Logan's Owie

It's amazing how quickly life changes!

On Friday (Sept 21st - for my records), we were having an extra fun afternoon.  John got to pick up the new truck we bought, and our friend Matt, who is staying with us, took us out for a yummy Mexican dinner. When we got home we all were outside.  Kids playing with neighbor friends and John, Matt, and I checking out John's new truck.  

Bryson was riding his new bike down our driveway.  He said later that he wanted to see if Logan could run faster than his bike.  So, he ran him over.  (Grumpy mom)  Us adults didn't actually see it happen, but Cory did.  Cory said Logan's head hit the ground and then the bike bumped up on Logan's leg, and then rolled back down, like Logan was a speed bump that the bike couldn't quite get over.  :-(

Logan's head was bleeding, and he was screaming, so I rushed him inside.  It wasn't bleeding THAT bad, but he kept screaming like there was something REALLY wrong.  I sat down with him and got him calmed down, but every time we'd move him, even a little, he'd just scream bloody murder.  We asked him where the owie was and he pointed to his knee.  

Matt has some medical experience from being in the army, so he checked out his leg.  He could tell it wasn't broken under the knee, but when he checked out the knee, he could feel a pop.  (I'm feeling lightheaded just typing!)  He was able to move his toes, and we didn't see TOO awfully much swelling, so we weren't sure what to do.  His shorts were on, so he said he wasn't able to tell what was going on above the knee, but I was convinced it was the knee itself because that's where Logan kept pointing.  

We don't have medical insurance, (long story, but we don't qualify for insurance through my husband's work until November), and so we REALLY didn't want to take him in unless we needed to.  John gave Logan a blessing and I was eventually able to lay him down on his bed, but he just screamed to badly every time the bed was even bumped.  

It was obvious something was wrong.  

John and I decided if he still couldn't walk by the morning, we would take him in.  I went to get him ready for bed, gritting my teeth through his screams as I pulled his pants off to change his diaper.  When I got to his left leg I felt like four pops, the last was the biggest pop.  (Shudder) John was there, I freaked out, and we decided he needed to go in.  

After a few hours we finally got into radiology.  They wanted me to straighten his leg.  I told him he couldn't straighten it, but they wanted me to try.  So I did my best, but I felt POP POP POP.  I totally freaked out yelling that I couldn't do it.  I just couldn't do it.    So they x-rayed it with his leg bent.

After a couple hours we got the x-rays, and sure enough he had a broken leg.  The femur had snapped and instead of being straight, it was overlapping and looked more like an X.  

My poor baby!

They waited more than 6 hours after the accident before they gave him pain meds!!!  Gahh!  (Mad mama!)  They kept having to check out his leg and stretch it to see how far he could straighten it, and move him from his bed to another bed for testing.  If Logan was feeling persecuted, it was perfectly justified.  

Here his leg is, all swollen and shorter than his other thigh.  

He also had a bandage on his head for that cut.  

He was so well behaved, unless they were trying to move him or poke at him, that they actually were convinced he had a head injury.  I told him that the cut wasn't that bad, and he was usually a calm little guy, but they wouldn't give him any kind of anesthesia without first confirming his little brain was ok.  Fine, just add it to the bill.  So, they did it, and x-rayed his neck while they were at it, but it was all ok.  He's just a trooper.  

Here he is just after finally getting some morphine.  Ahhh, much better.  

Here's the temporary stabilizing cast they put on.  He felt so much better once that bone wasn't wabbling everywhere.  

They put a couple staples in his head, put the temporary cast on, and decided to transfer him to a children's hospital because of the nature of the break.  I'm really glad because at the first hospital they weren't going to put him completely under to set the bone.  They said I could be in there with him, and to be prepared to hear crunching from the bone, but that it was ok, it was supposed to do that.  I almost fainted hearing the description of it, I really really didn't want to be there to hear the bones themselves!!

At the children's hospital, they had a children's orthopedist look at the x-rays, and they decided to take him into the OR and put him completely under.  

Logan got to choose the color of his cast before he went in.  He of course chose bright pink.  ha ha.  The nurse asked me as she was leaving if I wanted him to have a pink cast, and I told her red.  He was flying high on morphine, I didn't think he would remember choosing pink.  And I was right.  

He was only in the OR a short time, probably less than an hour.  He took a long time waking up because he hadn't gotten more than a couple blinks of sleep the night before.  Here he is still asleep after they set the bone and casted his leg.  

This is what's called a spica cast.  The femur has to be completely stabilized, so it's got to be a big ol' honkin' cast.  They have a little hole for little Logan to do his business.  I stuff a newborn size diaper inside the cast, and then put a large diaper on the outside.  And then I pray that nothing backs up into the cast.  He's already gotten some urine inside the cast.  I'm not sure what they'll want to do about that, but it's smelling pretty bad, and we're only a few days into this whole thing.

He can't fit into a normal car seat.  He has to be put in a harness, laid flat on the back seat of the car, and the seat belts are hooked into the harness.  

When we were about to go home, Logan ended up throwing up his first dose of pain meds.  It delayed us getting home, but they did eventually release us, and we were able to get home by Saturday night.  The older boys were really happy to have Logan home.  Cory was especially concerned for his little brother.  Logan wasn't sure he was excited to see his brothers.  We have realized that Logan is pretty cranky on his pain meds, so maybe that is what was going on...but either way, we were all happy to have him home!

Although he can't fit in a car seat, he can fit in a stroller!  Yay!  Can't leave him in it for very long because his foot still needs to be elevated, but at least we know he fits!

When he's off his pain meds, he stays pretty happy.  Obviously he gets frustrated from time to time.  It's a big lifestyle change for him, but he likes to laugh and play and be included by his brothers just like before.  He really enjoys being upright! 

We've had some issues with muscle spasms since he has come home.  They told us they would come, and boy did they ever!  It appears to hurt worse than the break itself.  He shrieks and shakes through them.  And I don't mean tremble.  It's a full on convulsion-like shake out of pain.  It's terrible.  They gave us valium for it, but we're still trying to figure out if he's having a reaction to that as well.  The poor little guy.  Last night he had like 5 terrible spasms in a row, and then a couple as they tapered off.  So sad.

But all in all we are doing well.  I am increasingly grateful for my sister in law being here.  She has been so wonderful.  I don't know what I would have done if she weren't here!