Pink and Plaster...

Well, it has been an eventful few days. First, I get a call on Thursday that the furnace is out and my mother is freezing to death in the 65 degree house. Run home from work to handle it. In and amongst calling the gas company to check for a leak and finding a furnace repairman and trying to get some work done, I get a text from the boy that his knee is killing him and he needs some ibuprofen. He's at work. Drop it off on the way back to work. Get back to work and get back into the zone. Bird txts me she's on her way home, as per usual, but, as is not usual, says she sprained her wrist. Call her and find out she hurt it in gym, right before lunch. No call from the school. I'm not happy, not happy at all.

When I get home, I see the wrist ace wrapped, badly, by the school nurse. She can't rotate it without pain. If it hangs down to her side, it hurts. Touching it hurts. It looks like there might be a bump on one side but I'm not sure. I'm torn. Call the doctor or not?

Get up in the morning and make the decision (after consulting with some online friends and doing some research). I'll take her to work with me, call the doc. That way, I'll have her right there and won't miss as much work. I can also watch it for swelling and discoloration. Since she's on the growth hormone, I know there is a slightly higher chance of broken bones. I email the coach (it happened in gym) and the school nurse trying to, as politely as possible, express my displeasure that I wasn't notifed about the injury. Notify the principal that I wasn't called when she was hurt. Get to work and Bird settles in with her DS and I get to work. Call the doc and get an appt. Plan the afternoon. Oh, to live in the land of denial!

Get to the doctor's office and he sends us next door to the xray place. Tells us if they come back with a white piece of paper, go home and keep doing what we're doing. If they come back with a white piece of paper and an xray, come back to the office. We wait about five, ten minutes and look up to see the xray tech coming back out...carrying an xray and a white piece of paper. Damn. "subtle nondisplaced fracture of the distal dorsal ulna"

Back to the doctor's office. While we're waiting to find out about an orthopedic appt, call the principal back to let him know the wrist is broken. He sounds very unhappy.

The ortho appt is out by my work so head back there for a half hour before heading to the appt. Get a touch more done. I so do not need to miss more work. Get to the packed ortho office on time and...we wait. Finally, an hour and a half or so after our appt time, we're taken back. The fracture is on the growth plate. Fortunately, it is a small break and isn't out of alignment and should only need a cast for three weeks. The cast is PINK...very pink.

And there, in a nutshell, is part of the problem. My child has special needs. They may not be visible but they doesn't make the needs any less important.

I have spent a lot of time kicking my own ass this past year for all the things I missed in my darling youngest's first thirteen years. In kindergarten, she fell off the slide at school and hurt her neck. I wasn't called then, either. The nurse thought she was putting on for attention. She was always going down to the office complaining of feeling bad...her tummy or a headache or her legs hurt. So, she ended up with a severe spasm in her neck that required a neck brace for several days, codeine and a trip to a physical therapist for evaluation. Now, we know that her legs hurt because of the flat feet. Now we know that flat feet are more prevalent among girls with Turner Syndrome. Now we know that the urinary tract infections she had are another commonality. The scoliosis, her eyesight, the ADHD. The stomach issues and headaches are symptoms of the generalized anxiety disorder. But they're subtle, they are hidden, they aren't blatantly in your face so Bird suffers.

And, if she didn't have Turner, the growth plate would have been stronger and this really would have been just a sprain and not a break.

So, Bird has her pink cast and she is pushing forward...determined to not let it slow her down. And I obsess and worry. I make lists of everything I need to do. Change my mother's dermatologist appt, call the endocrinologist to let him know about the break, re-order the growth hormone, figure out how to miss as little work as possible to get her back to the doctor to get the cast off and the wrist re-xrayed.

I think I need to make a list of everything that is right...what are the silver linings and the sunny streets. Bird did well enough on her state testing last year that she is getting an award this week at school at a big to do assembly. She is cheerful about the cast and not upset or moping. The furnace is fixed. I saw flowers growing today. The washer is still broken but the boy took my laundry to his house and washed it. I took a nice walk around the block with the dogs and my Bird. My sister in law thinks she can bring Bird to me for her next ortho appt which will mean less time off work.

Things could definitely be worse.