I last posted back in June. It honestly doesn't seem as though it was that long ago! Perhaps that is because so much has happened in the last few months. I've felt as though I've had little time or energy. Enough to keep going and that was about it.
So I'm writing these next few posts retrospectively.
Well . . . I got that far and then it was a few days before I felt up to writing again due to a virus! Sooo . . .
Brains started a 12 week course at Whitireia on Wednesday 27 May. We had rung with an enquiry then gone to find out some info the week before and they told him there were places if he wanted to apply.
Hospitality & Barista skills. So he did!
Queens Birthday weekend, Friday 29 May - Monday 1 June here in New Zealand, both Brains &
Locket were entered in the Wellington Regional Dance Teachers Association dance competition. They had both been working hard. They had their usual dances and Brains was doing variations as well. Often these are on a Saturday evening, but this time they were on the Friday evening.
Miss Lisa was all ready to come with us when a family emergency in her partner's family prevented her. So off we went. Brains was all prepared and had rehearsed in the afternoon, his two variations were looking pretty good according to Miss Lisa.
Both had to be classical dances but different in style. His first variation was from a ballet called,
Who Cares choreography by George Balanchine, music by George Gershwin. It's quite a different ballet and not what many people expect to see. In fact before one of the comps this year the variation was queried as to it's legitimacy, because it's not very well known. But it is a valid entry and fits the criteria.
Brains preformed it really well and the audience really liked it. It certainly was different to all the other dances.
The second variation was Siegfried from the ballet
Swan Lake, choreography by Julius Reisinger, music by Tchaikovsky. Brains started out really well and was looking good, according to Miss Lisa's mum who was watching and has attended dance comps for the last 40 years with her own children and then Miss Lisa's pupils. She is a great support and encouragement and gives a fair but honest critique. Not far into the dance Brains went up in a jump, which looked good . . . came down . . . and . . . landed poorly! Twist, nearly crumpled to the floor, tried to keep going, then realised he couldn't so limped off . . . giving the adjudicator a bow as he went!
I think the whole audience gasped. The Mama Bear in me wanted to race out, of course. But he'd just turned 18 and . . . it's Varations. There are the stage manager and others there to look after them. I was told later he sat down side stage as soon as he got off. There was only one more dancer after him and I felt sorry for her having to go on after that. I don't know how Brains managed to stay standing during the presentations but he did. Of course he was eliminated since he couldn't finish. :(
When I did get out to the dressing rooms, after explaining to Miss Lisa's mum why Miss Lisa wasn't there, Brains was sitting looking pretty sore. He still had his dance tights on at that stage and they were black, making it hard to see his foot. I'd already decided I'd take him to Kenepuru A & M to get it checked. One of the other dance teachers there, who knows Miss Lisa well, said she thought we should get it checked as well as she was worried he may have broken something. He got changed into his usual gear . . . and out of the black I could clearly see his foot was on a funny angle, definitely needed checking.
The doctor at Kenepuru thought it was likely to be a sprain but ordered x-rays for the next day - Saturday - as x-ray had closed for the night. Brains was issued some crutches and we were on our way.
So Saturday morning - Locket was supposed to be dancing, but she was battling a heavy cold. I had warned Miss Lisa on the phone Locket may not be able to dance as she, Miss Lisa, had called
me to see how Brains had done in the comp when we were at Kenepuru Friday night. Locket made the decision she definitely wasn't dancing . . . she
didn't have the breath for it, her dance was quite a fast one. Brains and I headed off to Kenepuru soon after 10am, Brains had the x-rays and was seen by a doctor who said, "You have an avulsion fracture of the Talus bone."
Well, I got the word "fracture" right away! She then explained that what had happened was the ligaments had torn a piece of bone off the talus bone - that's what avulsion means, tearing. She said Brains would be going home in a cast. Brains' face at that piece of news! He also had another x-ray as the doctor wanted to check the rest of his foot to make sure there were no more fractures. So that was done and then we waited in the waiting room again.
After a short time we were called by someone, who took us into her room, introduced herself and began with the usual - what brings you here today? Hang on a minute, I thought! "Ah, . . . we've actually seen a doctor already and Brains had another x-ray . . ." "Oh! I wondered why her name was on the form! Just a minute . . ." and she went off, came back and asked us to just wait on these seats as that doctor was with another patient. Phew!
Once we were seen, by the doctor who had first viewed the x-rays, Brains was cleared of any other fractures. Then after a phone call we were sent on our way to Wellington Hospital Fracture Clinic.
If you want to see where the talus bone is and what it does, look
here.
