After Ivy's class was over, I offered to pick them up, but they biked home albeit very slowly. Tom left for Scouts(his Tuesday calling). Drew was left in his bed to rest, and ended up having an accident because it hurt his foot too much to put down to walk the few feet to the bathroom across the hall. After 5 hours, his left leg was still hurting, so after Tom was back from Scouts, Drew & I high-tailed it over to the ER. After a couple hours, they x-rayed his foot and found nothing and were about to send us on our way, when I insisted he have a splint or something. We got a splint and some Motrin. Poor guy. It was 3 hours past bedtime by the time that the splint and Motrin from the ER finally happened. Why they never x-rayed his leg there, I'll never know. Unfortunately, it was after 11 when we finally got the foot x-rayed and it slipped my mind.
Next day was Field trip day for kindergarten. Of course. That's how things happen--right before something big, like a field trip or school pictures. Drew desperately wanted to go, so he rode in our car since I was chaperoning 3 other kids with another mom(we got the most mellow of the class), and I wasn't allowed on the bus because their liability insurance won't let Brent ride the bus. Drew had a mostly good time. Of course, he did have to go to the bathroom when we were the furthest away from a bathroom--the way it always works with kids--a side note, I'm not sure why the zoo didn't build a bathroom, one on each end of the zoo for this exact reason. After lunch, we went to ride the train. This is the same train that I rode on in Santa's Village up in the Big Bear mountain area growing up. So, it was pretty cool Drew got to ride it too. I had to carry Drew since there was no room for the stroller in the serpentine. We had to wait for 3 train rides before it was finally our turn. Instead of sliding Drew all the way in, I had him by the side door, and when I got in, I accidentally bumped his leg causing him a lot of pain. He sat on my lap for awhile on the train. His pain medication was wearing off around the same time too, so that didn't help. After the train, we made a bathroom stop, and told the teacher we were headed home for medicine. His teacher has been great throughout our whole ordeal.
The red circle is around the fracture on his tibia(almost horizontal gray line on the x-ray).
The first number they gave me, also in the same hospital block as pediatrician's office, said they had no appointments available for 2 weeks!! Drew's doctor wanted a cast on ASAP, not 2 weeks later. I called the pediatrician's office and had them change the authorization. We found a place that wasn't too far of a drive, maybe 15 minutes away, and could see him Tuesday morning, the 7th. He got a cast on, and picked blue.
We really like this orthopedic doctor, Dr. Kelly. His staff is just okay. We also got a prescription for a pediatric walker, as the doctor and I both felt crutches have a high learning curve, Drew's a small guy, and so nobody accidentally (or intentionally) gets hit with a crutch. On our way out, the office asked if we wanted to see if insurance would pay for it. I said sure, since I know most places don't carry them, and could otherwise cost us upwards of around $100.
So, I called back around 4 pm to the doctor's office, seeing how they were doing on finding anything out anything from insurance. "Oh, we don't do that until Wednesdays."
This is around 11:30. Noon comes, and one of our friends that moved a few miles away called and said her family owned a medical supply store and she would have them deliver after 3 pm. I call the orthopedic office back and tell them to switch the provider of the walker to our friends' family's company. At 3:30, the doctor office calls back saying no to this place and give us another number. 4 pm rolls around, and the friend's family's company says that they can't work with our insurance for payment. I call the new place--apparently insurance is only contracted with 1 other place besides the prosthetics place--and they don't have the authorization fax. I call the doctor's office. They claimed they faxed it, I have them fax it again. I call 20 minutes later to check on the walker. After a lot of waiting, I was told that I would get a call back right away after they verified things with insurance and to make sure they had a walker the right height. Well, another 20 minutes later it was almost 5:00 and I called back, anxious, and was asked if we wanted the walker that night or the next day. I said that night since I planned to take Drew to school on Thursday, with or without a walker. We had it by 7:40--which was pretty impressive, in my opinion. It's just too bad it took so many hours out of my day to make sure things moved along for a 6 year old!!
Here's a cute video I took of Drew trying it out, with appropriate Popeye theme song music in the background--compliments of Netflix on the Wii.
Drew has now been in school since Thursday of last week. I was there all day Thursday with him, and Friday he was on his own. He's on a modified school schedule, going after lunch ends so he doesn't have to sit out morning & lunch recesses, and safety issues(he'd have to go in a different way than all the other kids and some of the early kindergartners are rather large and clumsy and bump into the teacher frequently and have some aggressive issues--we don't want more injuries). He's been able to keep up with homework & classwork. Earlier this week, they rearranged the class so it's easier for Drew to get around. I think most of the pain is gone or at least tolerable with the walker. He is fiercely independent at school and doesn't like the other kids helping him.
My mom sent him a game for our Mobigo that we've had 2 or 3 years now, I picked him up a board game and a wipe off activity kit from Target, and today two of the kids in his class (who are cousins to each other, and live in our neighborhood) dropped off a bucket of goodies this afternoon for him. For now, I'm keeping him in the stroller for morning drop-off of Ivy & Collin, due to parking issues and trying to get them there fast. Drew moves fast in the walker when he wants, but he can still tire out quickly. Next week, we go in to get the cast change. The orthopedist only likes the first one on for 2 weeks, and the second for 4 weeks. I've got Drew excited for color change, and to find if they have any glow in the dark.
Here's a picture of Drew getting to hold one of the class butterflies after school yesterday.
