Bent but NOT Broken

**WARNING*

*BROKEN BONE PICS BELOW*

*WARNING**

So, really, Wyatt's arm is broken.  

X-ray of Wyatt's arm right before getting them set and put into s cast. 

Yesterday (Friday) around 4:30, James was on a plane home from NYC/Conn., I was on the couch in the living room and Wyatt was in there too playing.  He raced passed me (to behind me) into the kitchen and fell.  When he falls in his cast, you hear it and he falls often because he just runs at full speed all the time.  But this sounded just a little bit different so I got up to help him up.  

Wyatt's left arm.  Both the radius and ulna bones are broken.

Usually we'll say,"up" and he will repeat it and jump up with no physical help from either of us and occasionally he does need/want our help.  This time he didn't repeat and something was different about his cry.  So I scooped him up and sat on the couch with him.  God just told me something was wrong so I started looking him over.  His arm just didn't look right.  Not one bit.  

While waiting in the ER for the doc and some morphine.

I don't even know how to describe what went through my mind at that moment.  I'm sure what goes through every parents' mind when a bone has been broken.  I know when I broke the same bones on the same arm when I was 6, my mom didn't believe me until she turned around and saw my arm with her own two eyes.  And then I think she said a few words that I won't blog.  lol.  

He took a little nap while waiting on drugs. 

I think my first thought might have been one of those words and then a "There's no freaking way this just happened."  But it did happen.  I knew I needed my phone.  I got up with Wyatt, grabbed my phone and probably debated on what to do for about 30 seconds... 

Call James? ...no can't, he's on the plane.

Call our nurse neighbor? ...no, she's probably still at work and she'd probably just tell me to go to the ER.    

Call 911 or drive myself to the ER?  ...ambulance will take longer because they have to get here first then drive to the hospital.  How much would that one 7 mile drive cost us? 

Drive us there myself it is.  Now to get Wyatt in his car seat without hurting him more, bag of things we might need, snacks for Wyatt, water for both of us, shoes for both of us and my phone charger because the battery is already RED... wallet and a jacket for if I get cold because I always get cold. 

GO! 

Wyatt amazingly was moving his arm around at the shoulder,
 elbow, wrist and fingers before he had drugs.   

Of course it's 4:45 on a Friday through a business district to get there.  One of the reasons we live where we live is so that it would be EASY to get to the hospital if needed.  In Sachse, it was a 30ish mile drive and we like Children's because they have his ENTIRE MEDICAL RECORD on file already.  They ask me questions and I can answer them but if my mind isn't working to remember all his meds, I can say, "His list of meds is up to date in the system..." and we're all good.  :-) 

Anyway, it seemed like it took forever to get there.  Slow cars not moving out of my way.  Don't they know my baby is hurting and I have my flashers on and I'm honking.  MOVE IT!  Nope.  No moving it.  Red lights.... times two.... oh it just seemed like forever.  

There was a GIANT team a people in the room to sedate Wyatt, set and cast his arm.
They didn't take him to an OR, just did it right there in the ER room.  

I pulled up, parked right in front of the ER doors and took him in.  They told me I could leave my car there (I called on the way) and I'm not sure if I cared if I could or not to be honest.  I know it's "just" a broken bone but again, that is my baby and he's been through enough.  I did put the car in park, turn it off and lock the doors.  :-)  We got there, checked in and sat down.  We may have sat there three minutes before they called us back.  PTL.  Got his vitals and took us back to a room.  They immediately dropped an IV in his right hand so that when the doc ordered his morphine, they could get it in him as quickly as possible.  

The nurse said everyone reacts differently to coming out of sedation.
Wyatt whines and refused his paci for quite a while.
He also didn't fall asleep for a long time.
Nurse said usually it's the teenagers that cry but some go to
sleep for a while and others are bouncing off the walls hyper.  

Doc looked at his arm, ordered the morphine, in room x-rays and then called for ortho to look at him.  The ortho guy wasn't a doc but the ortho NP.  I felt really confident in his taking care of Wyatt.  I wasn't worried because he's an NP or anything like that but in the ER, you never know who you're going to get.  But Ray, the ortho NP, was gentle and confident.  By this time, I think James had gotten there with dinner in hand.  Wyatt's elbow was swollen so the ER doc thought it might have a fracture as well but Ray did not because when he touched it, Wyatt didn't flinch like he did when he touched where the break was.  Either way, it would be treated the same.  Ray also has Wyatt's back doctor for a boss.  He said he'd shoot him a message to let him know one of his patients is in the ER and what happened. 

