Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Chairboy on June 16, 2006, 12:33:20 AM
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Got a call every parent dreads today. I was getting ready for a job interview, and the phone rings. It's the babysitter who has the kids. "Ben, Alex fell and something is wrong with his leg."
Alex is my 2 year old boy. I rush over and pick him up, he's crying and hold his right leg. Wifey calls his doctor and has them ready to receive me while I drive him there. He's in the baby seat in back sniffling, but not crying. Once in a while, he points at his leg and says "hurts" or "owwww".
I carry him into the doctor's office (every time I pick him up, he screams) and in short order, he's X-rayed. Spiral fracture of the right femur. That's the one that goes between your hip and knee, the big one.
A few minutes later, equipped with the X-rays, I arrive at the emergency room (the pediatrician has called ahead to get their orthopedist ready). We check in, this time I leave him in his car seat which seems to help.
He's a real trooper, it's obvious that he's in a LOT of pain (he's sweating), but he's keeping it together, better than I would in his situation. Soon, he's on Morphine and after a while, the orthopedic guy gets there. Wife got there right after I did, and we're both with him.
They took him up to the OR and worked on him. They were able to set it without surgery and pins, which is good, but they had to knock him out. I rather understand that.
After an hour, they wheel him out. He's in a spike cast, it's like a half body cast that starts at his chest and (on his right leg) goes to his shin. On his left leg, it goes to just above his knee.
Wifey is sleeping at the hospital in his room tonight and I'll work her shift at the pizza place tomorrow.
Kid is gonna be in the cast for 6-8 weeks, immobilized. Arrrgh! Poor guy, wish I could just fix his leg with magic...
I'll post some pics later.
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Glad to hear it isn't something more serious Chairboy. (broken leg is serious enough) I think I know one little boy who's gonna get allot of ice cream?
Here's hoping for a speedy recovery!:)
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Those Hurt. Lucky he isn't in school. 2 months out at the least.
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Edit: heh, missed the part about him being 2.
That sucks, no parent wants that kind of phonecall.
J_A_B
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Here's a pic of him with his temporary brace before the operation:
(http://hallert.net/images/alex-preop1.jpg)
Here are a couple pics from after, including the cast:
(http://hallert.net/images/alex-postop1.jpg)
(http://hallert.net/images/alex-postop2.jpg)
Sorry about the pics quality, used my phone.
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Youch, hope he heals up OK, and in a distant second, hope you have good insurance!
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3rd, hope he can use the APU to get around in for the next two months
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Sounds like he is a real trooper. Hope he heals up quickly. Btw.....how are you gonna change his diaper with that cast? heh.
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Originally posted by SOB
hope you have good insurance!
Nope! None since a month ago when the leftover insurance from my Symantec job dried up. The bill... is gonna suck.
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Originally posted by Elfie
how are you gonna change his diaper with that cast? heh.
They designed it so that you should theoretically be able to get in there to change it, but it'll be tricky, and they said that it will... be messy. Faaaaaantastic.
It's an aspect of these injuries that doesn't seem to make it into the movies...
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Originally posted by Chairboy
They designed it so that you should theoretically be able to get in there to change it, but it'll be tricky, and they said that it will... be messy. Faaaaaantastic.
It's an aspect of these injuries that doesn't seem to make it into the movies...
While I hope for a speedy recovery for your son, I truly do NOT envy you when it comes time to change diapers for the next couple months heh.
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Did the babysitter offer an explanation for the cause of injury? I hate to mention it, but the sickos are getting pretty good at hiding abuse nowadays and sometimes it takes a dramatic incident to bring it out into the open.
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yep, wondering myself if you had a nanny cam to check ...
hope your son heals well
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aww poor little fella :(
speedy recovery young jedi!
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what a brave lad, he looks like he is taking bread to the park to feed the ducks, not undergoing major sugery. ya got a fighter there.
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Best Wishes,
He sure is a trooper!!
I understand he's hooked up to the morphine in that first pic, but to not be scared!
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Poor little guy...brave though.
Changing diapers will be...interesting. When he starts to itch in an awkward place under the cast it will also be a bit awkward. If you don't have one go out and get one of those long but really flexible rulers. You can shove it down the inside edge of the cast and scratch the itch that way.
What exactly happened? Obviously one heck of a fall.
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Prayers for your son, Chairboy.
hap
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What the heck happened, kids bones are practically made of rubber?
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That sucks...
When my kids got hurt I was a gurgling mass of jello... wives are better at that stuff..
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They have a play house in the back yard, and he likes to climb on things. He climbed onto its roof and jumped, afaict. I trust the sitter, and we talk to the boys about her a lot.
We knew this kid would break something sooner or later, he's a daredevil. Just figured it'd be more 'later' than 'sooner'.
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Sorry to hear about this Chair.
It just breaks your hear when something happens to one of your children.
