Humpty Dumpty, a True Story Part I

On the fateful day of June 1, 2013, my daughter Adelaide fell 8 feet from the top of Mimi's slide. Fourteen children have grown up with this slide and never broken anything. Only one or two has fallen. And, of course, it would be my daughter who doesn't "survive." I got home from a trip to Ross with my mom to find her a jacket for a dress and Katie casually says, "Addy fell off the slide." Ok, this has happened before. I'm sure it made her mad. I ask, "Is she ok?" "I don't know." I found Addy laying on the couch looking pretty shaken up with Scott sitting by her. I ask if she's ok. He says, "I don't think so." She wouldn't let us touch or move that leg at all. But she wasn't crying. I thought it was probably just sprained or something but decided to take her in to get an xray to make sure. We took her to Franklin Park Emergency Care, where my mom took Caleb and loved the doctor. Well, that doctor wasn't in, and I did not like the one that was...He moved her leg all around, the whole while she's screaming bloody murder. I thought it was because she was mad. She always hates doctors touching her. His assessment: not broken. Deep muscle bruising and a little swelling, but she'll be fine. We'll do an xray to make sure. So we head into the xray room and take the picture of just the left side of her body. Well the doctor comes in and looks and then says, "Where's Robby? He didn't do what I asked." And then he went into the hall, with the door still open, mind you, and YELLS (not a joke or an exaggeration. He yelled) "Robby get in here! You didn't do what I asked. I wanted both sides for a comparison, this one looks broken!" Oh. My. Gosh. I have never seen anything that unprofessional in a grocery store, much less a doctor's office. And keep in mind, I live in Rexburg, where doctors help give blessings and have the Spirit and you feel peaceful and happy, rainbows and butterflies, etc. So this was totally different. So more screaming later, we have an xray. And yes, her leg is broken. Right at the top, under the growth plate. Ouch. Thinking about the doctor moving that leg all around now makes me want to throw up. The doctor sends us to Sacred Heart Hospital to see a pediatric surgeon. He believes surgery will be necessary. I, of course, am freaking out. Below is the xray. It's her left leg. You can see how at the top it's bowed out instead of being straight. It's kind of hard to see from the printed version, but that's all I have.

Luckily, my parents were with us. My mom held Ellie while we tried to entertain Adelaide. Once we got in a room, she got to watch Nemo and read some stories. They put in an IV. I don't know how that went because I left to nurse the baby. I couldn't handle that part. Then they splinted her leg and gave her some morphine. She did get a little funny on the morphine lol. She kept randomly bursting out in random rants :) I was feeling better that she was feeling better. She was then moved up to the 3rd floor of the children's hospital and set up in a room. We saw so many doctors the whole thing is kind of a blur. The resident doctor, the resident's assistant, about 50 nurses, etc. Finally the surgeon came in and said that yes, she would need surgery and then would be in a body cast for 6 weeks. Yikes.

The next morning, they took her into surgery. And, miracle of miracles, he sets the leg without putting pins in. She did great. She got a purple cast and didn't have pins and I thought everything would be smoother sailing from there on out. Oh my gosh. I was wrong. That night, her O2 levels were low because her cast was too tight for her to breathe. So the next day, the surgeon came in and cut a strip of it out. I still thought it was too tight, but she was able to cough and keep healthy levels. We went home on Monday. Here are some pics from the hospital.

Before her surgery. This is still in the ER. 

 The horrid IV. It sucked. She was constantly trying to rip the thing out.

 Look at those brave eyes. Or drugged eyes. Whichever way you want to look at it. I, as the mother, think they're brave :)

Our first night. Ellie slept 9 hours in her car seat. It was great. Addy slept alright. She had to have benadryl to go to sleep :(

Sunday Morning, before surgery.

Waiting for surgery to get out, about to find out she didn't even need it.

In the recovery room. Her face is all shiny from the vaseline on the anesthesiologists hands.

Finally getting to hold our baby because she's casted :)

Addy absolutely loved riding in this wagon. We had to use pillows to prop her all up, but she loved crossing the fish and butterfly bridges.

Seeing all the decor in the children's hospital.

Riding with Sis.

Some of our friends brought us ice cream. Best gift ever! Thanks Matt and Rachel Birch! She loved it, and to be honest, I needed it too! She also ate several dum dums that they left for her and enjoys her little Curious George snugglie :)

Cast care is a bummer. We have to keep tape around the edges to keep the cast from cutting her skin. We have to double diaper. A size two has to be pushed up inside the cast and then a size four or five goes around the whole thing. The whole thing stinks. And there's nothing I can do about it. No baby powder, no water, no lotion, nothing. She has learned to scooch and roll over. It makes me a little nervous though...I don't need her breaking anything else! lol.

Monday, I was supposed to have flown out to Vegas with Scott for our vacation, leaving Addy with my mom. Obviously, this didn't happen. Instead, I flew out Thursday night and got back Saturday. My mom decided that I needed the time with my husband because he was going to have to leave back to work, leaving me here where I had help. This is the thermometer in our car. It got up to 122...dang. That was hot. Because of everything I had been thinking about, I didn't remember my phone. Or my camera. So please excuse the crappy quality of Scott's phone camera...awesome.

Ready to go out on the town.

We ate at the Bellagio buffet. It was pretty good, and the cheesecake was amazing. Here it is. I forgot to take a picture before devouring half of it.

We then walked around a little. We tried to avoid the strip at night, but Ellie got sick so we had to spend the day at the hotel with her. At night when it cooled to 98 degrees we decided to venture out. Her fever had broken. (I swear, if it's not one kid, it's the other).

The world's largest chocolate fountain. This was pretty cool. All this stuff was just in the Bellagio resort. This is looking up at the ceiling.

A woman made of cake. Awesome.

Looking out the tram window. Once we figured out there were free trams from resort to resort, we stayed a lot cooler.

This palm tree looked exactly like a pineapple. I thought it was wicked awesome. Scott was mildly amused.

For some reason, Scott's phone decided we needed airbrushed...

Ready to swim. At 10 at night. It was still over 100 degrees.

Poor sick baby. She loved sleeping with Daddy though.

Flying home. Ellie did so well on the plane. Everyone around us loved her. The flight attendent even held her and showed her off to everyone on the plane. She asked if she could take her for a field trip and I said, "Um, where ya gonna go?" haha.

Saturday I got home and returned to full-time cast care provider. The kids entertain Addy quite a bit, and she is loving all the attention. She is pretty much back to her normal happy self. Just broken. She has quite the sense of humor about the whole thing really. She has started calling me "Shiloh" because everyone else here does lol. I think it's funny, but correct her anyway because later on it might not be ha. So much more drama has gone on with the whole thing but that will have to wait for part II because I have to go do my sister's wedding announcements. I hate writing addresses on envelopes. She'd better owe me a favor :P