Matthew is BROKEN!!

Poor Matthew :o( I thought my blogging was over for a while, but apparently not! Yesterday afternoon, Matthew was outside playing, and at about 3:30, he comes running in the house, screaming "My BONE! My BONE!" holding his arm that is bending above his elbow! Matt says "oh crap!" and grabs Matthew and sits him down while I call 9-1-1 to have the Paramedics take a look at it. I thought it could just be a dislocated elbow. But just in case, I ran across the street and asked Sherri if she'd be able to take my kids if we needed to go to the hospital, and she said she would. Then the Firetruck and Ambulance came with their sirens blaring and lights flashing, drawing attention to the whole neighborhood.

Apparently, he climbed up the back of my van, slipped, and fell wrong onto the sidewalk. There's only about 6 inches between the bumper and the sidewalk, so he must have fell on it just right. ALSO, Matt told me that about 15 minutes before it happened, he caught Matthew outside climbing on top of his truck, and told him to get down. So he must have just moved on to to van! BAD IDEA!!

Note: Matthew apparantly misunderstood what a "bumper" was, and the real story came out; he was ON TOP of the van, trying to climb down, using the rear windshield wiper as a step, and fell off of the top of the car!! Now THAT explains it! No WONDER he broke his bone in half!

The Paramedics came in, took a look at him, made him a little sling (see above picture), and decided he needed to go to Tripler (the Army hospital) to get it checked out. Something was obviously wrong by the look of his arm.

Poor Matthew

If you look close, you can see what looks like swelling to the left of his elbow...
it's not swelling....
that is his BONE poking out!!

Matthew wanted Matt to ride in the Ambulance with him, so off Matt and Matthew went in the Ambulance, while I took the kids to Sherri's and then followed. I was only about 10 minutes behind them.

They were already in a room when I got there (benefits of going to the ER in an Ambulance). He'd already gotten an IV in the ambulance, so they gave him some Morphine for the pain once we got there. Then the doctor took a look at it and ordered some x-rays to be taken. They took x-rays of it and saw that it was definitely broken. It broke in HALF. They called it a "compound fracture". His bones were next to each other. So they had to call in the Orthopedic Surgeon to see if he'd need to have surgery to get it put back together.... and he DID! Dang it! They said they had to admit him overnight. So the Orthopedic Surgeon wrapped it in a little splint to keep him more comfortable until he went in for his surgery. (see the picture below)

Matthew's splint made by the Orthopedic Surgeon

They took him up to the 7th floor to Pediatrics to wait until it was time for his surgery. We'd called Reina to come over and stay with the kids until I got home (she's always rescuing our butts!), and then they informed us that only ONE parent could stay overnight with him (dumb, i know). So I said I'd stay until he came back from his surgery, then I'd go home, take the kids to school in the morning, and go back.

We weren't in the room for long before they came and got him to go down to surgery. We got to go with him while they got him ready, but then had to leave once they wheeled him into the O.R.

Matthew ready for surgery. What a trooper!

Matt and I decided to wait back upstairs in Matthew's room rather than waiting in the surgery waiting area. While we were waiting, our sweet friends, the Sommers Family :o), came and brought us McDonalds. They've had lots of experience with hospitals and they knew that was just what we needed. THANKS SARAH!

So we waited, and waited, and waited, and I said to Matt, "WHAT are we doing here? WHY are we in a HOSPITAL right now? This is just crazy! Why is our SON having SURGERY right now??" It was just kinda surreal. It wasn't long before his Orthopedic Surgeon came up and told us that his surgery went fine, and they didn't have to cut him open. What they did was used a little x-ray machine to look at see how to realign the bones without cutting his arm open, and then they stuck 4 pins in his bone to hold it together. So the surgery went fine, Matthew did fine, and everything was good.

About an hour later they wheeled Matthew up. Everyone kept telling us what a smart boy he is (but we already know that). They were asking him the same questions over and over, and before he went into the O.R. they asked him how much he weighed, and he said, "21 kilograms." All of the doctors were VERY impressed!! It was funny.

Matthew was released around 10:00 this morning, so I rescheduled the doctor appointment that I had today, and went and got Matt and Matthew. Matthew was standing up and everything when I got there. He is doing MUCH better. He's just catching up on some much needed REST! What a good boy. He needs to go back in on December 8th and get a different cast put on. He wants a green one. Until then they have a temporary cast on him that they put on right after his surgery, but he needs to keep his arm elevated above his heart until the swelling goes down in his arm and hand. And we still have to get our family picture taken!!! Looks like there'll be a cast in it! Lol! who cares.

Kenzie is completely jealous of Matthew and is mad at him because she says he's going to get attention. Like it's a bad thing. Maybe is's just her weird way of dealing with something that scares her.

Thanks to everyone for your concern and willingness to help us out! It really means a lot to us! This was our first kid to break a bone!! And hopefully it'll be the LAST!!

He's all fixed up!