Zacher Broke His Arm
This evening while playing in the yard Zach fell off his slide and broke a bone in his forearm. He has been using his slide on his own for about a month now, but tonight he started walking up the slide (rather than using the ladder). He slipped a few times but he always caught himself. I had commented earlier in the evening about how he was getting more confident (not in a good way) with each successful climb up the slide. I was worried his over-confidence would end up in an accident.
It eventually caught up with him. Steph went inside and I was working on the laptop in the yard and caught a glimpse of Zach tumbling to the ground out of the corner of my eye. He basically fell about 3 to 4 feet and landed on his front side. I ran up and was careful not to move him too quickly since I wasn’t sure how serious the injuries were. Steph and I brought him inside and Steph immediately noticed that his arm was now curved. Definitely abnormal. It wasn’t really swollen…just curved. Without hesitation we packed up his stuff and drove to the ER (Swedish Physicians on First Hill) which is about 15 minutes away.
We walked up to the counter and the staff was looking at Steph since she is very pregnant wondering what is up with the pregnant mom. Steph quickly pointed out that this visit wasn’t for her. Within about 30 seconds of explaining Zach’s injury they had us in a room where a nurse began collecting information on the incident. The doctor came in and quickly looked at the arm and said - “yep, it’s broken”. A nurse and doctor wrapped Zach up in a blanket and with the help of Steph and I we held a screaming Zach on the table while they inserted an IV. A few minutes later, the nurse returned with some morphine and Zach was GOOD!
We read his books and played with the stuffed animal the hospital provided (a purple dragon - how fitting since he was on drugs). He was even pointing at the book with his broken arm and laughing. That was basically the end of the happy time. Next we carried him down to get XRays. This required both Steph and I to hold Zach’s arm down so they could get two quick pictures. No retakes! We even got copies. And yes, it is clearly broken.
Now back to the room. Two doctors arrived - one to administer drugs and the other to build the cast. They explained that Zach would receive the “happy” drugs and all would be well. One was called Versed and the other was Fetanyl. The Versed is used to cause sleepiness and to relax people before surgeries. Zach was pretty unruly as they began to prep his arm for the cast. His behaviour was basically almost tantrum-like at this point requiring both Steph and I to hold him down. He even clawed one of the nurses who very pointedly (but nicely) asked me to hold his free hand. I guess we need to trim his nails.
As things progressed Zach was in a full blown trantrum, the likes of which we haven’t seen. The other doctor gave him some additional Fetanyl believing that he was in pain. His screaming and kicking lasted the whole time while they applied the cast. He was being monitored on a machine and at one point I saw his pulse upwards of around 168.
Once they were done with the cast they handed him over to me so I could calm him down while sitting in a chair. That wasn’t going to work. For the next 20 minutes Zach was constantly kicking, screaming, and crying. Every few minutes he would nod off into a sleep for about 15 seconds and then wake up in this tantrum. He was very warm and sweaty from all this exertion so we applied wet towels to him to help cool him down.
Basically, he had a complete opposite reaction to the Versed. This medicine should have made him mellow and a little goofy. The doctor said his reaction was very rare and definitely suggested that we never let him get that medicine again. Not a problem! We’ll talk to his normal doctor about any associated drugs that hospitals should stay away from on Zacher.
Eventually we got Zach to fall asleep for about 15 minutes. We than had to take him back down for a final XRay to make sure the bone was reformed correctly (as they put the cast on they reshape the arm so the bone is straight again). He immediately woke up and his tantrum started back up right where it left off. A nurse came in to help hold him down while they took two more pictures of his arm. Zach quickly fell back asleep once we returned to the room. The pictures showed his arm was correctly shaped. We left about 15 minutes later and Zach has basically been asleep the rest of the way home. Now he sleeping in his bed.
Update: Zach slept all night but he fell out of his bed this morning…I’m guessing he wasn’t expecting to not have the use of his arm. He is asleep in our bed right now. We are keeping him home from daycare today but all indications are that he’ll be good to go tomorrow…but now he has a club so the other kids better where a helmet.
May 31st, 2007 at 1:15 am
Don’t believe the docs when they tell you the reaction your son had to Versed is “rare” - it happens all too often.