A broken leg - the whole story

This was a big event in our house, so writing it down seems to be called for.

    Saturday started just lovely. A big lie in, kids happily watching tv, Emmy helping the boys get breakfast... relaxing! Scott and his boys turned up to help Nate paint the eves of the house and to play, and even brought mama's donuts - YUM!! It was all going lovely until Emmy decided to climb the ladder to see what Dad and Uncle were painting on the roof. She said she had the thought that she was too high and that she should get down as she was about waist high to the guttering. She started her descent but the ladder wobbled and she crashed down.
    The noise I heard from the office...... I just knew it wasn't normal. I ran outside to Emmy lying on the damp front deck, the ladder beside her, her screaming "my bones are wrong", to look down and see the bones of her left leg so obviously out of place and pushing against the skin. It has been an image that has been difficult to remove from my mind since. I yelled for Nathan ('cause I didn't know he was on the roof, I thought he was around the back of the house) and all I heard was "call an ambulance". So that was me on the phone for a while.
    Scott jumped off the roof down to Emmy cause I didn't think to put the ladder back up first, then Nate got down. They immediately gave her a blessing and comforted her. Em went into shock, we put a couple blankets on her and waited for the ambulance. It took about 15 minutes. My poor girl. What pain she was in! Nate was awesome keeping calm and focused and directing everything while he held our baby. I packed a bag for her, knowing we'd most likely be overnight. Mum was called to come and Joesy had already been on her way over to visit us. Leah got quite upset watching it all and had a good cry in Granny's arms. To give her something to do I told her to take some photo's. Emerson was NOT impressed with the photo taking but it helped Leah.
    Ken and Trevor from St John's ambulance were awesome. Got her on the gas and gave her some other pain relief, splinted her leg and got her on board. The boys were excited about the ambulance and just wanted to sit in it. They were very content to climb up for 10 seconds then back down again. I travelled with Em, Nate stayed to sort out things at home. When we left Joesy took all the kids for a big walk and play at the playground and Mum cleaned up our house (thanks very much for that!).

    At the hospital Ken (turns out he lives around the corner from us) and Trevor were happy to stay longer with her and take her for an x-ray on their trolley then return her to kids emergency. That meant she only had to change beds once not three times. Small things are so helpful. From the x-ray they could see that she had broken both bones and that the muscles had contracted and pulled her bones up past each other, pins or plates most likely needed. She kept on the gas and got morphine too, and asked her Daddy for another blessing once he joined us. We were there about 3 hours before being transferred to Ward 26.

    She got her own room (#4) and we waited for her to go to surgery. She went just after 5pm. I thought the anaesthetist was awesome - I can't remember his first name, but the last name was Walsh. Em was really scared she was going to feel everything but he distracted her by giving her an ipad to play with while they prepped her and put her to sleep. She didn't even notice it coming. That made me cry - being in the prep area with her and watching her cry due to her fears and knowing my words weren't enough, she was still scared. Thank goodness for the ipad!

    Resetting her leg went really well and they didn't even have to put pins or a plate in as initially discussed. Didn't cut her leg at all, just manipulated it back into place and plastered it in a plaster-of-paris cast. She was only in about 35 mins so we passed the time in the closest waiting place to the theatre - the cafeteria - having dinner. She was distressed coming out of la-la land and it wasn't until we returned her to her room on the ward and let her have a little sleep that she really calmed down and her heartbeat slowed down.

    Kimberly, Cierra and Kaiya arrived which made Em cry. The emotional day and having some family arrive was a little bit much but she soon settled down and they came in to visit. Nathan chose to stay the night with her and Kimberly drove me home about 9pm (to an open front door, lights off and no alarm on but thankfully all ok and untouched. Mum had forgotten to shut the door after three attempts to leave and take the kids home for the night :) ).

    It was a bit of a weird feeling to be at home on my own, very lonely. I went into Emerson's room, laid on her bed and cried. My poor girl. It was hard to sleep and I was awake by 6am. I returned to the hospital at 8.30am with some food and more supplies but neither Nate or Em were hungry - until he finally succumbed to the rest of mama's donuts (have I told you how yum they are??).

