About Last Night...

I am going to start this post by saying how blessed we are to have the friends we have in our life! Yesterday I posted about how tired I have been, that Drew has been out of town all week, that I went to DuPont twice last week, and that I think that I deserved some sort of badge of honor for surviving a week without my husband. I now need to forfeit my badge of honor as I no longer qualify for this award. Last night after receiving a call from Drew that his plane was going to be delayed another forty or fifty minutes I wanted to throw a major toddler temper tantrum! Knowing that I shouldn't do this to my husband over the phone while half of flight US Air 3344 could hear me, I hung up with him and called my sister instead. This delay meant the difference between getting home in time to put the kids to bed late or getting home too late to put the kids to bed late. I was on the phone talking with my sister about this while also in the process of heating up dinner for the kids, changing yet another blow out diaper of Lucy's, and wiping up the side of the cabinet that Sophie decided to use as a napkin, when a terrible thing happened!!!! Lucy was in her high chair eating a fist full of Cheerios when she stood up and fell onto the floor. Oh my nerves are still shaking as I write this. I didn't actually see her fall as I had my back turned to her while I was throwing away her dirty diaper. Of course she screamed, I screamed, and all the kids screamed. As for my sister, I didn't really hear her scream because I dropped the phone so quickly and ran to my baby, but I'm sure she did. I immediately swooped Lucy up and began to comfort her while feeling her head for any major bumps or bruises. Lucy nestled into my chest as she wanted to nurse for comfort. She calmed down rather quickly while nursing and I was able to look her over for any obvious signs of injury. She appeared fine until I tried to put her down on the floor. She began to scream and I noticed that she wouldn't bear any weight on her left leg. Oh my gosh, I knew something wasn't right! I called our dear friends Raquel and Doug. Doug happened to be the perfect person to ask about our current predicament as he is an orthopedic surgeon. After trying to calm my nervous, he said that he was going to make some calls to DuPont hospital and to a friend who is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. He offered to go with me to DuPont to take a look at her leg. Oh yes you read correctly, back to DuPont again! After quickly mobilizing the kids, convincing Sophie to put on clothes and shoes, and grabbing three pieces of cold pizza for a dinner in the car, off we went. I dropped the kids off to be with Raquel as Doug and I headed to DuPont. Drew, in the meantime, had no idea what had just happened as he was in flight and his cell phone was turned off. I made some calls to friends to let them know what had just happened and where I was going to be just in case Drew couldn't get a hold of me. This is a warning to all of you who are reading this and don't really know us yet, I think that I would think twice before becoming friends with us, as I truly feel that a friendship with us could be detrimental to ones cardiac health! Just ask my sister, although she is family and doesn't have any choice. All of our friends I spoke with were so supportive as always and in awe of what had just happened, prayers and well wishes were said and greatly appreciated! Once at DuPont, I got up the nerve to ask Doug about worst case scenario. He told me that if she had a broken hip then she would need a Spica cast, you know a cast around the entire lower portion of ones body. Whoa, I quickly changed the question to best case scenario, which he said would be just a bruise and that it would heal in its own time. Because of Doug's connections we were seen right away by the ER doctors and the orthopedic resident on call. When the ER doctor saw us she recognized us from a previous ER visit we had with Lucy this past year. In my mind, I knew that it probably doesn't look good as a parent when you are recognized by the ER doctor. Right away Lucy was sent to radiology where they took two images of her leg. I could tell that she was indeed in pain and that this probably wasn't just a bruise. The orthopedic resident and Doug took a look at her films and concluded that she indeed had a broken leg, her left tibia to be exact. Poor Lucy, she has been through so much in her young life, and now a broken left tibia. My heart aches for her! I guess now we need to add orthopedic to our list of specialists. Oh, what next!!! Drew arrived at the ER just as they began casting her leg. He was a sight for sore eyes! Of course the first thing he asked the doctor was why weren't they using a Gore-Tex cast liner. F.Y.I. apparently a Gore-Tex cast liner was not appropriate to use in the casting situation that Lucy needed. Lucy's leg was cast from her toes all the way up to her hip. This definitely adds some extra weight to her. When all was said and done, we were in and out of the ER in record time. I know you read this Doug and Raquel, thank you for everything! As for Drew and I, I think that he will think twice before leaving me alone again for any extended periods of time.