What do you do when you are Aaron and John and school is closed and you can't see your friends and you are stuck at home for weeks and weeks and weeks on end...
You watch Papa till up the garden....
You dream big dreams...
You wait for your turn to drive the tractor....
You do math with Papa because Mama refuses to let you lay around all day...
Ugh!
You discover that the desk Granddad got you a few months before works perfect for homeschooling...
You homeschool because of Mama...
You oversee Papa at work on his projects....
You get put to work ….
and more work....
Because Papa is having a blast planting trees and grapevines and getting the ground ready for a garden and mulching and weeding and building sheds and doing all kinds of other projects to keep bored boys occupied...
You enjoy watching movies with little sister...
You ride bikes...
Stay up later than normal...
Read books ...
Take walks...
Dig in the dirt...
Build Legos ...
Play on Xbox One...
Help Mama cook...
Help Mama clean...
Eat and eat and eat Mama's food...
Jump on the trampoline...
Jump on your brother on the trampoline...
Land smack on your brother's knee while jumping on the trampoline...
Break your arm on your brother's VERY SORE knee while jumping on the trampoline!!!!
Yes. That really happened.
One sore knee and one broken arm all in one hard collision!!
When your son has arthrogryposis and he breaks his arm... showing up at the local ER is not really the best option.
He needs HIS doctors...
He needs their eyes on the break...
But in the middle of social distancing and a pandemic....
The very LAST thing we want to do is drive 6 hours to see his doctors at Shriners in Philly....
So you call... His doctors... who are the best in the world at what they do...
And they do what is rare and impossible in the normal world of insurance-run hospitals...
They call in an X-Ray prescription to an outpatient clinic HERE that happens to be empty of people when we arrive.
They instruct us to take pictures of the X-rays and e-mail them up there...
So they can read them... and decide...
And then... after reading them... they personally call a local colleague, who happens to be a close friend of theirs, who happens to be an arm and hand surgeon, and they work out the details for our kamikaze, trampoline slamming, arm-breaking son to get treated by that close friend of theirs.
And when we arrive at his office... it is EMPTY of people...
And they cast his arm exactly like the doctors at Shriners instructed and even take pictures to send...
And we go on our merry way...
Without traveling...
Without being in contact with the masses...
With a long, miserable cast and a rather exhausted boy but a relieved Mama and Papa!
No surgery. No hospital. God is good.
Except for broken arms and sore knees....
Social distancing has not been that hard for the little boys.
They see their friends on Zoom....
They have youth group on Zoom...
They attend chapel on Zoom...
They do drama practice on Zoom....
They do speech therapy on Zoom...
They do classes on Zoom...
They visit with family members on Zoom....
They Zoom and Zoom and Zoom...
We didn't even know what Zoom was 6 weeks ago!!
What a Zooming new world we live in!
We are keeping them busy...
Working on outside projects...
Spending quality family time together...
Trying to keep them from killing each other...
Or breaking their arms...
And that is social distancing John and Aaron style....
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P.S. - In case you missed seeing Mary's YouTube video...
Oh bless him. Sorry about the broken arm Aaron but what a miracle on the doctors. Praise God.
ReplyDeleteYes, we all should have bought stock in zoom. Who knew 🤷.
So true about Zoom! Sorry about Aaron's arm. Hope healing is quick, so he can get back to all of the fun activities he has been doing.
ReplyDeleteOh Aaron. :( Julia you all really live life on the edge! Love you!
ReplyDeleteUm, Julia...those "little boys" aren't so little these days! :-) Time does fly...and takes little children with it and leaves wonderful big boys and girls in their place.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry about Aaron's broken arm, but it sounds as if the detailed but otherwise relatively easy treatment via communication with the experts was a God-thing. I hope John's sore knee heals quickly, too. Maybe a good soaking tub bath with Epsom salts would help it feel better faster.
Meanwhile, such are the joys (and perils) of having healthy, active, and adventuresome boys! Glad they're finding ways to keep themselves occupied, learning, in touch with friends, and having fun during these challenging days.
Best wishes to you all,
Susan in Kentucky
I don't even know how to respond to Aaron's arm and the miraculous way God provided for you guys in that... or Mary's beautiful movie...
ReplyDeleteLove you all from afar.