...cast off!

Waiting patiently to be called...

One final photo of his cast for prosperity.

The saga is finally over. Last Tuesday Matthew went back in to hospital to have the wires removed from his elbow and his cast removed for good. It was a really long day. His surgeon had called to tell us he wouldn't be taken to surgery until at least 12pm but of course the hospital still wanted us there by 7am for admission. Luckily Matthew was allowed to have breakfast at 6am - he didn't end up going to theatre until nearly 1.30pm. The poor little bloke was starving. He's normally pretty patient and tolerant of inconveniences like that but it really was starting to take its toll on both of us.

The surgery went well. He was only under for about 40 minutes but it took a long time once we was back on the ward to wake up and get moving. We didn't end up getting home until well after 7pm that night. It was a long day and one I think he is glad is now behind him. He can move his arm well now and there isn't any pain but he still can't straighten it right out. His surgeon says he will do so in his own time. For now, he is pleased to be back riding his bike but has assured me tree climbing is off the agenda. Good man...

Cast on...

and back to school tomorrow!

Broken wing

My poor boy has broken his arm. He fell out of a tree he was climbing at school on Monday morning. He did a spectacular job of it - the red circle on xray below shows the bit that is broken. It should be over in the space where the blue arrow is pointing.


Thankfully I was just at home when the school called me. I got there quickly and asked them to call the ambulance for him. There was no way in the world I'd have been able to move him, he was in too much pain. He was so brave - I can only imagine how much it would have hurt and how scared he would have been but he did nothing more than a bit of a cry when the pain got too bad.

The ambulance took him straight to the hospital while I raced Ryan home to stay with Tom's parents (who incidently deserve a medal for all the times they have come to our rescue lately). When I got to the hospital, Matthew was still holding it all together. I thought going by himself in the ambulance may have freaked him out a bit but he was fine. After they did the x-ray they warmed me that he would be taken to surgery to have it repaired. I was thrilled to hear that the orthapeadic surgeon was they same surgeon who did FIL's hip replacement last October - he is a great doctor and a lovely bloke to boot. Matthew had actually met him in the past so that helped a lot to ease the fear.

Matty finally made it to surgery at about 4.30pm. He is now sporting a couple of pins in his elbow to hold it all together and will need another anaesthetic in a few weeks time to remove the pins once his arm has healed. For now, he is wearing a blackslab and will have his proper fibreglass cast put on next Monday. I think he's looking forward to the kids at school being able to sign it.

Here he is in the emergency room, looking fairly unhappy. Note the unnatural point of his elbow. Ugh.

Sleeping peacefully after surgery.

He hasn't been in too much pain since he has been home. He was very tired and worn out the first day but is now just going about things with surprising ease.

Kids are amazing - and you in particular young man, are the bravest of them all. xx