So I left off with us getting into a room for the night. Sadly no one got any rest because as we all know, a hospital is the very last place one can truly rest. Zane was having breakthrough pain between the 4 hour dosings of the Oxycodone, for which they were giving him morphine. Sure he was quiet and trying to sleep, but he would relax, move his leg slightly and jar himself awake and in pain. Or someone would come in to check him or the boy in the next bed. Or a machine somewhere would alarm. Or the intercom would crackle an announcement of a fire drill. Something. This went on all night, I know because I sat at his bedside, sideways in the "sleep chair" with my hands folded on the bedrail and my chin on top of them. My Mom sat in the other straight back chair with a blanket around her and her head on the extra pillow laying on the foot of the bed. Each time Zane would wake up, he would be scared and cry so I was keeping alert to try and soothe him right away, let him know Mom was there. During all of this time, he did get meds, as I mentioned. Thank God I was paying attention to this because around 6am a nurse came in for the other boy and I asked her if she could let our nurse know he was seeming to be in pain and needed something, and it was time for his Oxycodone again. Instead of that, she got the meds and came in with the syringe to administer the dose. She was literally 3 inches from his mouth (liquid meds, not injectable) when I noticed the dose. She dropped the syringe onto the bed just as I reached to grab her hand - mind you her other hand had his mouth ready for her to squirt it in. I grabbed the syringe and told her "NO! This is NOT his meds, this is way too much do NOT give this to him!" She looked at me like I was nuts but said she would double check. She came back in and said, "Oh yeah, you were right. I thought the chart said 7ml so that is what I drew but his dose is 1ml" ...Yeah, you read that right. She almost gave him 7x the prescribed dose of a controlled narcotic. Thing is, for her to draw that dose, she had to enter it into a computer, which would then alert her to the change in dose since the last time and ask her to confirm the increase. I try very hard not to think how things might have gone.
Moving on, the gentleman who brought the breakfast tray in was incredibly nice and I have to say, the food smelled amazing, but Zane would not eat any. I had a juice cup I tossed into the tote bag from home and he only asked for juice so I gave him that. He chugged down 2 full juice cups, about 6oz per cup full, in record time. I called for Daddy to come up around 8am as we had a few things to go over with the care and maintenance of the cast as well as of Zane while he is in it. We watched a video, narrated by Dr Woo (remember that name for later) which honestly was no more than we had been told already but I get that they have to have some measure of saying you were "trained". Nurse Mary came in and showed me briefly how to change his diaper and while I did pay attention, I have no idea what she did or said. Some ladies from Child Protection Services came by to interview us AGAIN. They were nicer than the other lady but still annoyed me. Daddy and Macy wandered about and finally found the play area where there were two ladies helping kids make crafts. That was a lifesaver for us as Macy was bored stiff. Lunch came, smelling better than breakfast had and again, Zane refused even the mac and cheese but he drank some juice and chocolate milk. At Daddy's insistence I ate some of the lunch and I can tell you it was very good. I did not eat much, my tummy was not ready for food yet. We were visited by a very nice lady who loaned us a special car seat designed for kids in spica casts and she helped Lon put it into the van in place of Zane's carseat. She said that since they called for her, surely we would be discharged in short order. 4 hours later, we were. It was 5:30pm when we hit the road for home, 27 hours after arriving. We had a prescription to fill for his pain meds, I did get them to give him a dose just before we left, to be sure we had time to do all the shifting and shuffling. Good thing.
We stopped at Jonesville Publix to get the Rx filled. It was just before 6 now, keep in mind. I hand off the written info to the tech and she reads it, looks worried and walks to the pharmacist to confer. They both come back over and say that they cannot fill this Rx as there is no strength indicated on the instructions and it is too late to call the Dr for this info. I advised them of the situation and that there would indeed be some sort of pain meds given for this child TONIGHT even if that meant a partial fill and I come back in the morning for the rest. The Pharmacist asked me to give her 20 minutes and she would see what she could do. What she did was use her best judgment on the strength per dose and sent me on my way. We finally got him home about 7pm and then discovered the fun of life with this cast.
I could barely pick him up, the cast is wide and heavy and I am short with short arms. I can't reach around him and lifting him is hard for me. Daddy will do the lifting for now. We took inside all the folded blankets and pillows that they packed into the red wagon for us to take him out of the hospital in - yes, I took the damn pillows and blankets but left the wagon. We have one. We did not have the extra pillows and blankets tho. It took a few tries to get a place set up for him on the couch, but we did it. It took both of us to change him for the first few days, but we did that too. After a trip to CVS to buy adult diapers and some pantiliners and sanitary pads as was suggested to use inside his regular sized diapers, which have to be tucked under the edges of the cast, I came home and we decided to try it their way. Yeah that way sucked. I got online and read everything I could read about the care of children in these casts and with that knowledge, tackled it a new way. Mind you we did it their way long enough to know it was just not going to work for us, about 2-3 days. Once we tried the stuff I came up with, life got MUCH easier with this contraption and continues to be less of a pain in the neck now. With my way, he can actually be dressed and look somewhat normal and not have a disgusting looking adult diaper wrapped around the outside of the cast. I shared this info with the Ortho clinic staff.
The meds issue was good and bad. I still have no idea if the Rx was filled as intended because he was seeming to be in pain even a few days later. I called in and was advised to give Ibuprofen between Rx doses to control it. The other thing is, the Rx causes constipation so now he has a whole new issue of pain to deal with. One thing I can assure you is you do NOT want an explosive diaper while in this cast. After speaking with the nurse again, we tried some OTC meds that eventually did the job, so we're all good there. He was not helping by refusing to eat and drinking sparingly. You ever try to rationalize with a 2 year old? He will win. I did score by giving him V8 Fusion juice - you know the one that advertises a day's worth of fruits and veggies per serving - so at least he was getting nutrients. He was fine with, and continues to chug down, chocolate milk. I no longer care that he is being spoiled, I just wanted something going into his belly. We added the Pedia Sure drink with Fiber to help things out, but he caught on and refused the chocolate milk with that stuff mixed in. Oh well.
A full day at home and we found an issue with the cast. Thankfully the Ortho clinic was able to get us in right then so we sped off to see them and had about 1/5 inches trimmed off of the top of the right leg side. It was kind of high and pressing into, shall we say a "delicate area" for him. The cast tech there, Lindsey, he may go on our Christmas card list. He was SO helpful with showing us tricks and tips and alleviated some fears we had with handling Zane as well. He is amazing at what he does. Cannot find enough good stuff to say about Lindsey. Found out that transporting with the wagon is a huge pain in the butt, there has to be a better way!!! Leave it to me and the internet, I will find something!!
We have his first Orthopedic appointment on the 2 week mark of being in the cast. We will see Dr Woo (yes, he did the video) and we're hoping for the best. Until then all we can do is the best we can do and hope it isn't too terribly wrong. Oh yeah, we did have a stroller that actually works for him so I got the person who borrowed that a while back to return it and that has been GREAT! He likes to sit in that and it is much easier than the big wagon. He will be able to go out much more often using that and I know that will be far better than being house bound all the time he is also confined in the cast.
Life WILL get better, things will improve and maybe we will have good news from Dr Woo on the 23rd. Please?
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