My youngest son once had a metal pole from a rooftop antenna which had been disassembled and stack in an alley fall on his leg. It caused a fracture that ran the entire length of the shin from knee to ankle. Drew was in the second grade when it happened.
Best wishes to Alex, and to you and your wife. Hope he's up and around soon.
Regards, Shuckins
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Sorry to hear it Chair, hope he gets better soon. My younger nephew is the same way (jumping off stuff).
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Poor little guy:(
Spiral fractures are no fun.
Kids are pretty resilient though, he'll be back at it in no time.
Give him lots of icecream and hugs.
cheers,
RTR
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Definately, he'll get plenty of both!
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I still remember the summer my Grandfather and a community-run self defense course taught me how to fall properly. My grandfather grew up when gymnastics and tumbling was standard fare for highschool phys ed and any decent martial arts course teaches falls during the first few sessions, and that's all it took for me to start finding excuses to jump off of things.
I spent a few months perfecting my jumping-off-roofs technique during dozens of games of "war" we played around the neighborhood. It got to the point that even when playing around 2-story houses, the other team wouldn't venture out around a corner without first checking the roofline, because on numerous occasions I'd come flying off the roof yelling *bang bang*, firing "aimed" shots on the way down, pull off a perfect rolling fall (sort of like a PLF but with more style), and pop to my feet on the run before they could get past the WTF! stage.
One guy tried to copy my technique, but he never made it higher than the 9 ft porch cover at my house. Wimp :)
I never did jump from the 30ish ft apex of our 2-story house but I had no problem hopping over the balcony rail on the second floor, for a fall height of around 20 ft. The worst injury I ever got was when the PVC pipe gun I was carrying shattered on landing, and I cut my hand a bit. We also had a canyon with a steep hill covered with brush and soft dirt, and we'd see who could jump down the hill the farthest. Nobody would ever leap as far as they could, although I managed a jump that was an approx 20 ft vert drop before I chickened out. Plus there was a rockpile at the bottom of the hill so if you really jumped hard, you'd probably land fine but tumble into the rocks. My brother accidentally let go of a rope swing that went over the same canyon over that rockpile, and that was a 50 ft drop. Most of the fall was through the full height of a large pine tree that was right over the rockpile (I think he was trying to let go of the rope and grab the tree) so he got away with only a broken wrist.
Fun times, glad I didn't cripple myself. It didn't hurt that I was already an athlete, spending a couple of hours a day swimming... I still cliff-dive into lakes and the ocean whenever I get the chance.
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eagle is a ninja too! :)
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Chairboy, my prayers are with your son and your family. God speed for a quick and painless recovery.
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to you and the kid. It's tough seeing your kid in the hospital and or just in pain. You'd do anything to be able to trade places with them.
Hang in there and have a talk with him about the perils of gravity and acceleration. :aok
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Originally posted by Chairboy
Got a call every parent dreads today. I was getting ready for a job interview, and the phone rings. It's the babysitter who has the kids. "Ben, Alex fell and something is wrong with his leg."
Alex is my 2 year old boy. I rush over and pick him up, he's crying and hold his right leg. Wifey calls his doctor and has them ready to receive me while I drive him there. He's in the baby seat in back sniffling, but not crying. Once in a while, he points at his leg and says "hurts" or "owwww".
I carry him into the doctor's office (every time I pick him up, he screams) and in short order, he's X-rayed. Spiral fracture of the right femur. That's the one that goes between your hip and knee, the big one.
A few minutes later, equipped with the X-rays, I arrive at the emergency room (the pediatrician has called ahead to get their orthopedist ready). We check in, this time I leave him in his car seat which seems to help.
He's a real trooper, it's obvious that he's in a LOT of pain (he's sweating), but he's keeping it together, better than I would in his situation. Soon, he's on Morphine and after a while, the orthopedic guy gets there. Wife got there right after I did, and we're both with him.
They took him up to the OR and worked on him. They were able to set it without surgery and pins, which is good, but they had to knock him out. I rather understand that.
After an hour, they wheel him out. He's in a spike cast, it's like a half body cast that starts at his chest and (on his right leg) goes to his shin. On his left leg, it goes to just above his knee.
Wifey is sleeping at the hospital in his room tonight and I'll work her shift at the pizza place tomorrow.
Kid is gonna be in the cast for 6-8 weeks, immobilized. Arrrgh! Poor guy, wish I could just fix his leg with magic...
I'll post some pics later.
Sorry to hear that Chairboy. Did you ask the docs if this was a potential Salter fractures or epiphyseal fractures(Ones that involve the growth plates of the bone.) I would ask, it may affect his growth in that leg.
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We asked, and the orthopedist was really confident that the break allowed 'em to put it back together pretty clean and that if properly braced, he felt that it wouldn't affect Alex's walk/growth. We were worried about the same thing, but he says that kids that age can even heal fully from breaks that aren't set super straight.
I suggested that we start mining other children for stem cells to give that special power to us adults, and he chuckled kinda nervously and left.
