I have felt that I should write down all the details about the day Caleb broke both of his legs sledding. So here it is!
Blake's family was in town from Utah, where they were snow-free. They came to visit, see miss Anndi, and be part of her baby blessing. While they were here, it was the worst snow storm in middle Tennessee since 2003. It was a layer of ice, then snow, then ice on top. On Friday, me, Caleb, my dad, and Thomas went out sledding on the golf course for a little while. Caleb absolutely loved it but we didn't find very good hills. The next day, Saturday, my dad and mom, and the Duncan's came over to take everyone sledding down a hill in our neighborhood. Some neighbors had gotten a bonfire going and were blocking the street so that it was relatively safe to sled down this giant hill.
The hill really was perfect for sledding. It had two ditches on each side of it, and if your sled went into the ditch then you just sledded all the way down in the ditch. On the right ditch there was a little "jump" that went up and over someone's driveway. Everyone was enjoying the jump. It was little but fairly steep so you could get some air if you were going fast enough. My dad went over it several times.
Caleb sledded down the hill with me a few times and Blake a few times. He loved the speed and would immediately say, "Again!" at the end of the hill. Finally, Caleb got to go down the hill with his Ga-Ga (my dad), and they went to get in the sled. They decided to get in a different sled than they had been using. It was a little more stiff than the other one, but hadn't been used yet so they went.
As they went down the hill, they slid into the ditch, which was just fine normally. They went to go over the "jump" but as they hit it, the stiffer sled would not give and just rammed into the jump and stopped. Their bodies rammed into the snow wall and Caleb's shins hit the end of the sled. Blake and I were going down the hill behind them on the road, and Blake saw their crash. It did not look bad from our angle but after a few seconds of trying to comfort Caleb, my dad called for my help. I ran over and held Caleb. He usually wants his Ga-Ga because he's so fun, but this time he kept saying, "Want Mommy. Want Mommy." That's when I knew something was up. I held him like a baby and rushed over to the bed of Duncan's truck and laid him down. He was moving all of his appendages, so I knew that he did not seriously injure his neck or his back. However, he was not calming down at all.
I tried a little trick that I usually do to calm him down, and I said, "Will you just stand here for a second so I can unzip your coat?" He would not put any weight on his legs. That was really weird. So, we rushed into the car where Blake's mom had been sitting and watching all the sledding. I looked at Caleb's face and aside from his pink cheeks and nose from the cold, his face was turning green. I recognized that from when Thomas broke his arm. I knew that his leg or legs must be broken.
We rushed into our house and took his boots and pants off. I took one glance at his legs and started panicking. They did not look normal, and one looked like it was bent a weird way. I felt sick and extremely upset. Me, Blake, my dad, and Blake's dad piled into my car and put Caleb in his car seat. He was bawling and his teeth were chattering. He was holding both of his knees and kept saying,"Hurt. Hurt. Hurt." I kept telling him, "We're almost there and we'll fix it."
Unfortunately, the roads were all covered in snow, ice, and slush. Traffic was not the best and it took what felt like forever to get to the Emergency Room. When we went in, the room was packed. One time when we went to the same ER, the room was nearly empty and it took us close to 3 hours to be taken care of. So, I began panicking and crying again. I asked the receptionist if it would be a while, and we told her he was a 2-year-old with two broken legs. She said it may be a while. I was a really pissed off mommy at that point.
We went and sat down, where I just held on to Caleb tightly and rocked him side to side. He was really tired since he missed his nap. I sent Blake's dad and my dad to get ice cream and Ibuprofen. Caleb started to fall asleep, but kept flinching and then feeling the pain all over again. He would not touch the ice cream and never actually took the Ibuprofen.
After 30 minutes of waiting, we got called in by the nurse. She said, "So what's going on with Caleb." I said, "Well, he has two broken legs." She looked at me in shock, "Are you serious?" Then, she got down to business and rushed us into a room less than 15 minutes later. They cut his socks off, removed his clothes, and put on a tiny hospital gown. A doctor examined him and a nurse put an IV in his arm. She braced it with an arm brace so that he would not pull the IV out. They pumped a bunch of morphine into him and he began to relax and feel less pain. They took X-rays of both legs and then we waited.
We waited a couple of hours and finally they got an ambulance there to drive us to the Children's Hospital where he would be taken care of. They had a stretcher with a little pad on it that had buckles for a child. They gently moved him and buckled him in and covered him with a blanket. His legs were spread wide and extremely bent at the knees because that was how he was most comfortable. They kept him that way.
He was very sedated and hardly talked at all the whole day. As they rolled him toward the ambulance, his eyes lit up as he saw the cool vehicle we'd be riding in. They allowed one person to ride with him, so I got to go. The drive took a while because of the snow. They drove only 40 miles per hour on the freeway! But, we got there safely and were immediately put into a room at the Children's Hospital ER.
He kept asking for "water ice in ner" (Water with ice in there.) but we couldn't give him any because they wanted him to be prepared in case he needed surgery. He hadn't eaten since before noon that day. They took more X-rays of him at the Children's hospital. He got a Diego sticker and was very protective of it, and put it on his shirt. Also, he did not want anyone moving the blanket off his legs because it seemed like every time they did, they would move his legs and he'd feel the pain shoot through them.
Caleb was so tired the whole day and kept trying to fall asleep, and would flinch in his sleep and feel the pain again and start to whimper. It was so sad. My mom and Blake's mom kept Anndi all day for me, and the Hissongs brought me the pump so that they would have milk for her. Caleb had so many people who wanted to help.
At 10 pm, the casting people finally came in. They had examined his X-rays and did not need to do surgery, which was great news! They would need to "set" one of the legs, but that was all. As soon as they started wrapping him, Caleb seemed to feel the pain much less. They squeezed the right leg while the cast was still malleable, and that set the bone back in perfect position. We got to go home with Caleb by 11 pm.
Blake slept in his room that night, because he still would wake up when he'd move in his sleep and start whimpering in pain. The next day was Anndi's baby blessing. Church was cancelled so we just did it at my parent's house with family and close friends. Caleb was held the whole day and hardly talked at all. He would not eat anything, because he was on Lortab. He slept most of the day.
Halfway through the day, however, he started complaining of a tummy ache. Finally, he threw up several times. It was really sad and made the whole situation that much less bearable. It was especially hard on my dad. Luckily, though, Caleb would insist on Ga-Ga holding him a lot of the day. He loves his Ga-Ga.
That night and the next night were a little better, as the pain began to subside. However, then our house was hit with the stomach flu. I got it first and threw up all night while taking care of baby Anndi. Then, my dad got it. Then, little Caleb got it, then Blake and his mom, and last my mom. What a week.
2010 has been interesting for us so far... brand new baby, 2 weeks of bronchitis and colds, 2 broken legs, and the stomach flu. It will go up from here! Caleb's 1 week follow up doctor's appointment was very positive. His bones already show enormous healing in just a week's time. He got new, colorful casts, and has another appointment for March 1st when he will hopefully have the casts removed. I think we're going to have a cast-removing party at Chuck-E-Cheese's!
