Dane Breaks His Leg

It was my birthday.  Jason had been gone for almost 24 hours.  My mom and I spent the afternoon at lunch and shopping for much needed new pans.  Krista sat at the house why the babies slept.  We got home right when the older kids were getting home and the babies were waking up.  Most of us were in the kitchen discussing how we were going to get through the next 4 hours.  We had dinner, a choir concert, a wrestling match, and... something else, but I can't remember now.  Dane was sitting on the kitchen chair eating a snack and I was taking my pans out of boxes when we all heard a thud and a scream.  I turn around to see Dane on his back on the floor, he had hit his head on the cabinet behind him.  I pick him up,  thinking he was crying because he hurt his head.  He wailed for a long time, unusual for Dane.  After he calmed down enough to talk I asked him what hurt (knowing it was his head, just trying to get him to talk) and he said his leg hurt.  Weird, he fell straight back.  I spent the next 30 minutes trying to get him to calm down.  We offered candy, turned on a show, read book, everything to get him to stop crying, he wouldn't.  Very weird for Dane.  It was 5:00 and our "busy night" started at 6:00.  I had been to Children's ER before, they are quick, in and out.  I figured if I went right away I could be back in time for our first event.  I was wrong.

It was very very busy.  They told me it would be 2 hours before they even saw us.  I explained I was a mom of 6 with my husband out of town and older kids activities and that I couldn't sit in a waiting room for 2 hours, so I told them I would leave and come back later.  They must have felt sorry for Dane, they called us back 5 minutes later.  We were still there until 8.  I missed everything.  But that was ok.  My mom was there, she did it all.  And if we wouldn't have gone back 5 minutes later we could have been there until midnight!

Dane was awesome.  He almost always is.

It was a spiral break.

Dane is not fragile.  He is pretty tough and has a high pain tolerance.  Those first 3 days after the break were rough.   He was in so much pain and the soft cast didnt give him much relief.  Just moving any part of his body hurt his leg, and he started anticipating the pain even when I got close to him to move him.  He pretty much laid on the couch for 3 days.  Eve did not handle it well. She knew something was wrong, but didn't understand what. She didn't like Dane not playing with her,  she didn't like me taking care of and carrying around Dane, she didn't like being by herself.  It was rough but we made it through.

On the third day he was so tired of being on the couch AND we woke up to the first snow of the season.  He DESPERATLY wanted to go play in the snow (It is mid January and there is still snow and he still hasn't been able to play in it :(   I took 30 minutes bundled them both up, I put him in the stroller (screaming) but once we got outside we were able to be out there for 20 minutes, and they were happy.  

On about day four he was feeling good enough to get "set" around the house.  I put him up against the tree with ornaments or tools and he would decorate or "fix" the tree.  I also put him up against the window sill so he could look out and play with little animals.  We sat at the table and played with playdough, colored, painted, and played with tractors in rice and beans.  

He finally got a hard cast.  It was a whole leg cast so he couldn't really walk but he could crawl around and it didn't hurt him anymore.  He was happy with the Christmas colors.  I was still carrying him everywhere and my back is FEELING it. 

It got nice again and we bagged up his cast and we went outside a few times.  

 Currently the cast has been taken off and he is in a boot that he can walk around in and move all around in.  It was our first break in the family (except my broken leg as a 6 year old) and we hope it is the last.