Andrew was running through the living room and tripped over his own feet, like he does 10-15 times a day. I didn't even come running, until I heard him cry. Pretty quickly we realized we needed to go to the ER. They were pretty sure at Haywood Hospital that he had broken his upper thigh bone, but they didn't have a pediatric orthopedist available, and so we got to ride in an ambulance to Mission Hospital in Asheville.
Daddy following in the back:
I took more pictures in the ambulance than anywhere else because it was sort of cool and he was on so much morphine I wasn't sure if he would remember it. He did tell his Grama about it later in the day.
All my pictures of him sort of look the same. Just different wall color in the background.
All I can say is: Praise God! for Curious George on the iPhone:
Once at Mission, they took more extensive X-rays of his leg (ow!) and we got taken to pre-op to meet Dr. Hooker, our pediatric orthopedic surgeon. She confirmed that Andrew did break his right femur higher towards the hip. While it boggles our mind that he could break his leg doing something he does all the time, Dr. Hooker told us that it is not terribly uncommon in children because their bones are not fully hardened, and so not as strong. She said in an adult, this type of rotational injury would be a torn ligament or muscle. But Andrew's ligaments and muscles are stronger than his bones, so his bone gave way first.
We had been told at Haywood that he would have to have a cast from his chest all the way down to both ankles for 8-10 weeks. We were elated to hear Dr. Hooker say that she could solve his problem another way: Flexible Intramedullary Nails or Rods. Basically, the doctor made two small incisions on either side of Andrew's knee and slid two plastic rods up through the hollow part of his bone to stabilize the fracture while it heals. They will stay inside his leg for 6-12 months and will require a second out-patient surgery to be removed. The downside is the extra surgery. The upside is:
No cast. He has a brace on his leg immobilizing his knee that will stay on for 6 weeks. The main purpose of the brace is to make it difficult/inconvenient for him to bear weight on the leg. Bearing weight on the fractured leg is his only activity restriction, and that will last until around Thanksgiving. Technically, he can even bend his knee. Once his incision dressing comes off at the dr office next week, we can take the brace off for baths. Isn't that amazing?
We sent him off to surgery with the amazing Dr. Hooker (easily the worst/hardest thing I've ever done in my life) and waited. My sweet parents hung out at the hospital all day and kept us distracted. After about 90 minutes, we got to go back to post-op and see our tiny baby (maybe not so tiny):
The surgery team tucked him in with George and his pasie and blanket. I gotta tell you, that makes a momma happy. It was amazing how many people that helped us Sunday who had toddlers at home.
I felt much more sane after we got him back from surgery. It has been all downhill after that. He was awake, telling his grandparents about his ambulance ride, and asking Grama for "big bites" of chocolate Frostee. (Seeing him grin up at all four of his grandparents around his hospital bed is a precious moment I won't forget.) He wasn't feeling very good, but with every work out of his mouth he seemed more like my little boy.
We stayed over night and we all got SOME sleep, but not lots.
Andrew got the most: a total of about 6 hours. We were able to get him off the narcotic pain meds pretty quickly. We spent Monday laying around watching George and playing iPad games. Thank you Netflix and Apple!
(Check out that mobility! Believe it or not, this is the position he ends up in most often.)
We finally got our tiny wheel chair
and headed home.
Once home, he relaxed considerably. It was a relief to him to be with people he knows.
We've made a pretty good camp on the couch.
Nana is the best ever and has loaded us up with all kinds of fine motor activities. (I think she has been Pintrest-ing instead of sleeping)
(Sweet baby, he is at home almost everywhere)
Andrew is more than making up for the limited range of motion of his right leg with activities for his left leg (what he calls his strong leg).
The ambulance toy you see in these pictures has not left his side. It was a brilliant gift from Ms Susie and even came with a stretcher and a man with a leg cast. Every toy from cars to farm animals to pasies have been riding in the ambulance.
He decided when Papa came over that he needed to go outside. So we test drove the wheelchair:
For those curious, the reason we can't use a stroller to wheel him around is that our strollers wouldn't support his leg. They aren't deep enough. The wheel chair doesn't have a seatbelt, which freaks me out a little, but I don't suppose he will be leaping out of it. This week.
From these pictures, you'd think he faked the whole thing. I'm so glad.
Thank you sincerely to all of you who where in prayer for us Sunday. We could totally feel it and the effect is obvious. Keep praying for healing, but add to your list divine help for us to keep this boy pinned down for 6 weeks! :D