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I'd be happy if we could just tap into the energy level a kid has.......
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Quick question, anyone have any ideas on how to save money on the bill? We just got an invoice from the hospital for over $6,000 for setting his leg. Seeing as we didn't have insurance, this is quite a bit.
Tips?
Two of my wife's friends have told her to request that the hospital "bill us as if we have insurance" with the claim that this will reduce the cost, but I am skeptical. Other tips?
Thanks!
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Originally posted by Chairboy
Quick question, anyone have any ideas on how to save money on the bill? We just got an invoice from the hospital for over $6,000 for setting his leg. Seeing as we didn't have insurance, this is quite a bit.
Tips?
Two of my wife's friends have told her to request that the hospital "bill us as if we have insurance" with the claim that this will reduce the cost, but I am skeptical. Other tips?
Thanks!
I just did the doctor thing w/o insurance, but they knew at the time... they said they would bill me a reduced rate at the time.
after the fact, i don;t know what can be done, you can call and ask for a discount or something maybe.
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Ouch. Speedy recovery to little Chairboy from here too!
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Make them an offer..
Hospitals are used to people making tiny payments over long periods of time. They might jump at a cash-out offer even at 50%.
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I feel for you Chair, I've been there. My daughter broke her arm right above the elbow and knocked it out of place. She too had to be put under for them to set the bone. Long story short, all the bills came to 7 grand and no insurance and making so little as to be in the hole each month. All this because I wanted to get in on the ground floor of a new business that just had to make it big. Boy did I learn a hard lesson.
Anyway, I'm not sure how your bills are but we got a separate bill for her primary doctor, the surgery doctor, the hospital, the anesthesiologist, ect... We had to go to each business and let them know our situation and in most cases had to produce a pay stub to show how serious the situation really was. Most places either forgave part of the bill or set up a match payment or allowed small payments of as little as 10 or 20 dollars a month.
It was quite a humbling experience and it took us literally years to dig ourselves out of medical debt because of it. It was a life changing experience and we moved to another state to take a good job with good insurance and have taken great pains to never, ever, ever get ourselves into another situation like that again. Hard lesson.
Not sure if that’s any help or not but I hope you guys can recover quickly. Good luck.
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Originally posted by Chairboy
They have a play house in the back yard, and he likes to climb on things. He climbed onto its roof and jumped, afaict. I trust the sitter, and we talk to the boys about her a lot.
We knew this kid would break something sooner or later, he's a daredevil. Just figured it'd be more 'later' than 'sooner'.
I'd ask your pediatrician about the probablility of the accident happening as described and resulting in this injury.
Spiral fractures are generally caused by a twisting motion to the affected limb. Most "questionable" ones I've seen involve a fractured humerous, where the adult picks the child up by one arm and the kid twists around while being lifted.
This is not an accusation, merely a suggestion that you cover all the bases.
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Best wishes to you and the lad, Chairboy.
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Bones at his age are pliable, and he will heal...now, he's just a little bit closer to being invincible.
"ok...tried that...lived through it...did this...lived through THAT..."
Good luck!!!
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Wow I didnt know they still did those kinda casts. I figured they would have found something different in this day and age.
I have a cousin who got the same exact cast when he was six because he fell off his bike and yes it is a messy kinda cast.
Glad to hear the lil tyke appears to be handling it well.
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Originally posted by eagl
Did the babysitter offer an explanation for the cause of injury? I hate to mention it, but the sickos are getting pretty good at hiding abuse nowadays and sometimes it takes a dramatic incident to bring it out into the open.
Sprial fractures are typical of legs & arms being twisted, when someone twists your arm...if were to break, it'd be sprial.
This is no joke here... some states require law enforcement be contacted by ER Md's re: sprial fractures on kids, you might get a knock on the door by some child protective agency looking into what happened.
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Hurts to see your kids hurtin'. Wishin' Alex a speedy recovery.
Like others have said, hospitals will negotiate and they pretty much have to accept whatever payment plan you can afford. So long as you make those payments it cannot adversly affect your credit rating.
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Good Lord Chair I just read this and my own heart jumped.
Hope all is well...kids bounce back fast. Your Son is a tuff trooper!!!!
I have a Son who thinks he's Evil Kneivel... He's 7 now... all I have to do to tone him down is say "I'm not taking you to the Emergency Room Today or calling the Wambulance!"
Now I know why my Parents grew old quick...I was the daredevil in my Family too.
I'm glad all turned out as well as it has!
Prayers to you Chair and your Family,
Mac
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Originally posted by Wolf14
Wow I didnt know they still did those kinda casts. I figured they would have found something different in this day and age.
The alternative to a cast would be surgery with pin, plate or fix-ex. Since they managed to reposition the bones conservatively, they didnt want to cut open the skin and risk infection.
Thats one tough son you got there Chair! >S< and a speedy recovery Alex!