~All broken & Stuff~

So a week after Keira's birthday we had our first major Emergency room visit. I was out mowing the lawn and the kids were playing around in the yard. I was nearly done mowing when I heard a big crash. You know when you are in the middle of something and you hear a background noise and it takes a few minutes to register what you just heard? Well, that is what happened. I kept mowing for a minute before it registered that maybe I should check on what the noise was. I turned around to see Keira walking toward me carrying her hand funny and crying. I ran over and noticed that her hand was dented in on the top (which didn't look normal, by the way) I felt the top of her hand and could not feel the bone where her hand was dented. (Not normal either. And not a good feeling) So we ran in the house and I called Eric and told him that I was taking her to the emergency room. Before I even got off the phone with him, her hand had swollen up so big that you could not see the dent. In fact it was just the opposite. Her hand was huge!! I gave her a bag of ice and we ran out the door. On the way their I called my mom to let her know what happened....and to try to keep myself calm. Keira kept crying and saying that she couldn't feel her thumb. (SCARY!!!) It wasn't until later that I found out exactly what happened. I guess she and Kelsey were playing on the little snowmobile trailer. You know the kind that has the two ramps that stand up in the front. Anyway, Keira was climbing on the ramp like a ladder and dancing when the ramp fell down. Keira reached through the ramp to try to stop herself from crashing and the ramp smashed her hand.

This is what it looked like when we got to the hospital.


This is what it should look like..

Sad girl!

After we got to the hospital they did some X-rays. And found that she definitely broke one bone and fractured the one next to it. They decided that they would attempt to put the broken one back into place without surgery. They gave Keira some medicine so that she would not know what was going on and then they really tried to fix her hand. She screamed and screamed and screamed. It was so hard. I was standing there with her and she kept screaming for me and there was nothing I could do. I don't ever want to have to do something like that again. TERRIBLE!!! And to top it all off they were not able to fix it. So they decided to keep her overnight and do surgery first thing in the morning. UGG!!

This is her X-ray! See that bone that looks like it is under her knuckle? It's isn't supposed to be.

I stayed the night with her in the hospital. (That's always fun).

Keira eating chocolate pudding.
Finally asleep!
The next morning they came in to get her ready for surgery. The surgery took about 2 hours?? I think. And then she was in recovery for a while.

Waiting to go to surgery!
After they brought her back they said that it went really good but the brake was worse than expected and that they had to put a pin in her hand to hold the bone straight. They were also really concerned with the swelling because it was still really bad and that they needed to watch it for a while. Which in medical terminology that means you are staying here another night. They kept pushing the anti-biotics all day long hoping that it would help with the swelling but it didn't. They were really worried about her getting compartment syndrome. If you what to know what that is here is a great link that is full of information Compartment Syndrome (Great if it is not your daughter that they are worried about. Sometimes the internet can be a terrible thing!!!) The other thing that they were worried about was that she still did not have any feeling in her thumb and pointer finger (the one that was broken) They said it could be a combination of things. The swelling, trauma, pinched nerve.....they were not sure. SCARY!!

X-ray with the pin!

Keira slept most of the day of the surgery (from like 12-5) That's a long day for mom. If I would have known that she was going to sleep that much I would have ran home and showered. I was beginning to have a stench like no other and I am pretty sure you could smell me all the way down the hall. After Keira woke up she was feeling pretty good. Not once did she ever complain about her hand hurting. She is one tough little cookie. Except when the nurse or Dr. came in to check on her.....then she put on her poor poor me face and said that it hurt really bad and that she needed more medicine. Which she got!! Then as soon as they would leave she was happy and fine again. Now don't get me wrong, I know that the medicine really did help her but can I just say that she really knows how to work people. That second night was terrible. They were pushing so many fluids and anit-biotics into her that she had to pee like a race horse every 1 1/2 to 2 hours. It was crazy!!! I honestly don't think anyone has ever peed as much as she did that night! I was very impressed!!!

The next day we were finally released from the hospital but the swelling still had not gone down. Keira was on strict elevation. She could not have her hand lower than her heart at all. Try that with a 6 year old!! Haha, good luck. Keira did pretty good with it though. Not once did she ever ask for pain medication or say that her hand hurt after we got home!! Seriously, she is amazing! They put her in an arm wrap and told us to come back in a week to check it. At her week appointment they did X-rays and said that it was looking really good but the swelling was still not going down. They were still really concerned because by now it should have. The next week we were headed to Lake Powell with some friends so the Dr. gave me some stuff to change her wrap and then we were to come back the day after we got back from our trip. The bad part....Keira was still swollen and still had a pin and would not be able to get a cast until later. Which means NO SWIMMING!! BUMMER!!! Lake Powell for a week and no swimming. We could not even get it wet. At all. Fun week for her. (Lake Powell post coming soon).

Waiting to go home!!

We finally made it home!!!

After we got back from Powell we went in to the Dr. They did X-rays again (which they did every appointment for the next 4 months) And said that things were looking good. The swelling was starting to go down and even better....on the way home from Powell she started to get feeling in her fingers!!! YAY!!!! What a relief! But still no cast.

WARNING!!!! KIND OF GROSS PICTURES BELOW!!!!





Keira was grossed out and could not look at it!
That green ball is covering the end of the pin!!
See the swelling is going down!!! It is still a little bit swollen though.

Keira finally got her cast on 3 weeks later. It was a pretty cool one what we could take off to damp wipe her hand off. She still couldn't get it wet because of the pin.

Finding out she got a real cast!!

Getting the cast!
Removable! There were three Velcro straps to hold in on.
About 3 weeks later the pin finally came out and Keira got a tiny little cast just to protect the bone. I completely forgot to take picuters but trust me, it was tiny.

Amazingly enough Keira servived the summer with NO SWIMMING and NO GYMNASTICS and needless to say she was really excited the first time she got to go do both. She has feeling in both fingers and has 90% range of motion in her finger which is great because the physical therapist that we went to all summer long didn't think she would even get 40%. They were also concerned that the growth plate in her finger was closing off which would mean that her finger would stop growing but they ended up seeing in the last X-ray that it was still open!!! She is such a trooper and did very well with everything.