Welcome to level 8 of 2020. On this level, the battle of online schooltimes begins.
That sunrise has gone a long way in putting my head back on right after yesterday, which was a very, very long and stressful day.
I had to get up early to take Liam to tennis conditioning, then rushed back home in time to start work at 7. I worked until 1, when I had my first ever telemed doctor's appointment. Yay for telemedicine! It took a grand total of 6 minutes for the whole appointment, and there was no stressful poking and prodding and measuring. I was lucky to be able to do it this time because it was a straightforward six-month follow-up, but next time (in February) I'll have to get blood work, so she'll probably want to see me in the office. But that's a worry for another day.
As soon as I was done with my appointment, Liam, Max, and I piled into the van to go to South Bend. Liam came along with us so he could get a couple more hours of driving time, but he ended up spending hours in the car while Max and I did various things. Poor kid.
Anyway, Max and I went in for his appointment with the hand specialist, and Max was really disappointed with the verdict, which is that he needs surgery to fix his thumb, otherwise he will end up with a permanent deformity in which his thumb turns inward. The surgeon was nice, and he tried to reassure Max, but it was still really upsetting to hear. (The surgeon also came prepared with not one but two consultations from other hand specialists, because he really didn't want to do surgery on a healthy 14-year-old during a pandemic unless he had to.) After the surgeon examined Max and gave his prognosis, we had to go to the casting room (this place was VERY well organized), where a woman gave Max a "half cast." I had to have the doctor explain that one to me since my experience with broken bones is limited to one broken toe (also Max's) that we had to splint with popsicle sticks. Anyway, one side of it is a hard cast, but the other side of it is softer material. This particular half cast allows him to keep using his other fingers, though he's not supposed to lift anything with them. I'm not sure what kind of cast they'll give him after surgery, but maybe I'll learn something new that day too.
Next up was the scheduling department, where we got the surgery scheduled. It'll be Wednesday (like four days from now!) morning. They'll put him completely under so he doesn't feel it when they put pins in to hold his bones together. He'll have the pins for four to six weeks, I think, or until the doctor is happy with the placement of the bones. Luckily, they can just pull the pins out in the office, so he doesn't have to have a second surgery. After that, I think he'll have to wear a cast for a while longer, and by Halloween, the doctor said, he "won't even remember which thumb was broken." We'll see about THAT, Doctor.
Sounds like a full day, right? BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE.
Because we live in a nightmare hellscape, Max needed to get a covid test before surgery, and he needed it THAT DAY. The schedulers gave us a paper order with an address and told us we had an hour to get there and get the test done before the place closed for the weekend. So Liam chauffeured us across town to get the test done, and we waited a very long time but managed to get in under the wire. I watched Max get his test, and the nose swab looked VERY uncomfortable (Max described it as a burning, "like having a lit match shoved up your nose and wiggled around). It was quite a long swab, and she had to swab for 10 seconds in each nostril, which doesn't sound like much but is really a long time when you're watching your child suffer (or when you are the child suffering). But good news! It was a rapid test, so about 30 minutes later (there was some delay because the woman after Max had a difficult test and ended up with a bloody nose; she bled all the way through her mask), we got the results, and Max DOES NOT have covid. (Whether they gave it to him on the swab or used the swab to implant a tracking device operated by The Man remains to be seen. Only time will tell.) I can't say I'm surprised that he was negative because he's barely left his room since March, but it's still nice to have confirmation.
By this time, it was dinnertime (none of us had eaten lunch) and we were all starving, and Max decided he wanted Popeye's chicken, which of course had a very long line for the drive-thru. But eventually we got the food, then picked up some hot fresh Krispy Kremes for good measure, and headed back home.
As if that's not enough to report, OH HEY, the school decided to go 100% virtual at least until August 24, and will re-evaluate once that date approaches. FINALLY, Plymouth.
Anyway, it's the weekend, and I've got a mountain of work to plow through, and a surgery to prepare for. Good times, y'all!
Nationwide cases: 4,579,761. Deaths: 153,642.
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