Shalynn Breaks her Wrist

Monday on her way home from school Shalynn was riding her bike and she was getting ready to ride from the bike lane to the sidewalk since she was getting close to the house.  She hit the curb at the wrong angle and she fell off her bike.  When she got home she came into the house crying like there was no tomorrow.  Grandma and I had her sit down for a little bit to calm down and so that we could then look her over to see what all was scratched, sprained or broken.  She looked fine from the outside except for her knee which was really skinned up, and her wrist that she said was hurting pretty bad.  So we put some ice on her wrist because it was swelling a little and then I finished up some soup for the rest of the kids and then I took her to the Urgent Care facility here in Ridgecrest.  It must have taken us 3 hours to actually get in and see a Dr.  We had an x-ray done and when we got in to see the Dr. he told us that she had broken her wrist.  Not only did she break her wrist but she broke it good.  

(Shalynn getting prepared for surgery) 

Since we live in Ridgecrest and it is rather a small town they do not set broken bones here in the valley.  So we had to go home with her in a splint and in a lot of pain.  The Dr. gave her some pain pills, and we tried to make her as comfortable as possible.  Tuesday morning I was on the phone trying to get ahold of the one of the three Orthopedic Surgeon's that come up to Ridgecrest.  I lucked out and got Dr. Shau in his Ridgecrest office and he had a surgery cancellation so I went and got Shalynn out of school and took her to see the Dr.  He was worried about her wrist and if she had not eaten breakfast he would have taken her and put the pins in her wrist right then.  So he scheduled surgery down in Palmdale for 5:30 in the morning.  What a yucky time to have surgery and we have an hour and 45 minute drive just to get down there and they also wanted her there an hour early so we were looking at leaving Ridgecrest at 2:00am. 

 (Shalynn and her Nurse Shirley)

Later in the afternoon the Oasis Surgery Center called and said that they wanted to change the time of Surgery to 8:45 I was so thankful that the time was changing.  Now we didn't need to get up so early to drive down to Palmdale. 

 (Shalynn's first I V)

Chris decided to go with Shalynn and I on Wednesday for her surgery.  It was a pretty fist trip down to Palmdale and the Surgery Center was pretty easy to find.  So we arrived at 7 in the morning and we filled out some paperwork and then they took her back and got her ready for surgery.  When I say surgery I am not meaning that they were going to cut her open.  They used x-ray and looked to see where the bone was and where they need to put the bone and then the Dr. put in the pins and then took a few more x-rays to make sure that the bone was in the right place.

 (The IV is in)

Chris and I took turns sitting with her before they took her back to move her bones back into place.  The whole operation took all of 30 minutes but it took her an hour to actually come out of the anaesthesia. 

 (The drip is attached)

After she was more awake she needed to eat so that she could take some medication for her pain.  So she was given some apple juice, ritz crackers and goldfish.  We gave her some pain pills and then came the job of getting her dressed again so that she could go home. 

 The Dr. wanted her to move her fingers as much as she could and right after she woke up she could not move them very much with out pain.  We were told to make sure that she kept moving them and if we saw them starting to turn blue or they were cold we were to call them immediately 

 Now that she is dressed it is time to get her out to the car and get her arm up above her heart with all the pillows that we brought from home.  When it is up above her heart the blood does not rush into her arm as much and cause as much pain.  At lease she is smiling as we get ready to leave the surgery center. 

When the Dr. came to talk to Chris and I after the surgery he told us that the bone did not want to go back into place so he had to do a lot of maneuvering and that she was going to be in quite a bit of pain.  He also said that he put in two pins instead of one to make sure that it would not move around.  Shalynn is the first one in the family to break anything so I guess I better knock on wood so that none of the other 4 break anything.