Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 3 No. 24

2010-01-19 23:41 (Kristen) Today started off so well, really. Jamie made it to school on time, without complaining, and I got Liam off to Hakobune with a similar lack of fuss. When I picked him up, he was in a great mood and we played in Goforth Hall for a bit before deciding to go to the Second Cup in our neighbourhood for a cookie. He had fun dancing with me first, and lying on top of me, and pouncing, and cuddling, and generally being fun. Once we got to the Second Cup, he demolished his cookie and needed to go to the bathroom. We went into the bathroom on the main floor, to avoid the stairs to the basement, did what had to be done, and left the room. Liam went ahead as I followed out, turning around to make sure that we hadn't left anything in the bathroom as the door clicked shut. Then I heard a scream. Liam had his finger caught in the door, near the hinge. I somehow got the door open again, and got him to our table to inspect his finger. The women there had a cup of ice all ready, and we put his finger into it before we even got back to the table. There was no blood at first, but then the ice started to turn red, and there was a lot of it. I looked at the finger, and it was immediately clear that we needed a doctor, as it had a huge gash in it. The Second Cup baristas (I wish I could remember their names) helped us put our stuff together and get coats on, and I ran out with Liam in my arms to the nearby walk-in clinic, two blocks away. A man, who had been about to leave the building with his wife and small baby, helped me to get Liam to the clinic on the second floor and helped me to carry my stuff into an office while I carried Liam. He even called John for me on my cell, then left: I am not even sure that I thanked him properly at that point, although I know that I did say thank you more than once. Whoever you are, thank you. John arrived just after the doctor saw Liam (a priority patient, who was clearly in pain as he continued to scream) and told me that we needed to go to emergency, as the finger tip was cut 50% through. There was certainly a lot of blood. More angels came through for us: Gary, Ayami, and the Browning clan picked Jamie up from school and took care of him while we were at Emergency with Liam, and the policeman at the speed trap we tripped as we raced to Sick Kids' let us go with nary a murmur when John said "My son caught his finger in a door, we're trying to get to Sick Kids'."

We arrived, and found ourselves in the gentle, slow, but helpful and inexorable wheels of the emergency ward. It was busy, but we quickly got to x-ray, to find if Liam's finger was broken. Liam, in the meantime, had fallen asleep in my arms in triage, thank goodness, worn out with the ordeal. He woke up again as we had to unwrap his hand to x-ray it, but we managed to keep him happy with sitting on my lap and watching videos on John's computer. We had been told that there was a good chance that they'd have to put him out under a general to fix the finger (the nail had to be lifted off and the finger laceration stitched and the nail replaced), so he was Nil-By-Mouth Boy for the rest of our stay. We saw a number of excellent people, but, to make a long story short, we got to see the surgeon around 8:30 (we arrived around 3:45, I think) for the procedure, when they decided to try a sedative and a local (the sedative delivered by nose). Surprisingly, it worked: John kept him distracted with Anpanman videos while I stood by his head and kept him calm while the surgeon fixed the finger (I lost count after six stitches, but I think that there are eight), reseated the nail, and glued it into place before wrapping Liam's hand with a heroic quantity of gauze. The tip of the bone is, indeed, broken, but (like a toe) there isn't much to be done, and it should reseat itself (it's a tuft fracture, for those who like to know these things). However, despite the gruesomeness of the event, and the pain involved for Liam, he's actually in good shape. There was a severe laceration under the nail, but it stitched up nicely, and he should come out with a good story and a slightly bumpy nail in the end. He really doesn't like to draw attention to the hand, and is on a lot of painkiller (Motrin every 6 hours) but is otherwise in good spirits. He was given a stuffed turtle (officially named the Fire Koopa, even though it's blue), some stickers, and a car, and the person assigned to keep him happy (yes, they had a person whose job is to monitor the child's mood and make sure they are kept as calm and as untraumatized as possible under the circumstances. Really really good) even gave him an extra turtle for Jamie. In the meantime, Jamie was fabulous for Gary and Ayami and was asleep around 10:15. Liam, John, and I were home by 10:30, and Liam was asleep around 11:30. I'm sleeping with him tonight to make sure he sleeps well, to give him his meds at 5:00 am, and to make sure that he doesn't fall out of bed and that he keeps his hand elevated. I am grateful to Sick Kids' and all the people who helped us, and for all the good wishes we received on Facebook from our friends and family. Now, however, I'm just profoundly glad that this day is over. Really, really glad.

