Much to be grateful for...

Our Thanksgiving break started out wonderfully!  I had talked our dear friends, the Allreds, into coming out to spend Thanksgiving with us.  We were all excited for their visit.  They got into town and I was loving the craziness that happens when 9 kids are in the same house.  Being with them feels like being with family and we were enjoying our time together.

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, we had begun to prepare for the big day.  I had done all the shopping and Rochelle and I had just finished cleaning up lunch so I could begin on Thanksgiving dinner preparations and Rochelle had just laid down for a well deserved rest (she was 7 months pregnant and I was hoping her stay with us would be relaxing).  We had let the older kids run over to play at the park and Ken and Shane were out in the yard tackling some of the "getting the yard ready for winter" tasks.  Then the relative quiet of the the afternoon was interrupted by a phone call.

I picked up the phone to hear our friend, Eric Morris, say to me, "Carli, I'm over at the park.  Trevor has fallen and I think he has broken his arm."  I told him I would be right there.  I grabbed my purse, ran out the door, quickly telling Ken what happened, and got in the van to get to the park as fast as I could.  I slowed down enough to pick up Morgan who was running home from the park as fast as she could to get help.  We arrived at the park and I ran over to the small group that was assembled beneath some of the playground equipment.  Eric was there talking calmly to Trevor and I was surprised that Trevor wasn't crying.  There was no doubt about it.  His arm was broken.  Badly.

I ran back to the van to get a blanket that we could wrap around his arm to stabilize it and we carefully moved him to the van.  Of course I assumed that Trev was in shock and I kept calmly talking to him and gave him sips of water.  I told the other kids to walk home together so I could take Trev right to the doctor.  I drove him right to our local clinic and was told they couldn't help me there and to go into urgent care in Longmont.  I began driving there while I called to see what their wait was.  Can I just say they were most unhelpful as I explained the situation and they informed me that they had a 2 and a half hour wait time and that I might want to go to the emergency room.  I called the hospital to see what their waiting time was and they were even less helpful.  Ugh.

I then called my wonderful friend Haley and she came to the rescue, AGAIN.  She told me to go down to Children's hospital where she worked (why hadn't I thought of that before?!?) and then I texted her the picture I had taken of Trevor's arm.  Within a minute or two, she called me back explaining that she had called her friends at the hospital and they were expecting us.  She also walked me through what would most likely happen once we arrived.

We got to the hospital and I left Trevor in the van so I could get a wheelchair.  I quickly completed some forms and then went to get him.  I kept his arm as still as I could while I moved him and I was so impressed that he only winced a few times.  We only waited a couple of minutes before they took him back to a bed.  We then slowly unwrapped his arm so they could assess the damage.

His arm look deformed.  It reminded me of Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets when Lockhart accidentally removed the bones in his arm.  That's what Trevor's arm looked like.  The doctor ordered some morphine so that they would be able to get it into a splint.  The pain was horrible, but Trevor was super brave.  I would have him  focus on my eyes and squeeze my hand as hard as he could to try to transfer the pain to me.  He didn't even cry out, but one look at his clammy, pale face to know he was seriously hurting.

 

We stayed at the north campus for several hours.  His nurses were fantastic and my friend Megan, who also worked there, kept coming in to make sure we were okay.  It was so nice to have someone that I knew there with us.  The doctors kept going back and forth on their course of treatment.  He had an abrasion on his arm where it looked like the bone had poked through.  If that was the case, they wanted to transfer him to the main hospital campus down in a Aurora because he would likely be having surgery.  The nurse sid it was the worst break that she had seen in her 6 years there.  (She also paid me a compliment that I was the calmest mom she had ever seen in that situation.  That was so nice of her to say.  On the outside I was working very hard to stay calm even though I could feel the panic and emotional stress building inside of me.)  They finally decided to give him some antibiotics in case he had to have surgery and then had an ambulance take us to the other hospital.

About an hour after arriving at the main hospital, Ken arrived with food and moral support.   Haley was going into work and was able to pick up Ken and take him with her to the north campus so that he could pick up our van so we wouldn't be stuck with 2 vehicles down in Aurora.  Having him there was good for both Trevor and I.  I was also so appreciative that Rochelle and Shane were willing to feed and take care of the crew at our house.  It was such a relief to know we didn't have to worry about our other children and we could focus on Trevor.

After a couple of hours the orthopedic surgeon decided that he thought Trevor would be able to heal without surgery.  Seriously, the human body is AMAZING, especially young bodies in their ability to heal.  They administered Ketamine so they could set his arm during what they called conscious sedation.  It was awful to hear him moaning from the operating room, but I knew he was in good hands.  As soon as his arm was set, the doctor invited us back in.  It was absolutely hilarious when Trev was waking up.  He was saying the funniest things and in the voice of a 3 year old.  I wish we would have recorded some of it.  SO FUNNY!

Before (on left) and After (on right)

When he was finally able to hold down a popsicle (which was not on the first try) they let us go home.  Trevor was exhausted and so hungry as we gathered everything and set off for home about 1 in the morning.  It made for a very long day.  I was emotionally spent and concerned that I wouldn't be able to get all of Thanksgiving dinner made for our almost 20 guests.  I couldn't help, though to think of all the blessings we had received throughout this ordeal.  Even though the Lord allowed Trevor this bad consequence (he totally should NOT have been on the TOP of the playground equipment) it was so evident that we were cared for all along the way.  I knew the Lord was very aware of my little family and I was so THANKFUL for that!