Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Broken Boney Tristeroni strikes again ...



We have always called Tristan "Boney Tristeroni" but added the "broken" after he broke his wrist falling off the see-saw in early 2005. Well, he has earned the nickname yet again.

We were camping at Ft. Stevens at the beach near Astoria, Oregon. It was a pretty rotten trip from the get-go and it ended horribly. Here's the story ...

To start out, the mosquitos there were vicious! The first thing that happened when we got there is that we were swarmed by mosquitos. And these things don't care if you're wearing bug spray, at least the kid-friendly version of it. We had to jump in the van to the store and get the super-DEET-filled hunters version. It helped some, but they were relentless. ICK!

Then we just had grumpy people. If it wasn't one of us, it was another. We were just not meshing well.

The second day we were there we went to Long Beach for the day. It was hot at the beach, around 85, but it was SOOO windy. We only spent about 1/2 hour at the beach where we ran in the waves and played in the sand a bit. We came back to our campsite then headed to the beach there to see the remains of a shipwreck. Played in the sand again but were sent home because the wind was making the sand sting when it hit us. So we decided to head to the campsite and take showers. After showers we decided to ride our bikes a bit before dinner.

The boys did a couple of laps around our camping loop with Grandma, then with Grandpa. Then the boys, Brian and myself decided to go on a longer ride to other parts of the campground.

On the way back Tristan took a nasty fall. He turned his handlebars to the right and the bike slid and flipped. He landed hard and started screaming right away. I was riding right next to him and stopped quickly, as did Brian who was riding behind him. Tristan was very entangled in the bike and Brian immediately got him out of that. He had Tristan sit up and that's when he yelled at me to go get the van because Tristan's arm was broken.

I set out on a run to our campsite. I've never ran so fast in my life. I got to the campsite and yelled at Dad to get our keys, which were in the motorhome. He got them and jumped in the van with me. We drove over to the crash site and Brian told me to call 911. Tristan's arm was hanging at such an awful angle and he was in so much pain that we didn't think it was wise to move him.

While we were waiting for the medics we looked Tristan over and we were surprised to see that he had no scratches or blood. Nothing. Not one little mark on his body, including his arm. His helmet was decently scraped up and his arm was obviously injured but beyond that he was well.

The volunteer medics from the local fire department arrived and helped splint his arm. We tried to keep Tristan calm but he was crying and scared. He has a habit of holding his breath and squealing when he hurts and he was doing a lot of that. We did get him mostly calm by the time the ambulance arrived. They moved him to a stretcher, which caused him to scream and cry in pain. It was horrible to watch him in so much pain, but there was nothing we could do to help out. Brian & I stayed with him, trying to keep him calm.

They decided to transport him to the hospital in Astoria, about 20 minutes away from the campground. I rode in the ambulance with him and Brian and his Dad followed us to the ER. Brian's mother kept a frightened Chase and Carissa back at the campsite. On the ride to the hospital Tristan calmed down. He was obviously in pain but didn't want to let the paramedics put in an IV so they could give him pain meds. I convinced him to let them try so that he would feel better, but the paramedics looked at his arms and decided not to attempt it, as there were no easy spots to put it in.

In the ER they looked Tristan's arm over and took X-rays. After the first x-ray they couldn't tell the extent of the damage so they took a 2nd X-ray. I knew it was bad when they told me not to let him eat or drink anything. They finally came back to us and told us that he had a dislocated elbow. In addition, he had a chunk broken off of the bone above the elbow. One look at the x-rays and it was obvious that he was going to need additional care. The hospital in Astoria is a smaller hosipital and no equipped to deal with this, so they made arrangements to get Tristan treated elsewhere.

While we waited for those arrangements one of the ER nurses brought Tristan a stuffed Pooh for him to cuddle. That little gesture meant so much to him. He loves stuffed animals and it calmed him to have one to hug. They even added a little hospital nametag to Pooh's foot, which said that it belonged to Tristan.

Knowing that we were going to have to go to another hospital, Brian drove his Dad back to the campground. He grabbed a few things, reasurred Chase and Carissa, and returned to the hospital to find that they had made arrangements for Tristan to be treated at Doernbecher Childrens Hospital in Portland.

We moved Tristan to the van, another painful process because the Astoria hospital had briefly looked for a vein and not finding one decided not to attempt an IV. He'd had no pain medicine so that 2 hour drive to Doernbechers was pure horror. He was so lethargic and tired, both from the accident and the fact that by now it was after 8pm. He kept falling asleep in the van but the pain would wake him up and he would jerk his body, including his arm, causing more pain. He finally fell asleep for about 1/2 an hour and all was well, but when he woke up we were still 1/2 an hour away from the hospital. He had been through enough and was in such pain that those last minutes were the worst. He kept hurting, kept crying and was just so hurt. It was horrible to watch him go through that and not be able to help him.

By the time we got to Doernbechers it was after 10pm. We had to go to the emergency room at Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) to get him admitted and looked at. They were busy in the emergency room and it was another hour before they came in to give him an IV. The nurse was obviously having a hard time finding a vein, just as the previous nurses had. She tried once but it didn't work. The second try, in his hand, was very painful for him and it took 3 people to hold him down while they got it in. The good news is that it worked and he finally got some much needed pain medication.

The pediatric orthopedist came in to talk to us. The first course of action was to get the arm "reduced". In other words, to pop the elbow back into the socket. They did some sort of sedation on him that caused him to be very very sleepy. They warned me beforehand that he would wake up when they did the procedure and that he would hurt, but that the medication caused amnesia and he wouldn't remember the procedure once it was over. They were right on both accounts ... he did wake up and screamed while 4 people held him and one yanked on his arm. But the good news is that it did pop right back in and when Tristan was fully awake he didn't remember. In fact, he looked at his arm, which was now in a splint and said "how'd I get a cast?".

After the procedure they transfered us next door to Doernbecher Childrens Hospital for a little rest before they took him into surgery. By the time we got to sleep it was 2:30am. We got a whole 3 hours of sleep before they woke us up. The doctors came by and decided that Tristan could eat breakfast, as his surgery wasn't going to be until that evening. Tristan gobbled down a cinnamon roll, some toast, apple juice and water before his time to eat was up. The rest of the day was spent mostly in the hospital room trying to keep Tristan busy and keep him from leaning on his arm. My Mom visited and Brian's parents packed up the campsite and our other 2 children and made their way back home.

They took Tristan into surgery at 5:15pm, exactly 24 hours after he had the accident. It didn't exactly go well in the beginning, as Tristan's IV closed down and they couldn't get anything into it. They decided to give him a little smelly gas to help him get to sleep and then try for IV's. So they wheeled him into surgery, still holding his Pooh bear, while we waited in the waiting room.

The surgery lasted 2 hours. The doctor came out to talk to us and said all went well. They inserted 2 pins into the bone and splinted him back up. He explained that the pins would come out in an office visit in about 5 weeks and that he would get a hard cast later in the week. We were just happy that the surgery went well and that the doctor was able to line up the bones well. The doctor was also happy with the condition of his ligaments once he got in there, as he was concerned there could have been some damage because of the dislocation.

Once Tristan woke up we were allowed to see him. The first thing I noticed were his bruises. We were horrified to see that, in their quest for an IV spot, they poked him 10 times. He had 6 bruises and poke holes on his arm and 4 on his foot. They were finally successful in finding an IV spot on his foot. I know it must have been hard for them to find an IV spot, but it's so hard for me to see so many bruises and poke holes on my sweet boy.

Tristan came back and slept straight through the night. No waking up in pain, which was a welcome change. The IV machine kept beeping all night long though, as he would kink the hose every time he moved and the IV alarm would go off. I spent all night pushing the nurse button so that they could come turn off the IV alarm. Needless to say, another night with very little sleep.

Tristan was so out of it that he doesn't remember that night. He woke the next morning and asked why Grandma, Grandpa, Chase and Carissa didn't say goodbye to him last night. They stayed for the surgery, came to the room afterwards, said goodbye and gave kisses. Tristan just doesn't remember that all.

He slept all night, woke the next morning and was famished. He ate a cinnamon roll, froot loops, half a cookie that Grandma had brought him the day before, Pop Tarts the other Grandma had got for him, and chocolate milk. He kept the food down and used the bathroom too, which fulfilled all the conditions of his discharge from the hospital. After the doctors visited again and the hospital processed all the paperwork, we were finally able to leave the hospital and return home to our own comfortable beds and hot showers.

We're home now and all is well. Tristan is still in a decent amount of pain and bummed that he won't be able to swim this summer or go to summer camp. And we're having a bit of a hard time finding different things for him to do with a cast all the way from his hand to his armpit. But he is going to be fine and that is what matters most of all.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor Baby! I love the gestures that the hospitals are making with the stuffies! With Kayli it was a blanket, and she still carts it around :-) Give him an extra kiss for me and we will visit soon.

Pam Sivage said...

Wow! What an ordeal for the entire family! I am glad he is back home and doing as well as can be expected!

Anonymous said...

Oh annette!!!! I can't even begin to imagine what this all must have been like for YOU! Your poor sweet boy...Caitlin broke her leg when she was two and it was a horrific thing. He sure does look better in the pics here. So sorry you're vacation didn't go well.
Linda

Carolyn F said...

Ow. Wow. At least he's going to mend well. I'm so sorry for you all!

Just Say Julie said...

i got so tensed up and teary reading this! so glad the end result will be good.....

feel better tristan!

Laura said...

Wow Annette! So sorry about Tristan and your vacation being cut short. It's going to be a long summer for him. Hopefully he's feeling better soon. Sure sounds like a nasty break for what seems to be a slight "crash". Glad you are all home.

Bonni said...

Poor baby...hope for a very speedy recovery....

Anonymous said...

Oh my Goodness! Not again! Poor Baby. Man, now that is one ruff story. Yikes, I am so sorry to hear that he had to go through all that. I am glad that he is fixed up now and healing. And I am thankful that he got the Pooh to squeeze.
Bless your heart, I hope that the rest of your summer is totally uneventful...you know what I mean.
Please give him a "hug for healing " from me and Uriah.