Broken Bones

I (Trey) feel I should write this blog as I earned the "father of the year award" for this accident.  It was a beautiful snowy Saturday (1/26) and I thought it would be fun to take the girls sledding to the Mary Waters Park on Leonard and Lafeyette.  We were having a great time for about 45 minutes until Cece and Elie went down the hill (like they had many times before) when something went terribly wrong.  After about 50 feet down the hill their sled started to veer to the left where at the bottom of the hill is a chain link fence.  They sped up at the bottom of the hill and were not slowing down while heading for the fence.  Ultimately, they hit the fence and I sprinted down the hill (amazing I didn't fall!) to help them.  I was terrified as they were both crying and they were still on their sled and were under the fence up to their knees, and Elie's face was bleeding.  I was expecting both of their legs to be badly cut and possibly pierced by the sharp bottom of the fence.  I lifted the fence off from them and a woman helped pull them from under the fence.  Cecelia jumped off the sled and I quickly checked her legs after asking her if she hurt anywhere.  She was crying but did not show any signs of injuries.  I took Elie's boots off and pulled the snowpant legs up to check for blood/cuts from the fence and found nothing.  I picked her up and carried her to the top of the hill, close to where my truck was.  I put her right boot on and attempted to put her left boot on when I noticed a very large step off/displacement of her shin/tibia.   I know immediately she had a broken leg and Elie did NOT want me touching it!  We packed it up, the same woman helped us to the truck and we headed to the Children's hospital. 

I called Jodi to tell her what had happened (this is where my emotions started to kick in).  Once at the ER, we were brought back immediately.  Cecelia was scared and wasn't being easy, but was distracted by movies on the T.V. in the room.  The nurse asked me what happened, and I literally could not talk for at least 3 minutes, because every time I opened my mouth, my emotions got the best of me.  Eventually I was able to tell the RN the story.  Jodi soon walked in with Jediah which brought on a whole new set of emotions.  Elie was crying for mommy, but really was not showing any signs of pain as she was ingrained in the movie on the TV.  X-rays were positive for a complete and displaced Tibia and Fibula fracture.

Elie is never easy in a doctors office or hospital as she is all too familiar with them.  She pulled out her first IV in her right hand, so they restrained her to put in a left forearm IV with a large velcro wrap which prevented her from pulling it out.  To make a long story short, Elie was sedated in order to allow the ortho doctor to set her 2 bones.  We visited an orthopedic surgeon the following Friday.  Her xrays on Friday showed the bones healing nicely.  We have a follow up visit for three weeks later when they expect to take the cast off and she should be good to go.  She is walking on the cast, which the doctor said was fine to do or walking around with her pediatric walker that Trey was able to get from Mary Free Bed.  

Right after her sedation.

Watching movies

Elie today with her purple cast.