Broken...

Well, Charlie's arm is broken. He has a greenstick fracture of his
distal radius - just above the wrist on the inside of his left arm.
He's in a temporary cast from elbow to wrist. There was some initial
concern because of him being on warfarin, but there's no internal
bleeding and very little swelling. However, they've left a small gap
down the inside of the plaster to allow for any swelling that might
happen.
We have to go back to Trauma Clinic next Monday, when they'll take off
the temporary cast and put on a proper one for another 4-6 weeks. I
think it will be one of the modern brightly-coloured casts next time,
so Charlie is already deciding what colour he'd like.
Unfortunately he hurt his arm before his long-awaited Sports Day
running race, and was pretty gutted to have missed it. He did do the
skipping race, egg & spoon race and javelin throw beforehand though,
so I'll put some pics up when I get round to it!
So - back to the hospital. We were waiting a couple of hours in A&E,
and by the time he'd been x-rayed and plastered, we ended up getting
to pacemaker clinic 10 minutes late for our appointment.
Unfortunately, because the heart investigations team had squeezed
Charlie in at the end of morning clinic, by the time we arrived,
they'd all gone to lunch.
So we had to come back at 2pm and wait.
And wait... and wait.
Finally a nurse took pity on us at almost 4pm and went and asked for
us to be seen.
Charlie's pacemaker was given a thorough check, and it is working
perfectly - the minimum battery life is now sitting at 9.5 years,
which is great news - I'll happily wait a few extra years before the
battery needs replacing.
Now - as for Charlie's 'fast' heartrate - the chief pacemaker man
pulled up all the information about what Charlie's heart has been
doing. They are able to bring up a bar chart showing the range
Charlie's pacemaker is capable of, and how often his heartrate has
been sitting in each rate bracket.
Apparently his heart has been working in a 'perfect range' for a child
of his age, and the graph on the screen was exactly what the pacemaker
specialist would expect to see - not too fast, not too slow - just
about perfect.
I must admit, I can't decide if I'm totally overjoyed at the news that
Charlie's heart seems to be working as it should be, or if I'm totally
fed up that I have been so frantic with worry over what now appears to
be a non-issue.
Of course, it goes without saying that we are totally thrilled that
everything seems to be ok with Charlie's heart, and we are very glad
that he is being watched and monitored so closely, but you would not
believe the levels of stress we have been living with since we heard
his heartrate was too high.
In fact, a broken arm is a bit of a walk in the park by comparison!
Having said that though, we've been hoping and praying that his heart
rate wouldn't be a problem, so I guess we mustn't complain when
prayers are answered and positive thoughts pay off!
Thanks again to all of Charlie's blog friends for all of your thoughts
and prayers - they really did the trick! I know I've said it before,
but it means such a lot to us to know you are all thinking of our
precious Charlie-Boy.
Watch this space for a few pics later on...

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