I guess it's about time for me to blog about the events of this past week and my hubby's broken right clavicle. It has certainly been an eventful week.
Last weekend Stephen and I headed over to Tri-Cities to visit our good friends, the Sainsburys. What we expected was a fun-filled weekend visiting our friends and meeting their new adorable little guy, Braden. What we got was a long day in the ER and, for Stephen, a LOT of pain.
He broke the bone falling off these ATVs. I guess he was driving pretty fast, hit a rut in the sand and rolled the ATV. Thankfully, he jumped off as soon as he realized what was happening; Otherwise, the 4-wheeler might have crushed him. A broken clavicle is bad, but we can recognize a blessing when we see one. We are so thankful he wasn't hurt worse.
Tiffany and I were not at the house when it happened (I'm actually very thankful for that because I think I would've been histerical if I had been). Brad called Tiffany and told her something had happened and to meet them at the hospital. When Tiffany talked to him, though, she thought he said it was Nathan who was hurt. So, the whole way to the hospital I had no idea it was Stephen. When we finally got there, Brad and Nathan were in the waiting room and Stephen was no where to be found. It took me about a minute to get over my confusion, and pretty soon I was bolting my way down the hall to find my poor husband in excruciating pain but putting on a brave face....
Getting his shoulder x-rayed...
Yep. It's definitely broken. Because it was a high-impact fracture it was pretty bad and the doctors recommended surgery, but advised returning home before getting it done. We are so thankful we did. They were able to refer us to THE doctor who invented the technology for repairing clavicle breaks.
Still smiling
When the hospital finally gave him something for the pain, they really knocked him out. We headed back to Brad and Tiffany's and Stephen went right to sleep. Tiffany was so sweet to have dinner ready for us when we got back - we were starving! Thanks so much to the Sainsburys for being so gracious and helpful that weekend. They made sure we had everything we needed while we were there and on our way home.
Stephen loved this chair - we have nothing like it at home, and he almost made me go out and buy one when we got back.
On Sunday we made the four-hour drive back to Tacoma. Stephen slept most of the way, but at one point we had to pull over because the pain meds made him sick. I was a nervous wreck! I'm already not a big fan of driving, and trying to make sure he wasn't in pain and comfortable at the same time was tough. I just wanted him to feel better :(
Once we got back to Tacoma, we were able to get the surgery scheduled for Thursday. Here we are in the waiting room before Stephen went in...
Just in case they forgot which side to cut...
Success!
Here's the before and after x-rays. The top shows the break. If you look closely you can see that there were pieces of bone sticking straight up and cutting into his skin. The doctor said that would feel like a needle jabbing into him - poor guy! The bottom picture is after the surgery - you can see the rod they inserted into the bone - it acts as a stabilizer and will be removed after about three months.
We are so thankful that the surgery went well and Stephen is on the mend. In the end, it was really a blessing that his break was bad enough to warrant surgery. Without surgery, the healing time takes 6 to 8 weeks. With the surgery, he will be ready to go in less than 2 weeks. Considering it's his right clavicle - and he's a right handed dentist - this is a relief.
Thanks for all your prayers and kind words. We feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family to support us.
ECB opened a new location this month and celebrated with a ribbon cutting on September 1, 2009.
