Thomas's broken arm

I mentioned briefly that Thomas had broken his arm, but I feel like the experience deserves its own post.

On December 29th, Thomas was riding his bike home from campus. It was a rainy day, and he was biking on a wet greenway. As he came off of a bridge back onto the regular path, he hit a slick patch of mud (and I'm sure the change in terrain didn't help), and his bike slid out from underneath him. When he landed, he scraped up both of his knees horribly--only just now are those scabs gone--and hurt his left arm really badly. He called me to come pick him up, and then we took him to the emergency room at UT Medical Center because he thought he'd probably broken it. It was already past 5:00 and the wait was several hours, so we left him there. When we told him Daddy was going to stay there while we went home, Jamie said very seriously, "We should visit Daddy in the hospital sometimes." He didn't realize it was just for that evening. Anyway, it turned out Thomas had broken a bone in his forearm, specifically the ulnar styloid (the bumpy bone on the pinky side of your wrist). He was giving a velcro splint/casty-thing and was told to follow up with the orthopedist in a week. A friend gave him a ride home.

Jamie was so cute the next morning. He brought Thomas all kinds of things to make him feel better and just tried to be sweet and good that day.

The following week Thomas went to his appointment with the orthopedist. The doctor was concerned that his bone had been dislocated, which could have damaged cartilage and things in the arm, and if it had been, that would have required surgery to set it back in place as it healed. So that night Thomas had to go get an MRI done. The doctor said it would take a couple days to get the images back so he could read them and see what needed to be done. A WEEK later, when the doctor had never called, Thomas called the office and found out the doctor wasn't available that day. Finally the next day, Thomas was available to get a hold of him and found out, to our great relief, that surgery was not necessary! Turns out his bone is just in a weird place. Hallelujah.

It has now been 3 1/2 weeks since he broke it, out of the 6 weeks that he is supposed to wear the splint. Since he is not supposed to push, pull, or lift anything with that arm, he has had some difficulty getting his work done as quickly as normal (though thankfully at this point he can kind of do a little typing with that hand), and he also hasn't been able to do much with Jacob...no diaper changes, baths, clothing changes, putting him down for naps, etc. It would be less frustrating if not for the fact that he's leaving a week from tomorrow to go back to France for 4 more weeks. Sigh. He has an appointment next week to get another x-ray and check how the healing process is coming along.

We are very grateful that Thomas wasn't hurt any worse than he was. We are also grateful that it was his left arm, that it will be mostly healed before he has to travel, and that surgery is not required. We are all looking forward to March, when Daddy will have two functioning arms and will be home for the foreseeable future!

Poor Thomas :(