Specialist

We went in to the hand specialist today thinking we were getting his hard cast, and that's all; six weeks of cast and we were home free.  It did not turn out that way.

While his assistant was checking us in, she was going into Caden's medical history with great detail.  My mind kept thinking, "Is this really necessary if all he's getting is a cast?  Does she really need to document every surgery he's had in the past almost three years?"  I never let her hear that I was annoyed, but I kind of was.  Turns out: he needs that information catalogued.  As she was leaving the room, she said, "He'll go over with you why he thinks surgery is an option."  Wait, what?  No one said anything about any surgery.  He already had it set in the ER!

When he walked in, he spoke with Caden a little bit about how he was feeling with his recent cancer stuff (she had even documented the last dose of Pazopanib that he took in May) and then got down to business.  Let me just say: I may not have it 100% correct, because I was in a bit of shock.  I really didn't think surgery would even be talked about at this appointment.

Because Caden is so close to the end of his bone growth stage, he doesn't have enough time for the bones to "fix" themselves.  If we were to leave the wrist the way it is set right now (the ER didn't do a horrible job) he would probably lose mobility in the wrist for good, possibly needing surgery later on.  If he was younger, the bones would grow around the fracture and correct the problem.  But because of Caden's age and the evidence that Caden's bones are near the end of their growth, he doesn't think that will happen.  In this, we're trying Caden as an adult.  He actually said that if Caden were his child he would do surgery tomorrow.

Caden wasn't quite ready to go into surgery, so we took the next proactive option.  We had it put into a hard cast today, with follow-up in two days; the doctor wants to see him first thing on Friday morning.  Caden is not allowed to eat that morning, just in case.  They'll take the cast off for another x-ray and go from there.  If there is evidence that the bone is growing together better than the post-'conscious sedation' x-ray, then we'll just go ahead and re-cast the arm and let it heal for six weeks.  However, if it looks like the aforementioned x-ray (again, it is not a bad set, just not great because of Caden's age), he'll go in for surgery to have pins placed either Friday afternoon or Monday.  If he was just one year old, there would be no question- he'd just get pins. 

I went into that appointment thinking this was going to be a breeze.  Now... not so much.  Everything feels more hectic when surgery is involved.  It still feel easier than the other factors in Caden's health, still feels like there is a clear-cut end date and finality, just not as easy as I previously thought.

One thing is certain:  I'm sick of having to wrap his left arm up for him to be able to shower.  First the PICC and now this.  Lame!  But, looking on the bright side- at least he is feeling well enough to play outside!  It feels nice having "normal" childhood ailments to worry about.