On Raelee's third day of school, Marty and I received a phone call from the school stating that Raelee had fallen during recess and has appeared to hurt her arm pretty badly. EMS came to the school to check her arm and felt that she needed to go to the hospital. Daddy was in Indianapolis on a business trip and Mommy was out to lunch. Luckily, Mommy's friends at work rushed her to the Kosair Children's Hospital's ER where she beat Raelee coming in off the ambulance. She was in quite a bit of pain. Within moments of arriving, they administered Oxycodone orally, which did seem to ease the pain.
After two x-rays, many conversations with the ER doctor on call, the resident orthopedic doctor (Dr. Spanyar) and his attending, Dr. Oster, it was determined 5.5 hours after arriving by ambulance, that Raelee would need surgery at 10 p.m. Thursday night.
We were sent to the 7th floor of the hospital at 6:00 p.m. While in the ER, the I.V. team came in to place the I.V. in her arm, to run morphine throughout the day.
While on the 7th floor, Raelee finally relaxed enough (after a full day of not only crying due to pain, but crying because she was hungry and had only eaten breakfast at 8:30 a.m.,) she was wheeled back to O.R. prep, to get her ready for surgery. Thankfully, Versett was not necessary to administer since the morphine had kicked in for relaxation. Daddy arrived at 8 p.m. from Indy, and was able to be there before they wheeled her back to the O.R. on the 8th floor at 9:30 or so. The doctor began surgery at 10:20 p.m. The surgery was complete within 25 minutes.
When she woke, she was very upset, confused, and perhaps in some pain as well. This lasted for about 20 minutes before she went back to sleep for the night.
The next day, she slept until after 10 a.m. When she woke, again she was very irritable, afraid and wanted to get the cast off her arm. She finally figured out that standing to walk to the bathroom and moving a little on her own was not going to hurt her arm.
We were released from the hospital by 6:00 p.m. or so on Friday evening. She was glad to be home.
She's doing very well, and not indicating that she's in pain. She's taken Tylenol with codeine in the morning and at night for the past two days.
We're so thankful it was not worse. While the surgery was very scary, we are pleased with the way the school reacted, how the hospital responded, and that Raelee is on her way to a speedy recovery.
She is scheduled to go back to see the surgeon, Dr. Oster, in 4 weeks. At that time, the cast will be removed, the pins will be taken out of her elbow and she can begin restricted activity. Stay tuned for more updates!
Last night, the girls baked a cake to celebrate Raelee's recovery!
They LOVE to lick the bowl...
