Tyson's Boo-Boo

Looking back, I think the spirit was trying to warn me.  I just wish I would've done more.  Jared went out of town this weekend.  Our days were filled with non-stop fun.  The kids and I played outside all day long, and had an absolute blast.  But at night, I was having nightmares.  I was constantly waking up reaching out.  In one dream he was about to fall off my bed.  In another he was right by the stairs.  He was always about to fall and I would gasp and reach out to grab him and that was when I would wake up.  I don't think it was necessarily the dreams, but there was this natural instinct to try and protect him more than usual this weekend.  Porter and I put up the baby gate downstairs and kept the office door shut to keep him off the stairs.  When we were working in the yard outside we brought the pack-n-play out and put him in there with some toys.  It was the first time I have ever put him in the pack-n-play outside, and it was the first time we have had a gate up downstairs since Porter was a baby.  Usually I just keep a close eye on him.  And perhaps that would have been better.

This week we had a young sister from our ward return from her mission.  As part a new family tradition we started to make some cookies to bring her and welcome her home.  I double checked to make sure the gate was closed, and the office door shut.  I occupied Tyson at my feet with some kitchen utensils.  When the first batch was out and cooled, Porter got a cookie and Tyson crawled to him to share.  They both sat quietly eating their cookies.  As I was putting a new batch of cookies in, I heard "boom, boom" and then Tyson's cries.  He had somehow gotten through the baby gate and had started to climb the stairs and fell.

I ran to the stairs and scooped up my crying baby and tried to soothe him.  He has never fell like that before, and it undoubtedly scared him.  After a few minutes, I thought he should have started to calm down, but he hadn't.  Just a few days prior I had started the "weaning" process and was only nursing him 2 times in the day and once at night.  I was certain nursing him would surely calm his nerves.  But he wouldn't nurse at all.  I walked around the house holding him trying to calm him down.  He would lay his head on my shoulder, and then a moment later push off with his hands, all the time crying.  When 20 minutes had passed and he hadn't stopped crying I was really concerned.  I started feeling his arms and legs to see if I could discern if he was hurt somewhere.  Nothing seemed to stand out.  I took him into the bathroom to get a good look at him.  I stood him on the counter and he started crying even harder.  I was certain something had to be wrong.  This was the first time that weekend I really wished my husband was not out of hand.  With Tyson in one arm, I used the other arm to get Porter dressed, and shoes on.  I hurried him into the car.

I knew that my pediatrician, Alpine Pediatrics, was open on the weekends and did x-rays and casts, should something be broken.  I started heading there, and called them on the way to make sure that was okay.  As we started driving, Tyson finally stopped crying for the first time.  When I connected to the dr's office, and they found out how old Tyson was, they said they wouldn't take him that they would send him to the ER.  I pulled the car over to try and think what to do.  Tyson wasn't crying anymore, maybe I was over reacting.  It really had only been 20 minutes since it had happened.  Should I wait a little bit longer, before racking up a thousand dollar ER bill?  I decided I would take Porter to my sister-in-law's house in Lehi and have her watch Porter, and then I could check Tyson over one more time before deciding to go to the hospital.  I got back on the road, and got onto I-15.  Immediately, that seemed wrong.  I got off the first exit, and pulled into a gas station to think again.  I called my other sister-in-law, Jamie because her little boy has a broken arm and she just barely went through the same thing.  The first thing she told me was "That is so weird that you called, I just had the strongest feeling that something bad was going to happen.  I ran downstairs to tell my kids to be careful and not get hurt, and as I was walking up the stairs, you called."  After our conversation and her advice, it seemed like the best thing to do was to head up the street from where I was to the IHC Urgent Care.

I only had to wait 10 minutes to get in.  I was really thankful I went in because although Tyson still was not crying, he would start to wimper and fuss if I tried to sit down.  When the doctor came in, she first checked his ribs.  All seemed fine.  Next she started feeling his left leg.  He didn't cry but I could feel him tensing up in my lap.  When she checked his right leg, as soon as she went near his ankle area, he started to cry.  "We better x-ray this right leg," she advised.  Across the hall we went to get x-rays done.  This was the hardest part.  We had to lay him on a hard table and try and get him to straighten his leg out and stay still, and I wasn't able to hold his leg at all.  He would bawl.  (Ugh, it makes me cry to just think about it!)  But eventually he would calm down and lay still so they could get the x-ray.  There were 3 angles, and it was the same experience each time.

While we were waiting for the results Jared called to check up on us.  "What are you guys up to?"  I told him we were at the Urgent Care and that Tyson had fallen off the stairs.  I told him they had just done x-rays on his right leg.  It was then that he got into a bad reception area, and our call was lost.  I felt bad for him and that was all he had heard, but I suppose that was all I really knew anyway.

The doctor finally returned and confirmed that there was a small hairline fracture that didn't even go a fourth of the way through his bone, but sure enough it was just above his ankle where he cried at the doctor's touch.  They put on a huge splint that stuck out a couple inches further than his toes, and went all the way up to his thigh.  They told me to not let him crawl or put any pressure on it whatsoever.  I was supposed to take him to Primary Children's Hospital on Monday to get him his cast.

The time between Saturday and Monday were extremely rough.  The only way to keep him off of it was to hold him 24-7.  I kept the monitor near me at night so that I could run in as soon as I heard him waking so that he wouldn't stand up in his crib.  Saturday night he was up constantly in the night.  We were up with him for three hours at one stretch trying to help him get comfortable, and comfort him.  But Sunday morning he seemed to be better, and the biggest struggle was not letting him move around, which was all he wanted to do.

Monday I took him to Primary Children's.  I have never been there before, but it was a wonderful experience. They are amazing there, and because it is a Children's Hospital it was a play land.  Toys and discovery items every where you looked.  The doctors were amazing.  They put a much smaller cast on him, that goes below his knee.  She then presented a little shoe to me.  She told me to let him crawl, cruise, walk or do whatever he would normally do, but to make sure he wore his little shoe for traction and to protect his cast, if he was walking or standing.  It is the tiniest cutest little cast you ever saw, and yet it breaks your heart.  He was a little gem to the nurses and doctors and cooed at them while they put his little cast on his leg.  He even told them a couple of times, "I wuv oooh."  He stole the hearts of a few ladies that day.

It just breaks my heart to see my baby this way.  Anytime I get in the car, I fall apart and ball my eyes out, and then get my composure together so my kids will see a strong, positive mom.  I of course, relive the moment in my mind all day long to try and think how it could've been avoided.  I would give anything to trade places with him and take away his pains and frustrations.  He is doing so much better now with his new cast, and crawls all over the house with it.  I think it is awkward for him to stand on it, or maybe painful, because he hasn't attempted that more than once or twice.  He will wear his cast for 4 weeks.

The huge splint.

Leaving Primary Children's with his new cast.  I may or may not have been bawling my eyes out right then.