Broken Funny Bone

Thing 2, age 14, had an accident with the golf cart out on the desert yesterday.  She broke her humerus, the long bone in the arm between the shoulder and the elbow.  It is one of those x-rays that does not require a professional assessment for diagnoses!  Homer Simpson could look at that picture and tell you for sure that it is busted in two.

Apparently she hit a bump while accelerating and flew out of the cart, flipped in the air, and landed on her side.  She called her sister, who was on her way to work, and her sister drove out into the desert to rescue.  It's comforting to know that Thing 1 is trained as a first responder, but a little unnerving that I was not the first person called.  In hindsight, however, it worked very well.  Thing 1 knows that section of desert very well from riding out there and she's trained to respond.  I hope the car is o.k.  I doubt a 1993 Lexus GS 300 was designed for the terrain she was on.  This was probably an airlift qualified accident.

Nothing like spending St. Patrick's Day riding in an ambulance and in two different ER's.  We didn't get to our corned beef dinner until after 2:00 a.m.

Although the orthopedic surgeon did some work on her last night, I have decided to get a second opinion today.  Tough decision.  I hate to put her through it, but this is an important bone in her right arm, and the post-manipulation x-ray doesn't look that great to me, even after the work he did with her sedated.

Risks include damaging the nerves that control the hand, so I can appreciate that he was not too aggressive.  On the other hand, he had just finished two surgeries and didn't get to Thing 2 until almost midnight, so maybe he was tired and ready to get home.  Not that he would make that decision consciously, but I can't help thinking that fatigue would impact a decision about how much effort and/or risk to take, right?  He chose to do the work in the ER rather than the operating room.  He chose to leave some angle to the bone with "acceptable tolerances" and the two ends are not touching, so basically the bones will need to knit together across a gap, and the bone will be permanently crooked.  If another doctor tells me that is a good choice I'll feel better about it, but I need to hear it from a second doctor before I feel confident.

My little girl had lots of morphine last night, was put under using a fast acting sedative, and is taking Vicodin today, and is still in a great deal of pain.

Wish us luck!