Field Trip & Dr. Diagnosis

Our field trip on Thursday was to a place called "Pump It Up". Basically it is a huge building filled with lots of inflatables. We all met at 9 to go in together (to get the discount). I took 3 pictures of the kids going down the giant slide. As I was taking the 4th picture of some friends...Amy came to get me and tell me Katie had been hurt. She jumped down in an inflatable and her right foot gave way under her. In Katie's own words....hit hurts, and I heard it snap. OK, I am not a doctor but I could diagnose this. And her ankle was swelling alot by then. One of the moms with our group was a nurse and she said get her to the doctor. Within 5 minutes, we were headed out the door with lots of help. And lots of pictures (we suspect this will end up in the yearbook). Amy and Will stayed to play with their friends and another mom brought them home.

Greg was about an hour away at a management training seminar for the state and we couldn't get him on the phone. As I was going to our dr.'s office, Katie texted him from my phone. We got to the dr. (Praise the Lord for good friends that are also your family dr.), I went in the back door to hunt for one of my favorite nurses to help me get Katie in. We got her to the room and the dr.'s first words out of his mouth were "this does not look good". Well, ok maybe I could be a dr. I figured that out. My other favorite nurse came to get her for x-rays. We got her there on a rolling office chair. The x-rays showed 3 or 4 breaks. The small bone that runs between her knee and ankle is broken in 2 places. The impact also broke the edge of the growth plate off the other side of the ankle. The dr. sent us to an orthopedic surgeon right away. As we were driving there, Greg called. He had not gotten the text. I told him everything that was going on and he decided to leave the seminar and drive home (yeah, Daddy!). The surgeon decided to take care of this asap. So our next stop was the hospital.

Greg got there in time to go through admissions with us and wait for the surgery. They did not find anything new when they did more x-rays or the surgery. They put 4 screws and a plate on her ankle to help with the healing. We got her back in the room about 2 hours after she left us. She did great with the hospital recovery and drank a coke and then later ate some Teddy Grahams. So she was really glad to get the IV out of her hand.

When we got home, dinner was waiting on us. Thanks to one of the homeschool moms in our group (she was the nurse that told me to get Katie to the dr.). She cooked lots of food which fed the 5 of us plus Allen, James and Andy. Amy and Will got the sewing stuff put up and then the big boys moved a bed downstairs for Katie. She cannot put any weight on her foot for the next 6 weeks. Then she will have physical therapy. It is a plus that she is a dancer (ballet) and it will be a form of therapy for her. However, I am not thinking she will be able to be in the recital in 10 or so weeks. Our family doctor said it was the worst break he has seen in his office. The surgeon said this is extremely unusual in someone her age. He also said she has very good muscle tone and strong bones. All of the staff were very nice and explained everything to us and to Katie before they did anything.

Side note: when we got to the hospital there was a little, elderly lady sitting in a wheel chair close to Katie. She kept trying to get Katies attention (she could not speak coherently). Finally the little lady lifted her hands toward heaven and closed her eyes. We are sure she was praying for Katie. I had been getting many phone calls from the homeschool group and Greg and when I could I went over to the little lady. I never could figure out what she said but I told her Katie was 16 and fell and broke her ankle. Then they came and took us to admissions.

In the midst of all this, the roofer called checking to see if the ins. had sent us the rest of the roof payment. I told him what was going on and that I would call him tomorrow. He is coming in a few minutes and asked if he could pray for Katie when he got here.

How awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is on many prayer lists in several states and we are so thankful for our Christian friends!