2010-01-20 24:14 (Kristen) Thank you again to everyone who sent Liam hugs, good wishes, and positive thoughts. He's doing better today after sleeping until 9:00 or so, and spent the day playing as much Super Mario as he could talk people into playing with him. Jamie got up before Liam and had lots of questions about what happened; later, when he saw Liam, he gently admonished his brother to be more careful around doors, and Liam just as gently and seriously agreed. I forgot to mention that Liam told me yesterday, as I was running him to the clinic, that I should be more careful with doors. He repeated his admonition today, and I reminded him that we would *both* be more careful in future, and agreed again that this should be so. In the meantime, we had a quiet morning at home, and I picked Jamie up from school for lunch. He and Liam were delighted to see each other, as they hadn't seen each other since yesterday morning, as Jamie reminded me. Liam gave Jamie his turtle, who has been christened the Ice Koopa. Both boys love the turtles because they have decided that the turtles are koopas, and they have joined the ranks of Favoured Stuffed Animals. Jamie went back to school, and I decided that Liam and I should go out for a walk in the stroller. Liam wanted to play video games, but I won. Really, he won in the end as he fell asleep not five minutes out the door. Rats! He slept for about 45 minutes, and woke up after we got home from picking up Jamie. Jamie did a heroic amount of homework, as we hadn't had a chance to do any yesterday, and John took him to judo. By all accounts, it was a good class. Liam, in the meantime, played Wii until I broke and said no more, and then watched some of Blue Planet with me (interested mainly in the five minutes of penguins) before playing with his DS. His hand looks like it could use a rest, however, which has me (of course) somewhat concerned but not overly yet. Jamie and John came home with Timbits, which were greeted rapturously. I forgot to mention that Tami Sagara came by around 5 with three long rolls of futomaki*, as a treat for us and particularly for Liam for dinner. That was a *huge* help, and yummy too! Jamie went to bed late, but Liam didn't fall asleep until after 11:00 again. No nap tomorrow.

2010-01-21 24:14 (Kristen) I started to ease back on the painkiller today, which left Liam more than a little grumpy. He hated *everything*. "I hate that" was the phrase I heard most, but he seemed to ease up by the end of the day. Thank goodness. He goes back to Hakobune tomorrow. In the meantime, Jamie was out of the house for most of the day. He was over at Jake's for a playdate, which was great for him, and had dinner there as well. When he got home, it was more playing, and then bed.

2010-01-22 62:15 (Kristen) Liam went back to Hakobune today. He was a little apprehensive about going in, which was understandable. He took his stroller blanket in with him, which helped, and he apparently was good all day. He is making strides at using his chopsticks at lunch, but was defeated by the sugar snap peas--difficult for the moderately experienced, let alone beginners. However, he did eat the rest of it with his chopsticks, which was cool. He was very tired and lay down on his blanket at one point, thinking about sleeping, but the other kids didn't let him sleep. That was all right, really. We did some grocery shopping afterwards, and headed home leisurely as Jamie was off to a playdate at his friend Sam's, and so we didn't have to rush to get home. Dinner was at Browning, and it was a bit of a challenge to keep Liam away from Soulcaliber. Fortunately, he really likes Katamari Forever, so Daniel kindly stepped away from the PS3 to let Liam play the other game. I'm trying very hard to keep the boys away from Soulcaliber and I can do it with Liam, but have pretty much failed with Jamie. Liam is the one with the video-gae fueled fantasy life, however. As we go out to the subway, he's Mario and I'm Luigi. On occasion, he's Bowser or Bowser Junior. It's "fight!" and much play fighting and I have to think of ways to funnel this energy into some more positive outlets quickly. Jamie still loves judo, which pleases me greatly, and I'm hoping that something like that might appeal to Liam. Given the cries of "I need a *sword*, Mummy!" coming from the other room, however, it may be kendo for him. Jamie came back after a fun playdate with Sam, and played as well. The hard part of the day came when it was time to change Liam's bandages for the first time since the accident. We had to soak the hand for ten minutes, which we did, but the water wasn't warm enough at first. Liam was hysterical with fear and pain, and it took both me and John to calm him down with repeated stories and songs and quizzes about who does what at Super Mario, and more hot water and gentle swishing to get the last bit of dressing to detatch from the surgical glue on Liam's hand. We got it, however, and wrapped the hand up as quickly as we could. He really doesn't like to see the hand, and I don't blame him. Jamie was equally traumatized hearing his brother scream, and John told me stories about a friend's father (a doctor) who would stitch up her brothers without anesthetic to distract me as I worked. It can always be worse. In the end, Liam fell asleep quickly, as did Jamie, and we'll tackle the bandages again tomorrow.

