1st Day of School, Etcetera

1st Day of School, Etcetera

This year, the first day of school was completely bananas. There was such an overload of emotions that I was pretty much numb. (And for most of the day Noel literally was numb.) But, let’s back up a minute.

Ortho P Dick
Noel has been using the dictation feature a lot lately. It has it’s quirks.

The Tuesday before school started, Noel had an appointment with the Orthopedic Surgeon. We knew there was a strong possibility that his arm would need to be reset since the bones didn’t look like they matched up in the x-rays from the ER, but we were honestly surprised when the surgeon recommended surgery. They wanted to do it as soon as possible before the bones started to heal improperly and of course the next surgery day was Thursday which was also the first day of school. It was a busy couple of days going to school open houses, getting Ellen’s hair fixed, and getting everything ready for the first day of school/surgery.

Kids ready to go to school
Kids ready to go to school
They were pretty excited, Ellen especially.
They were pretty excited, Ellen especially.

Thursday morning everyone was up early and anxious for various different reasons. First we headed to Cooper’s school for the first day of school parade. Cooper’s entire team was there waiting for us and said they’d be keeping an eye on Cooper for the next several days as he transitioned to full day school.

Our big first grader.
Our big first grader.
Waiting in line with his class.
Waiting in line with his class.

Ellen was so anxious to go to “real preschool,” so the second Cooper’s class walked into the building we left and headed to her school.

Ellen ready to head into class.
Ellen ready to head into class.
Ellen next to her cubby.
Ellen next to her cubby.
Ellen settled right in and started making friends.
Ellen settled right in and started making friends.

After dropping her off, Noel went home to do some meditation and I headed to the pool so we could both find some level of calm before heading to the hospital.

Bones

It was a little hard for my mom heart to not be there when my kids were done with school, but I think it would have been even harder to not be there for Noel. They put a metal plate and several screws in Noel’s wrist to line everything up. The surgery went as well as could be expected, but we were there for quite a few hours waiting for him to be both alert and not nauseous enough to go home. The kids were so excited to tell us all about their day, but a little mystified as to why Noel was so out of it. It was pretty much time to go to bed when we got home and when the kids protested I told them they needed to go to bed because they had school again the next day. Ellen was super excited about that, but Cooper wasn’t. After thinking about it he grumpily said, “Fine, but after school we’ll have lunch and play with my toys?” When I told him he’d be going full day every day now he said, “What?!?! Every day!?!?” Poor kid, it might be a rough 12 years.

Noel's hand, still orange from surgery. He jokes it's his spray tan.
Noel’s hand, still orange from surgery. He jokes it’s his spray tan. 

I wish I had some neat way to tie up this blog post or something philosophical to say, but the recovery part of this story isn’t over. Noel isn’t able to do much yet which has its challenges and frustrations for everyone. (Imagine not being able to do up your own pants or sit through church without your hand looking like a blown up latex glove. Then try to explain to your kids why they pretty much can’t touch Dad.) So, let’s just end this post with some counting of blessings. We’re grateful for amazing insurance that is making what could have been a financial burden manageable, for friends that watched our kids, and for the scouts that are going to move that giant pile of mulch that of course ended up being delivered this week. Lastly, I know they look dorky, but if you go rollerblading consider wearing wrist guards 😉

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