Gabriel's 7th Birthday

Images of my water breaking, our trip to the hospital, an emergency C-Section, and a dreaded blood transfusion are vividly clear in my mind. So how can it be that my baby son is SEVEN years old?

With MUCH fanfare Gabriel turned 7 last week. On Thursday, June 2 Gabe emerged from church with a very swollen thumb. He didn't cry or scream, but simply told us he had gotten his thumb all swollen. 2 appointments, X-Rays, and a week later it was still bruised and crooked, but less swollen. 

So off we went to a hand specialist, who informed us it broke all the way down the thumb, through the growth plate. Even untrained, I could see how crooked the bone was on the X-Ray. Yuck. I wasn't thrilled with the options the Dr. presented: cast it crooked and it "should" straighten itself out in the next 2 years, numb it and straighten it, or put him to sleep to straighten it. I asked if he would be willing to try to straighten the bone with no anesthesia, since Gabe's pain tolerance is incredibly high. He gave it a trial run, and Gabe was okay, so he agreed to do it. The Dr. and I both put on gloves, and he put a cast on Gabe's arm and thumb as quickly as possible. I held Gabe's face while the Dr. put the casted thumb under the X-Ray and then he yanked and torqued and pulled and twisted. For about a minute he worked and worked to get that bone to straighten. Then he pressed the cast all in nice and tight, and we compared before and after X-Rays. It was MUCH straighter. The whole time Gabe simply sucked in deep breaths, and I encouraged him to breathe deeply and relax the best he could. 

When it was over, it looked to me like the Dr. was in more pain than Gabe! He told Gabe that once a Marine passed out while he performed the same fix on him, and that Gabe is the toughest boy ever. 

The nurse was also impressed, as was I!

So here is my birthday boy with his red cast. He wanted Orange, but red was the closest we could get :o)

For His birthday dinner we had Orange Chicken and Orange Juice. And dessert was Carrot Cake and Orange Sherbert! Love this kid!