A compound Tib-Fib fracture, to be specific!

It had already been a long day.  Garrett’s 5 or 6 hours in the chemo chair in the a.m.  Me there with him, sitting in hard chairs in cold air conditioning, both of which exacerbate my pain and fatigue of the Fibromyalgia, so when we got home, Garrett got comfortable on the couch, and I stretched out on the bed for a brief nap only to be awakened very shortly by my husband’s frantic voice telling me that Isaac was hurt on the trampoline at Dwight’s house.  Dwight and his other friend Trevor did a great job of making fun of him and keeping him laughing so his  mind was off the pain, also in keeping his weight off the foot, and getting him out front where we could get him to the car.  Isaac was totally stoic.  Took it like a man!

Straight to the E.R., we go.  This is my wild kid.  The one that I had to chase down on the “Lazy River” in waist-deep water.  The one who, when he finally got the hang of the bike yelled “I’m not stopping” as he headed straight for the 4 lane major-road which connects to our side-street and gave his Dad his first gray hairs.  So, it was not such a surprise that he was the first to break a bone, even though his big brother played center front line for several years of football, what was really noteworthy was the fact he’d made it fourteen years before doing so.  I congratulated him accordingly, and we counted our blessings.

I think I have told you guys that hubby is a bigger “mother hen” than I am.  Me, the former nurse, I have that emotionally detached mode I go into at times like that, but it doesn’t kick in until I am facing the actual emergency.  Getting there, was a little frantic.  Garrett doesn’t have the benefit of that conditioning.  He didn’t freak out or anything, as far as the look of the leg.  I’m not even sure he looked at it.  But on the way back across town to the hospital, his frayed nerves began to show a little.  Keep in mind I’m very hard of hearing.  Garrett is soft-spoken and I have to frequently remind him to speak up, which is nerve-racking for us all around.  Here is how I usually handle that.  If he says a few quick words, I will turn and look him in the eye with my blank expression, and try and gauge by his facial expression whether he was just mumbling and thinking out loud, or whether it was something important.  When he sees that, he knows I didn’t hear him, so he repeats himself, often no louder than the first time, but sometimes it’s better and if he is facing me and I can lip-read, I’m much more apt to get it on the second go-round.  Well, on the way to the hospital he started talking, and when it ran into two sentences (did I mention he is also a man of few words?) I interjected “Babe, if you’re talking to me I can’t hear you” and he snapped back loudly between clenched teeth “I’m PRAYING!!!” It was hilarious to hear Isaac tell it this morning after he woke up, after all the flurry of getting to the E.R., getting x-rays, MRI, I.V. and all the consents and surgery.  He did a good imitation of Mom and Dad sniping back and forth in the front seat while he cringed at every bump in the road as his foot dangled by a thread.  Yep, yesterday was a long day.  But we survived. 🙂

And so, that is why you guys haven’t heard from me until now.  I got to bed at 1 a.m. and slept 3 hours then went back to relieve Garrett so he could come home and sleep.  I have to have all my equipment in order to sleep at all, so even though poor Garrett spent the 5 hours in the chemo chair in the a.m. yesterday, he then spent another 5 in a similar chair in the hospital last night.

The leg turns to the side, but the toes go a little more, well, toward the floor.  Note the purple color.

And there he is!    24 hours later (3 and a half in surgery), and lots of new hardware!  10 screws and one metal plate!  That’s our daredevil.

Oh, how did it happen?  Freak landing on the trampoline (not off).  The orthopedic surgeon said at 14 it is a very common injury due to the growth plate (physis) that is still not finished forming into solid bone yet.

Good times!