I made a phone call to let Boar know not to expect us any time soon. Then we headed to Fracture Clinic . . . via Miss Lisa's home . . . via McDonalds :) By now Brains was hungry, aren't teenage males
always hungry?
Brains wanted to tell Miss Lisa himself. With a fracture he was looking at a cast for probably six weeks. So time off dance classes.
We were at Fracture Clinic some time . . . as is usual, especially on a weekend. When we'd been put in a room and were waiting for the registrar to come and see Brains I asked for some scissors. Why? To open the seams of his jeans which were skinny leg ones. Can't ruin a good pair of jeans! =; I can sew the seam back up!
While we were whiling away the time Brains concluded, "Well, I guess 6 weeks in a cast isn't that long to be off dancing . . . then I'll be back!"
The doctor asked the usual questions, and then about Brains' dancing. Was it a hobby or . . . ? "Oh, I do 4 - 5 classes a week . . ." Brains said. And left it at that! At that point I chipped in with, "He has the ability to train and dance professionally, if he chooses to, if that's what you're asking." Cos . . . that is a Mama Bear's job, after all, to add in the extra info that the cubs sometimes don't give :D
After glancing at us both the registrar said, "Oh! Well, this is rather an unusual type of injury, I think I'll go and take another look at the x-rays. I'll be back soon." And out he went. To look at the x-rays . . . and call his boss - the consultant. When he came back he said he'd spoken to his boss and these were the options . . . he started to explain and his phone went. It was the boss, confirming the registrar's treatment plan. One option is to cast for six weeks while the bone knits together. However Brains' fracture was displaced, therefore making it unstable, and so surgery was the preferred option. "Wait! What? SURGERY!?" I could see Brains thinking. The registrar stated that there was a choice but if Brains wanted to get back to dancing - surgery was the best option. Because he wouldn't be
able to dance without it. At least never professionally! It would mean surgery, a cast for 6 weeks, then a moon boot . . . and it would be six months before he was back to jumps :-o :-o :-o
Well, for Brains there was no choice - it was surgery of course! A dancer just
HAS to dance!
They weren't sure whether they would be able to do the surgery that weekend or not, possibly the next day (Sunday), but if not it would be done on the following Friday at Kenepuru Hospital. Either way they decided to apply a back-slab cast and admit him overnight.
I took this photo on Saturday evening. By then Brains was pretty shattered. He'd hardly slept the night before due to the pain, and it had been a loooong day. Shorty after this photo was taken I went home, after settling Brains for the night. I'd been battling an achey jaw/ear most of the day. I thought it was a tooth but couldn't work out if it was an upper or lower tooth. I know folk usually refer to top and bottom teeth - but that just gives me an image of teeth implanted in a bum! =)) Home time.
Next day, Sunday, I was back at the hospital early, with Locket in tow. She wanted to come even though I explained it could be a long day. She still wasn't feeling well, if anything she was worse. We decided that if Brains went to have surgery I could take Locket down to the After Hours Medical Centre. If he was discharged we'd probably be home fairly soon, hopefully by noon, and I could take Locket to Kenepuru then.
The doctors did their round fairly early, the consultant and his underlings. The decision had been made to discharge Brains and do the surgery on Friday at Kenepuru Hospital. That way Brains wouldn't have to be nil-by-mouth most of Sunday and possibly most of Monday. Made sense to us - and the surgery would definitely be done on the Friday. So after the paperwork was done we would be on our way. It was about 10am by then. It should only take an hour . . .
Unfortunately it wasn't only an hour! Unbeknownest to us the doctor who was going to do the paperwork became unwell and went home. We found this out when the nurse eventually rang to find out what was happening, after several hours and no appearance by the doctor. Poor Locket had fallen asleep, sitting up on a chair, head bent over to her lap and resting on her puffer jacket! She slept for over an hour. Definitely not well. When she did wake up she commented, "It hurts sometimes when I breathe . . ." You are certainly going to the doctor when we get out of here, I thought!
The above photo was taken about 4:15pm . . . thankfully soon after the doctor arrived to do the paperwork. Smurfette had called to see if she should come and visit, but we said no, we'll be out of here soon. She offered to get Burger Fuel burgers for anyone who wanted them so we said yes please!
Once we'd got home and everyone had eaten I took a reluctant Locket out to Kenepuru. I was very glad I did because she was diagnosed with an Upper Respiratory Tract Infection or URTI. So antibiotics were prescribed. We picked those up and headed home.
We were all pretty tired. Despite tiredness Brains was already researching recovery of his injury :)
