Broken Arms & PhD's

September 2016

The last few weeks of September were some of the most stressful weeks the Kleinman Household has ever experienced.  Curtis is so close to being finished with his doctoral program, with only his dissertation lacking.  September turned out to be the month for collecting the bulk of the data he needs to complete the study.  September also was the month for too many other things as well, which made for one stressed out Curtis.  Luckily a good portion of the grunt work could be delegated to me keeping Curtis's precious available hours for the "real" work.

Our home office setup complete with his and her stations, conveniently located in front of the television which provided some much needed background entertainment to keep us alert at all times.

Grandma King saved our bacon! She came for over a week and kept the house running and the kids cared for so I could focus the majority of my time on helping Curtis.

Both Grandma King and Grandma Kleinman helped with the data collection process, by cutting out 200 kits for one portion of the data collecting test.

The only major snag in the road happened when Bracken fractured his elbow during recess at school.  He loves to climb and swing on the playground equipment but this time it got the better of him.  Unfortunately, the location of his fracture meant we needed to see an orthopedic specialist at Phoenix Children's Hospital.  Having Grandma King covering home base made is much easier for me to take care of Bracken and his arm. 

I had to chuckle when the technician informed us of the "cast rules".

NO climbing on things that are more than 2 feet off the ground.

NO wheels.  Scooters, bikes, skateboards, roller-blades etc. completely off limits.

NO trampolines.

NO water, showers, baths, swimming and such.

Basically, 90% of what Bracken does all day long he would no longer be able to do for 3 whole weeks. I was going to have to watch him like a hawk and pray really hard.   

One fun bonus with the timing of all this hustle and bustle was having Grandma King with us for her birthday.  We had a great time making her day special and thanking her for all she did to get us through a rough patch.