Rhone breaks his arm

 // It's these type of posts that really remind me of why I do this little blog.  It's a place I can document the details of an event that I never want to forget and a place my kids can go years later to re-live //

 Warning: It's a long one...
 

The story:  Rhone fell off his ladder going up to his bunk bed and landed on his arm.
- Boring I know...
The back story:  My amazingly thoughtful husband had an idea to build a marble run for the kids.  It was something that Rhone and him could do that would keep them entertained for the day.  So he took Rhone to the store, got supplies and proceeded to help Rhone build it.  Finally getting installed in his room.  The kids LOVED it.  Played with it for hours.  It was around 6:30 I left to go to a bible study.  It was a typical night, they ate dinner, and got ready for bed.  For us that hour between dinner and bed is pretty intense.  Kids are usually pretty hyper and usually consists of wrestling, catch, hid and seek, or in this case more marble runs.  So as Rhone climbed up, by chance alone his feet slipped off the 3rd step and down he went.


Marble Run from Lynn Fletcher on Vimeo.

To this day, I think back and just am so impressed with how well my husband reacted.  Of course the blood curdling scream came out and KC knew something serious had happened.  He took Rhone's shirt off (long sleeve- ouch!) And instantly he knew it was bad... he thought it was just dislocated).  He got Lachlyn down and told her to go stand by the front door.  He then somehow picked Rhone up and put both kids in the car and raced them to the urgent care.  When he got there, the doctor just had to look at it, and then told him to take him to ER.  So they all got back in the car and started driving.  At this point he finally had the chance to call me.  I was kinda in shock and as I started running out to my car, I had no idea how to get to the ER... my husband had to tell me which way to turn and tell me where I was - his adrenaline made him calm and collective where my adrenaline just made me a forgetful mess haha.   So we meet at the ER and raised him in.  Once I saw him my mama bear instincts immediately kicked in and I knew it was broken. 

It was pretty awesome to see how brave and strong he was at this time.  He was in soo much pain but every time someone walked in, he looked in their eyes and answered every question with a big strong voice.  It was as if he really wanted help and that was more important than crying.  On a side note... Lachlyn was also quite impressive.  According to KC, she knew something was wrong and from the minute he told her to stand by the door to even getting out by herself and standing on sidewalk she listened and obeyed. She was so sweet to him and helped even make him laugh.

The doctor finally came in and pretty much we knew when her face shrunk up a little almost as if she knew the extent of it and that we would again have to be taken to another hospital.  They took x-rays... yes I helped - again mama bear was out... I practically took the x-ray myself.

As you can see pretty clearly the x-ray to the left shows it was broken.  To be specific he had a right supracondylar humerus fracture.  Because it was a complete fracture, their was sharp bone on the side and they were afraid of nerve damage.  We were told he needed surgery and that they didn't have a pediatric ortho doc on-call and so they recommended us going to Seattle Children's hospital.  I was extremely relieved at this point.  I knew it was a great hospital and of course any mama wants the best of the best to operate on their little one.  So they put Rhone and I in the ambulance and KC took Lachlyn back home to put to bed (at this point it was 10pm).  My lovely sister drove down right away so that she could stay the night with her and KC could meet us at Childrens.

He gathered some clothes for us and meet us there.  As soon as we arrived, we were well taken care of and after about 30 mins, KC arrived.  Just in time for them to put a proper splint on him.  My heart just broke as I saw him in more pain then before and all we could do was love on him.  So thankful that this lovely hospital had an endless supply of superhero movies!! It seriously saved him.  It was the only thing that took his mind off the pain.

  
Still in the ER we had talked with 2 different orthopedic residents and they explaining how they would try a closed reduction surgery with 3 pins with the possibility of a open reduction.  They were slightly worried about his nerves at this point and the amount of swelling.  It was now about midnight and they were waiting to hear back from the attending to see if we could wait until morning for surgery.  I was at great relief to hear that we would be admitted and we could would wait for the best of the best orthopedic surgeon to operate.  It was a very long and short night but he finally slept and I got about 2 hours myself.

The next day was just a waiting game.  The surgeon came and talked with us and reassured us that he does hundreds of these surgeries and was great with Rhone.  It was just a matter of waiting for us to be able to get slipped into the fully booked OR schedule.  We were on immediate stand-by all day until around 2:00.  They wheeled him to Surgery and we were able to sit by him while they gave some anesthesia to put him to light sleep before the breathing tube.  At this point my heart was completely broken but I held it together until he was completely out of my sight.  Then I lost it...  I think I had saved up every emotion until that moment.  KC and I kept reminding ourselves that he was and always has been in the best hands and that God would take care of him better than any doctor or myself included.  We also talked about how lucky we have been that until this point neither of our kiddos have had to be hospitalized.  Working in health care I see sick kids all the time.  Biggest having had having to treat kids with radiation.  Being on the other side of it all, made me realize again why I do what I do, and why compassion is something everyone needs.  I try to remind myself each day at work that those people in the hospital are probably having the worst day of their life.  Granted this was not our worst day, but you just never know what other people are going through.   So with that we grabbed something to eat and headed back to our room.  1 hour later he was out and we could see him in recovery. 

The doctor said everything went great.  They didn't have to open him up, just did the closed reduction and put 3 pins to hold into place.  He was given a soft cast for a week because he was so swollen.  He woke up pretty funny.  He said his mouth felt weird and kept moving his lips.  But eventually he woke up to his sweet self.  He was excited to see his cast and to finally be able to eat.  We hung out there the rest of the day and then got to go home that night. 

The nurse was pretty adment that he needed to eat before we left and so he did just that.  And of course after we get in to the car and start to drive home, he threw up everywhere.  Felt so horrible for him and drove home, cleaned him up and put him straight to bed.  The first several days consisted of watching lots of movies and medication every 3 hours.  By the 2nd day home, he had his best friend over to watch movies together.  The way he shows off his cast and tells everyone his story just reminds me of how grown up he is.  So confident, so courageous, and so sweet.  To make things better, we've been having some pretty amazing 60 + degree days here with lots of sun.

Tomorrow marks 1 week from the surgery and he goes to get another x-ray and his new hard cast.  Were praying that the bone hasn't slipped and that everything is in it's right place.  Such a long and emotional week but were on the up and up and really it has been such a great story for him to have.  I know for KC and I, this whole thing has grown our marriage and has shown us vulnerability that either one of us haven't seen.  I am one lucky girl.