What a week!

It's sure been quite a week. Nicole has been off for fall break and it hasn't been how I imagined it would be. Morgan was really sick last weekend and I took her to the doctor on Monday and she has rhino virus (spelling?)(correction: It was rotavirus...something with the stomach) and a sinus infection. Poor thing. We thought we were going to have to take her on Sunday night to the ER to hydrate her. She was throwing everything up! Well, she's doing much better now. On Wednesday morning the girls had dental appointments and found out Nicole has her first cavity...ugh. Well, later that morning we went to the park with friends and Tyler was climbing (as usual) and fell from this waffle climbing wall on the playground. He didn't ever try to push himself up and I went to help him. He wasn't really even crying much and I thought maybe he got the wind knocked out of him. I took him over to sit with me and he wanted to get back down, but wouldn't move his arm. I tried giving him fishy crackers and he wouldn't reach for them but just kinda whined. I called my doctors office and they said to bring him right in. Luckily my friend Jean was with us and she kept Nicole and Morgan so I could take Tyler to the doctor. He checked out his right arm and Tyler just flinched a little when his elbow was touched. Fortunately their office has an x-ray machine and so we didn't have to go somewhere else. While we were waiting for the doctor to come back and tell us the results, Tyler fell asleep in my lap. I kept thinking that maybe it was just dislocated and they'd pop it back in and wrap it and send us on our way....not so. Turns out he fractured a couple places in his elbow and needed pins. The pediatric orthopedic surgeon was waiting for us at Memorial Hospital to take him right in for surgery. BIG SHOCK!! He barely cried!!! The doctor couldn't believe he wasn't screaming, too because I guess it's a very painful break. He said that Tyler must have a high pain tolerance. My baby was going to need surgery!! I called Jason and told him to meet me and called Brother Miller to see if he'd meet us to give Tyler a blessing before he went into surgery. They took him in at about 3:00pm and it was so hard to leave him! They let me go into the O.R. until he was put under and then we waited...

The surgery took about an hour and he was in recovery for about an hour and a half. He had to stay overnight so they could watch him and make sure his arm didn't swell. He had a really good night and we were able to come home around 9:00am. He played around yesterday and really hasn't let it slow him down. Today has been a little harder. I think the meds in the hospital are stronger than the ones we have here and so I thinks it's been a little more painful for him today.

He is certainly a trooper, though!

He's gotta go back in 10 days for some x-rays through the cast to see if the pins are doing their job. I guess they are sticking out of the skin under the cast so we can't even get it the least bit wet or they'll get infected. He'll have to be in that cast for another 3 weeks and then if all is healing well, they'll pull the pins out. I'm hoping they'll at least give him something for the pain of that process. Then he'll be in just a sling after that. The sling he has now is built into the cast because he has to keep it close to his body and the wrist needs to be a little higher than the elbow. Makes it tricky for the stomach sleeper that he is. Poor guy! He's such a happy boy, though!!

My neighbor gave me a couple of shirts her boys had outgrown that were big enough to get over that honkin' cast! We're going to have to rethink his Halloween costume, too. I think he's gonna be a hospital patient and wear his gown and wrap his head or something. Hopefully it won't get too cold before he gets the thing off. I can't imagine trying to get a coat over the thing!

We just want to thank Jean for taking the girls to lunch and keeping them for the afternoon. And Maureen and her cute boys, AJ and Kevin for feeding and entertaining them all evening until Jason could get home... AND for bringing us all in dinner last night!!! Thanks Ellery for dropping everything and meeting us at the hospital for the blessing. Thanks to EVERYONE who has called and offered help and support through this! Being in the pediatric department at the hospital that night made me really grateful for so many things. Most of all for the health of our little ones. Seeing and hearing all that many others are going through really opened my eyes to the wonderful blessings we have.

THANK YOU!!!