It's been a long time coming for broken leg boy......

Middle Boy and I had a date last Thursday.  An ALL DAY and NIGHT type event.  The most important aspect of it was scheduled way back in the summer and is where our date story begins, with an appointment at Children's Hospital to visit with the orthopedic surgeon.  It was, for many reasons, a time middle boy has looked forward to for MONTHS.  Since May 29th, in fact, back when he broke his femur on the very last day of school. 

Here he is wearing his brand new argyle sweater vest just for this special occasion.  And as it turns out, and as Dr. Doyle and myself duly noted to him....that vest matched up with his paper hospital shorts perfectly!!  :)  He had to slip on his shorts so the doc could bend and push on his knee and leg....a lot, and watch him stand, jump, walk and run on his leg.  He passed all the tests with flying colors, (he's not being tracked by Duke University for nothing you know). 

And so there we 5 sat, in the patient room:  Dr. Doyle had decided to take a seat on the patient bed, I was in the "mom chair", middle boy was spinning around on what would usually be the "doctor's stool", and the 2 ortho residents in their fresh white lab coats were standing behind him.   Dr. Doyle spoke about the upcoming surgery to remove the rods.  The residents listened very intently not only to all the scientific surgical mumbo jumbo stuff he listed out for me, the ramifications, how they do things in Europe, the growth plate issues, etc.etc. as well as the residents were learning from the way he spoke to me.....like I was a real live mother of a precious child that he cared about and held his best interests at heart.  Beside 101...it goes a long way. In my book, anyway.  And Dr. Doyle...he must have been top of his class in that course for sure.  Not to mention, he's an AWESOME surgeon. 

But, there's still another funny story to tell.  One to share, because you'll laugh at it too.   As we all sat there, discussing the issues at hand, the doctor kind of paused, giving middle boy just the chance he needed.  His hand shot up and he declared, "I have a question".   And the following conversation ensued: 

W:  "I have a question"
Dr:  (pointing to Walt) "Okay,  you in the front row, what's your question?"
W:  "When you do the surgery to remove the rods, do you keep them, or can you give them back to me to keep?"
Dr:  (never losing face, addressing him like he was speaking at some Ivy League surgical conference)  "Well, there are some issues that would need to be addressed first.  Under normal conditions, we only allow patients with either the first name Walt, or the last name Bowling to keep the rods.  And even then, they are asked to sign a release form stating among other issues, that they will not use the titanium rods as a weapon to hit anyone over the head, they will not use the rods to poke or prod their siblings, and they will not use the rods as a nose picking device to reach boogers. 

Which is a very dangerous activity due primarily to the fact that the booger juice can have a reaction with the titanium oxide in the rods.  Which in turn can create a secondary infection in the airways leading into the lungs, called ------ (he used some big science made up name that ended in "osis").  And that would, well, it would just create an even bigger problem than the one you had orginally by breaking your thigh bone.  

Of course you probably don't have to worry about any of that because normally none of that occurs except in those rare patients that are what we call "wild", those who match the first name Walt, with the last name Bowling.  But I'm sure in your case there's nothing to worry about, all should be fine."

(He starts flipping through his chart, and scans the mouse over the computer on the wall that is showing the x-rays of the leg, the break, the rods,etc.) 

He looks up from all of this, and stares middle boy right in the eyes, with a look of complete shock and says...."Oh crap, you're Walter Bowling".

At which point we all bust out laughing.  It was a priceless moment, amongst many months of recovery.

Basically our day started out grand.  Middle Boy received the news he's been waiting to hear for so long now....he was released to be a  normal boy again.  Which may or may not include tackle football.....  From the looks of his blue jeans on Friday after school and then the high school game, he played hard whatever he was doing.  After months of clean jeans,  I'll be needing to invest in some good grass stain remover.  And I couldn't be happier about that little fact. 

He was just BEAMING when we left Children's hospital.  Can you imagine being his age and not being able to really "play" for almost 6 months?  Me, either.  I do ask for you to be in prayer for him....I'll let you know specifically when at a later time.  He will have surgery to have the titanium rods removed.  We have opted to wait until after Christmas for this to be scheduled.  Although the surgery itself is out-patient and should be relatively "easy", he will be in pain for a few days, missing school a couple of those, and will be sore for a bit afterwards.  And, the kicker, he will also need to be on activity restriction again for 6 weeks afterward.

He's ready to play a while.  He's ready to be off the restriction list for now.  And we couldn't agree more.  

Thank you all for your prayers, well-wishes and sweet messages, acts of kindness, gifts and goodies you have shown Middle Boy during this ordeal.  I hope it's the first and last time he breaks his femur. :)   

H3 connection = I'm thankful for his recovery & release and for his wonderful surgeon.