she didn't have this happen. Life is still gonna be rough for her for quite awhile (6 weeks to be exact) cuz she still can't do basic things without the use of her arms. But she's already adapting well. She was writing last night cuz she wanted to prove to me that she still could write, even with her arms like that. She's worried about school and not being able to do her work. But I think she'll make it okay.
While she was still all loopy and drugged she also told the doctor exactly what happened to her. She hadn't really told us. She said she was pushed down by a mean boy, but she never would elaborate further. But I guess the drugs are like truth serum so she explained the whole thing to him.
There are these fake rocks out on the playground that kids can climb on. Harper had climbed all the way to the top and that little asshole kid was up there with her, along with his friend. They kept telling her to jump off and she said she was going to, but that she was worried it was too high up and she'd get hurt. They kept taunting her and telling her to do it, and she finally said no. And she was gonna climb back down. And that's when the little fucker just shoved her off the edge and she fell about 7 feet to the ground and landed right on her hands.
Now it makes more sense to me how her arms got broken. I thought she was pushed on the playground and just fell down. But no, he shoved her off a tall rock! I'm even more livid about that cuz that boy KNEW she would be hurt. It wasn't like he just pushed her and she accidentally lost her footing and fell on the ground. He shoved her off a rock.
But I'm confident we'll find who he is, but she doesn't know his name. She has a good description though and said she would know him if she saw him. And he's friends with a small pale boy who looks like he has a white mustache. I'm sure there are not that many 6th graders fitting that description, so if we find that little kid, we'll find the other one.
Gah...I'm just still in shock at the whole thing. But I feel better now that this part of the ordeal is over. But believe me, I've got a list of people who are gonna pay for this, both literally and karmically. None of this should have ever happened.
But thank you all again for following this ordeal with me and for all your words of support and shared outrage with me. I really appreciate it.
