Ian's broken leg

On March 3rd, 2011 Ian was running in cowboy boots on the basketball gym floor at church when suddenly he slipped and did the splits. My friend saw it, and said he looks like he's hurt. I ran over to him, he was shaking and in pain. He calmed down on the ride home and I thought maybe he was just scared and not really hurt. After getting home I tried to see if he would stand or move his leg, and he wouldn't so I called his pediatrician and scheduled their next appointment. A couple hours later the Dr looked at him and said he probably just pulled a muscle. I had called my brother in law (the ER doc) and he said if he wasn't putting weight on it in a couple hours to take him in for X-rays. So I asked the doctor if he could have broken something. He said the only way to know would be to have x-rays. So I said, "yes, please." And we headed over to the orthopedic clinic. There they x-rayed him and a PA looked at him. A couple hours later the Doctor came in. At this point Chris was there and I had a soccer game in a half hour. I was certain he was just fine and we had all just wasted a lot of time and money. So I said to the doctor, "I have a soccer game tonight, if he's fine can I leave?". He laughed and said he had a hokey game to get to and then he examined Ian and took a look at the x-rays. Then he said, "He has a broken femur." Wow, we were all surprised! And I was a little embarrassed that I was worried about missing my soccer game. They put a temporary cast on (see pic above) and scheduled us for a hip spica cast for the next Tues (it was Thurs). We went home and Ian was pretty content (see pic above) and even comfortable sleeping that night.

The next morning the other doctor from the clinic (who had done his fellowship in peds probably 40 years ago) said he had taken a look at Ian's x-rays and wanted to cast him today, in the OR. He asked if he'd eaten anything, I told him I had just handed him a bag of fruit snacks. He told me to take them from him, but it was too late, he'd eaten them all. (: So we brought him in. Checked into the hospital. Signed his life away. Then watched them wheel his cute little blond head away on a giant hospital bed. I was scared, Chris was calm, and about an hour later Ian was awake and mad! He had some sweet yellow pants on, but his thought hurt (they put a breathing tube in) and he didn't understand what had just happened. We finally calmed him down and took him home. That first night was hard. He didn't sleep well at all. this was just before they wheeled him away
In good news, that morning his big sister lost her very first tooth on the bus ride to school. She and I sewed up a little tooth fairy to put her tooth in and she was thrilled to be as cool as every other kid in her 2nd grade class. Ian adjusted quickly. He didn't complain much. His vocabulary exploded. He learned how to say "yessss" when we finally guessed where he wanted us to take him. He played a lot, and stunk a lot, and was spoiled a LOT! So many people helped during this time. Lots of dinners, toys, and thoughtful words. We're so thankful for good friends and family and ward members. This was the first broken bone for our little family. And I'm guessing it's not the last. I picked up a doughboy from Sluy's bakery up in Pouslbo, I added a little pair of yellow pants so Ian had a look a like.