Johnny and his broken arm
Joel and Crissy
Joel with Johnny and Sophie
Southside Skate Park
Will
Barrett and the Boys
Johnny
Dominick
Slater hanging out with Mikey
Johnny
Mikey and the Green Machine

Our weekend in G-town was great. It started Friday night with a farewell party for our friend Barrett. He is moving to Portland, Maine and some friends made a bon fire on the beach and had a small get together for him before his long ride to the East Coast. It was nice to see everyone, although it was a little chilly the kids loved being on the beach at night, roasting marshmallows and running around. We will miss Barrett, but we also know that he will come and visit, and he knows that he will always have a place to stay when he comes to Galveston!

Saturday was my Granny’s birthday party at my sister’s house in Humble. The kids were crazy but had a great time. Mike, my Dad and Craig all watched the UT game, which didn’t have a happy ending if your a UT fan. There is always next year… Granny is doing well — she just turned 85!

After the party we headed south — it was the P.U.S.H. (Public Urban Skatepark of Houston) fund raiser at Southside Skate Park, Johnny was invited as one of the local “pros”, and was asked to donate a board for the silent auction. He and Joey had a great time, and skated for almost two hours before we headed back to Galveston.

Sunday was a “clean the house, and mow the yard” kind of day for Mike and me. It seems like we have been gone so long that the beach house needed some TLC. The kids were skating outside, and were doing really well, but eventually got bored and went to the park. Joey came skating home 45 minutes later and said that Johnny fell and needed us to get him. Mike brought him home and carried him up the stairs, packed his arm in ice, but we didn’t think it looked to serious, — maybe just a sprain. Mike really wanted to take him to the ER, but I didn’t — he is more likely to catch something far worse at the ER on a Sunday night, than just a broken arm. I promised I would take him first thing in the morning, I had a speaking engagement at TCH anyway, I’ll just pop up to the clinic before then and be on our way.

I told the nurses and doctors, it probably wasn’t anything serious, — he’s done this before, but we wanted to make sure. I also had to hustle because I had to be somewhere at 10am — I did the speaking engagement for the Blood Center, took Johnny to x-ray, and went back to the clinic to wait for the results. And waited. And waited, and waited. We watched the entire movie of Shrek 2, I asked the nurse if she had heard anything, and then she told me — it was broke. WHAT?!?! We were all shocked. When we all initially looked at the xray, we agreed with our extremely limited radiology/orthopedic experience, that none of us saw a break, but we were just waiting for the official call from the radiologist.

We had to go to the ER and have a temporary splint (they call it a sugar tong splint) wrapped on his type I supra condylar break (basically he broke his elbow, or his humorous bone, closest to his elbow). The stuff they wrapped it in is pretty high tech — white and about 1/4 inch thick and about 3 inches wide. The outside layers are soft, like a fleece blanket, and the inside is the typical mesh cast stuff you see. It is soaked in water, and put on the break, when it dries it is almost as hard as a regular cast. This was done until the swelling goes down, and then a permanent one will be put on Wednesday. CRAZY STUFF! I asked the doctor if his arm broke due to his illness and meds he is on. She said “No. He broke it due to skateboarding, we see this all the time, it’s pretty common…”. I asked again just to make sure it wasn’t the steroids “Nope, skateboarding”. She also added, “Nothing with wheels for six weeks… no skateboarding, bike riding, roller blading…” OUCH!

At first he was excited that he broke his first bone, but once he found out he will be in a cast for 6 weeks, he was bummed. There are two surfing contests he wanted to do this month, and it looks like both of them will be out of the question. I will ask the orthopedic doctor on Wednesday for a water proof cast and see if he can compete anyway…

When we came home after the ER, Johnny was getting out of the car and asked if he could skateboard! Of course I told him “NO! Are you crazy”, and he said very sheepishly with a grin “oh yeah, I forgot…” Mike was afraid that Johnny would be reluctant to skate again, but I think he will be just fine… Mike’s friend Barry told him “You’re not a really skater until you come back from an injury”. That made Johnny smile.

We go back to the clinic on Wednesday for chemo and a new cast. I will update more later!

j.grom@yahoo.com

All is well, just busy, busy, busy.

The other day Johnny taught Sophie how to skate, it was really sweet to watch, even with some big kids around, Johnny had no problem showing his little sister how to skate. Now she’s hooked. She wakes up every morning and asks if I can take her to the skate park. I can’t wait for her to get on a surf board this summer!

Also, if you tried to order a Johnny Romano skateboard, but found out they were already sold out, they are in stock again. Jim also made some t-shirts with the same logo. I’m not sure if they will ever make it to a skate shop near you, because the first run of boards sold out before they were shipped to stores. I think Ohana was the only shop in TEXAS to get the boards, and Boog only had 5, all promised to kids in JB. Get ‘em while they are hot!

Today Johnny was able to go to school for a quick awards ceremony, one award was for straight A’s, and the other was for citizenship — (they obviously didn’t talk to us!). It was fun, Johnny was able to see all of his friends, and when the Principal called his name, you could hear all the kids say “there’s Johnny!’, or “Hi, Johnny!”. Thursday was his first day at Religion class, this year he makes his first communion, and since he has been on maintenance for so long, I thought it would be okay for him to go, it’s only one hour a week. I thought he was going to cry when I dropped him off. He REALLY didn’t want to go. He is SO shy. I know the folks who know him well, DO NOT think of him as shy, but he is. Especially in situations like this. I almost gave in to him, but I’m glad I didn’t — when I picked him up he was so happy and all smiles. We will start slowly with just once a week, then move on to regular school. Everyone knows the restrictions, and that he CANNOT be around anyone with a cough or runny nose. We will see how it goes.

We are going to Galveston tonight. A friend of ours is moving to MAINE! YIKES! They are having a going away bon fire on the beach for him, should be pretty fun. We will spend the night at the beach house, then we go to my sisters (in Humble) for my Granny’s b-day Saturday afternoon, then Saturday night we will be at a fundraiser at Southside Skate Park for a new Public (free) Houston skate park. Mike’s friend Barry, is raising money for PUSH Houston (the only BIG public skate park in Houston). Barry called Mike and asked if Johnny could come and be a “local celeb”, and donate a signed board. Of course Johnny said “YES!”.

I will update on Monday!