    They kept Em on Tramadol (a strong pain relief from the morphine family) and panadol throughout her stay. After the pain relief kicked in we managed to give her a shower, it took two of us to figure it all out including lifting her out of bed while the other supported her leg. She was sore.
    She has no appetite and only drinks when we encourage her. Nathan decided to go home for a shower then Nanny arrived with Leah, Ammon and Caleb. Well, she arrived with Leah and Caleb - Ammon had followed someone else off the elevator on an earlier floor so Mum and I rode the elevator and ran down stairs trying to find him. Mum did, what a little panic. We returned to the room and Donna, Tylan, Natalie and Nadia Robinson arrived to visit. Papa came too. We had brought the ipad and movie player to entertain her when there were no visitors and the twins brought up some movies for her to watch along with some coloured felts. She quickly put the felts to work and had people signing her cast - only on her foot or above her knee though. She didn't want anyone pressing on her calf!
    Nathan returned about 1pm and Paul, Jayden and Jasmine Leith came to see us. After they left we encouraged her to try crutches. It took forever for them to bring her some and a wheelchair that we could go for a walk in. Had to ask about three nurses for them to finally order one. Em was keen to try, however as her leg was lowered (had always been raised before this point) the blood rushing back down was painful and she cried, and cried. Right then Chris and Hannah Dawson and Rosetta Forbes turned up. What timing! I asked them to wait in the lounge while we settled her down, she was most upset at the pain. We visited for a bit but Emerson was chomping at the bit to go for a walk to the cafeteria. They went off to visit another friend in the hospital and we headed off. Didn't make it to the cafeteria though as Ru and Ants and the kids arrived to visit. We talked for a while in the hospital hallway but thought better to return to the lounge, Emmy wasn't impressed. She wanted to go to the cafeteria. Probably didn't help her mood that her dinner arrived and was not appealing to her. By now she was tired and we returned her to bed. Nathan went home as the kids were returning home for the night. He had to go to work on Monday and would drop Leah at school and the boys at Donna's on his way.
    She still had the room to herself. Petria came to visit. She waited for her tramadol before going to sleep at 9pm, she was wasted. She was having a great sleep until 10:45pm when they brought in two new roommates at the same time. Man nurses are noisy! I don't think they have the concept that it's night time. For them it's just work and they do it regardless if the patients are sleeping. Emerson of course woke up and was getting angry that they wouldn't be quiet and let her sleep. I tried to shush them through the curtain, fat lot of good that did. Emmy started to cry and asked to go home. I was so annoyed. I finally got up and asked them to be quiet, that my daughter was trying to sleep. Downside was it was only the families in the room at that point. Although they were great and whispered after that, the nurses would still come in and talk at normal tones. Argh!
    I didn't sleep well, getting up a couple times in the night. Who sleeps well in the hospital?? We were awake by 6:45am and Anthea came to visit when her shift finished at 7am. (Ants works in the NICU). It's quite helpful to have someone with medical knowledge to answer questions you didn't know you had and to give tips you hadn't even thought you'd need. So glad she came. Emmy was happy to see her aswell. Breakfast came - weetbix. Em didn't want it, she had ordered it for her Dad, so that he'd have something to eat. Awww.... only thing was she thought she was ordering all her food for Sunday, not Monday.
    The doctor came round and said we could go home once physio had seen her. Yay. Em wanted another shower but there was only me to help her. We had to wait a bit for the nurse to be free to come help her get out of bed. It was harder taking her by myself and she wished for her Daddy to come help too. His strength was a huge comfort for her and made her feel safe. Her leg did drop off the wheelchair at one point though and that caused alot of pain but we managed in the end. Emmy wanted to go for a walk but someone had taken the wheelchair during the night and we couldn't find another one. She was stuck in bed again. They brought a cot into the room and Em looked at me with horror. She did not want a crying baby in the room, she REALLY wanted to go home now. We waited and waited for the physio to arrive. Nanny came to visit.
    She had her painkillers about 12pm and they did not have the same effect by the time they finally arrived about 3pm. Nathan had arrived before then and it took a fair bit of coaxing to get her willing to try. I think her motivation was that her room was now full and noisy, as was the ward. As painful as it was for her she gave it a go. She had to be able to master steps before she could leave. The cast was so heavy she struggled. The physio let her try her shoe on her good foot, and the extra height really helped her get her cast off the ground. She did it! We could go home!