He looks so sad here but he was just zoned out from the drugs.  

Because of when Wyatt ate last, we had to wait for his food to digest before they could sedate him.   Got there about 5 and couldn't set the bones until about 9.  Thankfully, Wyatt seemed comfortable.   To reset the bones, they did not put Wyatt fully under sedation like he's been in the past.  They gave him something that just kind of paralyzed, for lack of better words.  If he was a awake, he'd stay awake but have NO idea what was going on or be able to move and he'd have no memory of anything they were doing.  So, this meant that he did not need to be on a ventilator.  Just a nasal cannula.  The bones didn't completely break apart from one another but they did break.  Ray said it was easy, PTL, to set them straight and get his arm in the cast.  Once they actually started, it didn't take long at all.  

X-rays of Wyatt's arm after the bones had been set and put into a cast.

Saturday morning laying in bed with mommy and daddy.
He's snuggled up to my elbow.  lol.

We just had to wait for Wyatt to come out of his sedation and tolerate some fluids without vomiting.  We left basically at midnight with instructions to get some hydrocodone filled, to keep his arm elevated for 3 days as much as possible, especially if his fingers begin to swell, and to make an appointment in the clinic to see him Wednesday afternoon.  We'll see him weekly until the cast comes off.  Should be about four weeks.  Kids heal fast.  

Watching cartoons. 

Wyatt slept until about 7:15, chilled for a while, ate some breakfast and was back to his normal, go, go, go self.  Of course we're over here like NO NO NO baby... SLOW DOWN.  WALK.  NO RUNNING! 

It's mid afternoon and Wyatt is asleep on the couch, arm elevated, with James while he watches football.  [Aggies aren't on antenna TV, so we'll have to just listen to the game online once it begins.] 

God is good.  This situation reminds me of a Beth Moore study I did years ago.  I don't remember if it was Daniel or Hosea but Beth used an illustration of a big, strong tree rooted in the ground.  And God cut some of the tree back, it swayed in the wind, cut some more but NEVER was the tree uprooted.  It was in solid ground and it would grow again to bigger and stronger.

I feel like that is what God is doing.  He's pruning us to just be stronger.  He will never leave us or forget about us.  We are all His.

Now, with that said.  I am tired.  We are tired.  A friend of mine said it best last night, "I bet you're tired of being strong."  And while the answer to that is absolutely.  We are tired of having to be so strong.  BUT thankfully, that strength doesn't have to come from within ourselves.  It's given to us and given to us freely from God.

HIGHS AND LOWS.... 

I started with the lows but absolutely do not want to forget the highs of yesterday.  

Wyatt took some big steps in eating yesterday.  He's always tasted anything I've given him.  Occasionally he'll grimace but he always eats what I feed him.  

He's been showing me some signs lately of interest in table foods.  Last week, he sucked on a sucker some, until it became a fun drum stick and was banging it on everything.  lol.  

We stopped at Braums with Uncle Jack and Granny last week and I put a couple of crinkle fries in front of Wyatt on the table and he loved them.  (See photo below.)  He just sucks on them though.  He doesn't know how to or that he needs to take a bite, chew and then swallow.  He just knows it's good and he wants it in his mouth.  

He then did the same thing with tortilla chips at a mexian food place.  

So I talked to his speech therapist about these things and she said go ahead and try some things at home and see what happens.  He's made great progress with his tongue movement and chewing motions.  

So, yesterday.  I tried.  And he did well.  I used pirate booty popcorn and some string cheese.  He loved both and did GREAT with both.  I was almost in tears.  James wasn't on a plane yet and he loved hearing about it as well. 

He's no where where he needs to be but that's a nice big step in the right direction and we will claim victory and PTL!  

We are also working on him using a pouch to eat some purees independently.  It will be very helpful in childcare type situations (ie:  church and Bible study) and he's done GREAT with that this week as well.  I'm very surprised by that success because the first day we tried it, he fought tooth and nail and cried and threw a fit.  So, PTL once again.  He is mightier than CDH, an eating delay or broken bones.  

Working on a sucker. 

The french fries. 

Loving tortilla chips at Tupy's.  

Eating his entire pouch all by himself.  

The pirate booty popcorn.
I had to break up the pieces for his tiny mouth but that's okay.
I also had to feed them to him but we will work on that.  

And just because it's cute.....