Getting back in alignment

The kids watching a show while we wait for Scott at orthopedics

We took Scott to the fracture clinic on base to get his leg looked at. At least, that's what we thought they were going to do, just evaluate it and give him the go ahead to get surgery. It ended up taking 4 1/2 hours, so of course, the kids were totally melting down by the end. But even worse, Scott's poor leg got put "through the wringer" as one of the orthopedic docs put it. Even though they had us bring in his X-rays from the civilian hospital, they still wanted him to take some more. That's fine, I guess they wanted their own X-rays or more thorough ones, but they took off his splint and then wanted him to crutch across the hospital to X-ray. I thought Scott was going to pass out from pain when we went over there. Out of the splint his leg was just flopping and completely unsupported. Scott asked for a wheelchair ride on the way back. Unpleasant.
Then they took Scott back to orthopedics for a while...or several hours. I guess they were casting him or waiting to cast him for a lot of that time. The kids and I were in the waiting room. When they did cast him I guess they wrenched around on his leg (without pain meds) for a while to realign his ankle or something. Scott's been in almost unbearable pain with a splint on and pain meds and today he had neither while they were "working" on him, so you can imagine how awful it was. When they were done, one of the ortho docs came to explain to me what happened, but I still don't really understand what they were doing or why. He said they needed to "reduce" his ankle. I don't know what that means...I asked if it meant getting some of the swelling down, but the doc didn't really explain. Then they just pointed us in the direction of the casting room where we found Scott. Based on the state we found Scott in, I think "reduce" is just a euphemism for some kind of medieval torture. I think they might have tried to take some years off his life, Princess Bride style.
They wrote him a prescription for some pain meds, which I quickly went to get, while Scott tried not to pass out on the table. It was a bad scene. Finally we got out of the hospital and headed home. After a few hours at home, some rest, new pain medication and not having to move his leg for a while, Scott was feeling more comfortable. The good news is that they gave him a hard cast (but at what cost?), which should give him more support. They also scheduled him for surgery on Tuesday which is great!! I'm really glad they were able to see him and get him in for surgery soon. I'm hoping this means he will start to feel better soon...and that he'll be heavily medicated for whatever comes next.