Andrew's Birthday 2009

Andrew is 9 years old. I can't believe how quickly time flies. Andrew decided that this year he would go bowling with family for his party. We alternate family and friend parties every other year. This was his year to have a family party. We went to Big Al's for bowling. It was pretty fun. I think the kids had a blast. We went out to The Rock for pizza afterwards. We all stuffed ourselves. Andrew wanted a soccer cake this year. He has really gotten serious about soccer and so that was the theme. I had Costco do the cake, my first one that I haven't decorated for him ever. It felt kind of weird not doing the decorating. Andrew was pretty easy to shop for this year. All he had on his list was gift cards to buy books, a Star Wars trilogy, and some other random things. He wanted to buy a bunch of Warriors series books. There are about 20 books in the series so he needed lots of gift cards. It is nice that he is out of the toy phase, but it makes it a little more difficult to find something that he really wants. We also spent much of the day shopping for gifts and wrapping gifts for the family that we were sponsoring for Christmas. It was a nice thing to do but truth be told, I think Andrew wanted a little more attention for himself. The day after his birthday, Andrew broke his arm so I guess this might be a rough year.

Broken Arm

It is a miracle that I am not getting arrested. Andrew broke his left radius. This is the 3rd broken arm for my kids. Marin has had 2. I promise I am not abusing my kids. It was the day after his birthday and he slipped on the wet grass in the yard. I was inside but heard him screaming with pain. He came inside and said he was going to die. He refused to let me even look at his arm. He wouldn't let me lift up the sleeve of his jacket either. We rushed out of the house to the ER. He was howling in pain the entire ride over. Andrew told me to valet the car because he couldn't walk to the ER entrance from the parking garage. They got him right in, put him in a wheelchair and doped him up with pain medication almost immediately. They couldn't even look at his arm to determine the severity until he had some pain meds. They put in an IV so that they could give him medication easier that way. I went with him to radiology which was quite an ordeal. They had to be really creative so that they could get the pictures and angles that they needed without hurting him too much. In fact, he dry heaved because of the pain of moving his arm. They determined that he broke only the radius, and not the ulna, although they said it would have been easier to set had he broken both. The doctor knocked Andrew out to set his bone. They had an in-room x-ray machine so that they could instantly see if the bone was back in place. I could not believe the amount of physical exertion this guy was putting into getting his arm reset. He worked for 45 minutes, with Andrew coming to mid way through. He decided that he wasn't getting the bone where he wanted and so they let Andrew come out of the anaesthesia for a while so that they could get another Orthopedist in to assist. They put Andrew under again and then worked for another 15-20 minutes before the bone was set satisfactorily. We ended up being in the ER for 7 hours. It was a marathon for all of us. Poor Andrew was sick from the anaesthesia too. He got his first cast up to his armpit. Then several days later, he got his second cast which was cut above his elbow. Finally he is on his third cast which only goes up to the elbow. He is supposed to get this one off on Wednesday and get a wrist guard which he will have to wear for 2-3 weeks. I will be so glad when this is over, although Andrew has been quite a trooper about it all.