2010-01-23 38:30 (Kristen) Liam slept in, which was nice. Jamie was off for a half day of Nisshu Gakkuin today, as it was midterm exam day. John took Liam up to pick up Jamie, and the boys played for a bit in the playground before coming back down. Jamie had a birthday party at a bowlerama, and John took him there while Liam and I stayed home (bowling not being a great activity for him right now). John reports that Jamie was apprehensive about bowling: he'd never done it before, he wasn't sure what to do, and so on. The boys were divided into two groups of five, and Jamie went on to win his group. So much for that. It was five pin bowling, automatically scored, and the boys were throwing underhand with both hands, and John also reports that it may have been set up to make it difficult to get a gutter ball. Jamie did get one, and was apparently quite put out with himself about it. Still, he had a good time. In the meantime, Liam and I went to the Manulife Centre to look for backpacks for the boys' trip as presents from Nobuko and Tomoko. Instead, we found some carry-on luggage for them, which will be very useful with the traveling we do as they will now have luggage of their own. Both are rolling suitcases, and Jamie's is a bright metallic blue. Liam has a Wonder Pets suitcase, with a matching backpack (cecause he needs a new one). Liam was so delighted with it that he pulled the suitcase all over the store, wearing the backpack, and charmed the hell out of the staff. He pulled the suitcase over to Yamato, the restaurant where we were meeing Nobuko and Tomoko for dinner, and sat with me reading Chicken, Pig, Cow by our friend Ruth Ohi while we waited for everyone else to arrive. The boys were very active throughout dinner, possibly from fatigue, but Liam in particular inhaled his food. Then it was time to go hom and go to bed. Tonight's bandage change went much better than last night (I had actually had to replace a bandage this morning because the tube around his fingers got loose and was working its way off. And I'm *not* jamming it back). Sleep came quickly for both boys, if somewhat late.

2010-01-24 24:03 (Kristen) When John was in Japan, he bought a used Wii so that we can play Wii games (which are region encoded) from Japan here. In particular, we have been waiting for Super Mario Galaxy 2, which was rumoured to be released six months earlier in Japan than in North America (release dates now changed). We have a new television and stand in the green room which, today, I set the Wii up in. Jamie was beside himself with excitement, and spent a good hour or two playing Pikmen. He can't read the kanji in a game that is surprisingly text heavy, so John moved his computer into the room and read what Jamie wanted read while he worked. There was a lot of Japanese flying around, which was great as Jamie's Japanese (and Liam's too) has not been progressing as well as we'd like. He's great at the homework, but he is less sure of himself and is frustrated that he doesn't have the vocabulary he wants to deal with conversations. Liam's Japanese needs work too, so it was nice to find something to talk about in Japanese that they enjoyed. I started packing for the trip, and put a spare change of clothes, etc., in the boys' carry-on. Liam loves his new backpack and carry-on bag, and was running around before bed in his all-together, wearing only the back pack and then wearing the backpack and pulling the carry-on bag. He ran into the office, grinned at John, and said "I have to catch a bus" before running off again. Hilarious. The day was spent cleaning, playing games, and going over to Browning for an unexpected but welcome shared dinner. Liam had some trouble falling asleep, but Jamie managed just fine.

2010-01-25 23:16 (Kristen) A conversation I had with Jamie on Saturday in the car after listening to the Spiderman theme--Jamie: I don't like Marvel comics. Mom: !!!!!!!! (sobs) I may have to have a conversation with my niece about this whole "DC Universe" thing that has infected my house...

Liam woke up early, around 7:45, and I wasn't able to get him back to sleep. Jamie managed to get to school with a minimum of fuss and muss, but forgot his judo gi at school after taking it in for show and tell. Lunch was at Browning, and afterwards, I took Liam back to the bathroom at the Second Cup to make sure that there wasn't any lingering trauma associated with place. He didn't want to go in, and cried a bit, but I calmed him down and told him that he was safe, that he wasn't hurt, and that we were going to be very careful to make sure that he didn't get hurt again. He seemed to accept that, and enjoyed eating his mitten cookie, along with my gingerbread cookie, afterwards. We picked up Jamie, and brought him home for his music lesson with Andrea. That went well, and Jamie sang one of his songs for the rest of us (which we enjoyed) afterwards. Dinner was at Browning, where Jamie and everyone played quite a lot of Katamari Forever while John and Liam played Super Mario 63. I was out at trivia, but got home in time for bed and to change Liam's bandage. We're due at Sick Kids tomorrow at 8:30 for a follwup appointment at the plastics clinic. His finger seems to be still raw but healing, but we'll see what the experts have to say.

* For the benefit of Scrabble players, words that are not in the Scrabble dictionary are marked with an asterisk.

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