Oh, right. I haven't told you about Thing 1's broken finger. So THE DAY we get back to the island after Sweetie's surgery, Thing 1 wanted to show me the tricks he's been doing on his scooter - wheelies and hops. He was doing that for a while and then went down around the lower set of houses, and reappeared sans scooter and crying. "I fell down" he said. "Are you hurt?" I replied. He showed me his hand, and his pinky looked a little funny, so we took him over to Baywatch. They poked and prodded and said they didn't think it was broken, but agreed it looked funny, so they taped it to his ring finger and told us to take him to Avalon the next day.
So after school the next day, we drove into town (not downtown or over town) and went to the clinic. The doctor poked and prodded and ordered an X-ray. Thing 1 was very good for the X-ray (he did ask why he had to wear the lead apron in his lap...). When the pictures came back, it did, indeed, show a break and in a bit of an unusual position. The doctor said he'd never seen a break there before. Look at the base of the pinky in the attached image. You should be able to see most of the shaft of the bone detached from a disk of bone just above the joint. We were referred to an orthopedic surgeon. "Oh great," I thought to myself, "more surgery."
The next Monday, Thing1 and I did a commando trip over town, driving over to Avalon to catch an 8am boat, taking a taxi up to see Dr. Hand. He was a nice guy, and had a cool device that was not radioactive, but allowed you to see an x-ray-like image in real time. He said he sees breaks like this all the time, and that it should heal up fine if it's splinted in the proper way. Thing 1 then got a cool, high-tech moldable plastic cast. They heat up the material, bend it into shape, then blast it with coolant (like the "magic spray" they use on soccer players) to harden it.
After a quick lunch we realized we would miss the 2pm ferry, so we killed time by going to the Scout store and Your Favorite Bookstore. A 5:45 ferry got us back to the island close to 7pm. Then we had dinner in Avalon and were back home by 9pm. (Exhausted.)
Hrm. We still haven't gotten to Thanksgiving yet. And there's one more trip to the mainland to relate. We had on the schedule already Sweetie's surgical follow-up, and now we also had Thing 1's follow-up. Then to add to holiday stress, Sweetie started experiencing some complications to her recovery. This led to a Saturday afternoon trip to Avalon for evaluation at the clinic. In the end, the doctors decided it wasn't an emergency, so the entire family ended up going over town the Monday before Thanksgiving with hopes that we would be back on the island before the big day. Thing 1's appointment was Tuesday afternoon and took all of 15 minutes for an x-ray (or whatever that thing was called), and everything was fine and we still didn't need surgery (whew!). That evening I took the boys to see Bolt, which was better than I expected, although not memorable.
Wednesday was Sweetie's appointment. We ended up spending ALL DAY (9:30 to 3:30) at the Norris Cancer Center, which, I might add, is a weird place to hang out because nearly everyone there either has cancer or is there in support of someone who has cancer. We felt like the healthy family. So Sweetie needed to see her doctor, get a CAT scan, and get juiced up with a liter of fluids, and like I said, it took all day. The Things were great. They had made up a trading game with a standard deck of cards, that made no sense to me, but it kept them busy a long time. We also found a MCD Playplace nearby, which allowed us to a) eat, and b) burn off some energy.
It was late enough in the day that we had missed the boat to Two Harbors, so we made reservations for the special Thanksgiving day ferry (thank you Catalina Express!). Sweetie was exhausted for the trip back. We had made reservations at the restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner, so getting home late like that was not a concern. We dressed up nicely for dinner (gracious living) and went down to the Harbor Reef. They serve a real whole turkey dinner there, and you get to take home your leftovers. Sweetie couldn't stay very long, but did have some turkey and stuffing with her family before I drove her home. The boys and I ate some more and had a nice chat with the waitress before heading back with turkey carcass in tow.
I have to say, I'm very thankful that we're on the far side of this Life Experience. And I'm thankful that everyone is mending well now. Here's to a return to normalcy.
In other news, USC's new boat that they were going to station out here for us to use has sunk. The waterfront manager left it tied to the dock during rough seas, and it broke loose and washed up on the rocky shore. They hauled the engines and fuel tank out of it, filled the hull with foam (so it would float) and towed it over to Avalon for scrapping. It was a nice boat, and our other one is still broken. (I meant to post about this, but forgot. We were crossing the channel one day, and the propeller broke off the drive shaft - seven miles out, and in the middle of the shipping lanes. Fun. We did have a banjo aboard, though, for entertainment.)
Okay. More trips to the mainland to come. Christmas is coming...
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment