Tanner's Avatar Day

Tanner broke his arm the first day of scout camp way back in June.  He was in a cast for 4 weeks which definitely put a damper on summer activities but we counted down the days until he could play basketball, swim without a cover, ride his bike etc.  When he got his cast off he was in a sling for a few days but then pretty much returned to normal 8 year old activities.  We knew it would be stiff and sore for a while but 3 weeks out of a cast he couldn't straighten his elbow all the way or bend it up towards his shoulder.  On his post break check up it looked like half of the break healed correctly but the other half was close enough to the joint that joint fluid got in and hindered healing.  His Doctor was pretty worried so he sent us down to Children's Hospital for a fully sedated MRI to see how the break healed.  He thought that we would need surgery particularly because Tanner is such an athletic and active boy and will most likely need his right arm in the future. Luckily our Doctor is an old family friend because he bypassed a huge waiting for kids MRI's and we got in the next morning.  I was still on bed rest but I figured that I would get a lot more rest in the waiting room of Children's for 5 hours than I would at home surrounded by 5 children.  I was right!  I took Tanner down there bright and early at 7am and we waited for 3 hours for our MRI to start.  Because Tanner is an active 8 year old boy we knew that he couldn't hold perfectly still for a 1 hour MRI so he had to be fully sedated.  He was pretty nervous until I told him that the MRI was just like an Avatar Bunker.  Then he was pretty excited.  I kept joking with him that he had better not come back to me 7 feet tall, blue and with a long tail.  I know he was secretly hoping that what I said would be exactly what happened.   He was a trooper the whole time and fell asleep under anesthesia within seconds.  He woke us a little woozy but was given Popsicles, Gatorade and ice cream.  Then we got McDonalds for lunch (blech) at the restaurant right in Children's hospital.  He tried to milk it for all he was worth and ask for a toy for being so brave but we settled for an ice cream cone.

He even got V.I.P. treatment with a sweet ride on the way to the MRI center.

This is EXACTLY what Tanner's MRI machine looked like

He was pretty woozy in recovery

Luckily we got some good news.  The MRI did show that the elbow hadn't healed all of the way but the Doctor's hope that with some aggressive physical therapy they can help his elbow heal all the way.  After all of this brouhaha I may have to ban my kids from all parks in the future so we avoid more broken bones.  After being at the hospital I said a ton of grateful prayers that my kids are healthy.  We can deal with bed rest and broken bones any day and count our blessings that we all have our health.