   Of course things aren't that simple and it took the nurses a good while to discharge her and order her a wheelchair to take her to the car. Lucky Nanny had taken a few things home for us including Em's flowers so we only had to take her bag, her crutches, her shower stool, her walking frame and another bag of 'stuff'. You gather a bit in two days don't you?
   Daddy promised her a visit to Burger King on her way home for some real food, and although she wanted a combo she was full after eating just the chips. We stopped at Petria's to pick up dinner that she had so kindly prepared for us, then went to Donna's to pick up the boys and Leah who had gone home with the twins after school. It was nice to be home together as a family again.
    Emerson just wanted to go lie in her bed. Isn't your own bed just the best?! She was so happy to be in it. She asked if it would be okay if she didn't have any dinner and just had a rest instead. Of course it was, and she was asleep within minutes. That was at 5pm. Sandra, Noah and Ezra Gudgeon came to visit followed by Doug Rathbone and Karen Belk and her girls Shae and Brooke. They brought us the wheelchair from work (Godsend!) that Shae had used when she broke her leg and woohoo it was the same leg! So good. We tried to rouse her for dinner but no luck. We did get Em up to go to the toilet, got her in some pyjama's then she went back to bed and that was her until 7am! Oh - she did wake at 4am needing painkillers but was straight back to sleep. Finally she could catch up.
    Monday night was the hardest night for me. We were finally home, the kids were in bed asleep, the house was in order and Nathan and I could just stop. It was then that the emotional part caught up with me I think. We went to bed and all I could see was Emmy's leg as she lay on the deck, the look on her face, the pain she was in, I could hear the screaming, the crying, her going so pale as she went into shock. I cried and cried. I couldn't get it out of my head. I tried reading for a while till I got tired enough to just go straight to sleep. It took a long time.
    We decided to keep her home from school all week so that her leg had a good chance to heal. We had already promised Leah we would watch her do her cross country and Emerson was keen to come too and see her friends. We took her in the wheelchair and she was the star on centre stage with all the attention she got. It was a good chance also to talk to the school about the help she would need when she returned. Leah won her race and was very proud of herself :) as were we.
   So life has settled back down as Emerson has gained strength and is more independant. She's been to her own cross country to support her friends, had dinner at Valentine's and been to Faith In God and church. She can go to the toilet by herself now, is using the crutches alot but still needs help getting in and out of the shower. Her leg hurts if she doesn't sleep with it straight on the pillow it rests on and her tramadol has run out. We will see if panadol is enough now. She gets the plaster of paris cast taken off this Wednesday and she is hoping for a purple glitter cast to replace it. It will still be above the knee for another 4 weeks with one after that below the knee for a few weeks possibly.
    Today is Monday 27th August and she has gone to school. She may last the whole day, she may come home at lunchtime. Her class missed her and she missed them but I'm sure she enjoyed having no school work to do :), back to reality Miss McAnnalley!

    For me, sleep does not come easily any more. As tired as my body is and as drained as my mind is, every night I struggle to sleep and replenish myself. There is still a household to look after and things to be done. Work is usually a nice break from home, but even that has been hard this week to get my mind around it. And I only worked Friday! Caleb has not been well since Saturday with fever and who knows what else, conjunctivitis maybe?? Ammon had a rash on his legs on Friday morning so we went to the doctor Friday night as it had spread so much more - thinks it was an allergic reaction to something, it was gone by the morning. It just doesn't end does it? This week brings a ward FHE, fracture clinic, parent-teacher interviews, singing lessons, gymnastics lessons, primary meeting, book club, and more painting on our house if the weather fines up.....
   Nate isn't much better off. His laptop broke down at work so he can't get much done. Even the replacement one he received today doesn't let him log in. It's frustrating him. He also went to a specialist on Tuesday about his back, he had an MRI scan on it on Wednesday and essentially something in it is broken, so he will need surgery to fix it. He feels the pain more and more lately. Bring on our holiday in Queenstown I say!!!!