Story time

I'm sure you have seen different blogs that have a regular feature. You know, mouthwatering Monday or Friday Favorite. I had this brilliant idea. I thought it would be cool to share stories from my past, and I could even post it every Sunday, just so I could have Storytime Sunday. And then I thought to myself, do I really think, based on my past performance, that I would really post something so regularly?

So, instead I bring to you, not a regular series, but merely an on-going one. Stories from my past.

Last weekend at a neighborhood party we saw a little boy in a spica cast, and it totally reminded me of our experience. In fact it was 2 years ago, almost to the day, that Tyler got his cast off. Here you go:

Let me set the scenario. We found out in July that we would be moving to Houston. Dan moved down at the end of the month, and Tyler and I were going to move as soon as the house in Little Rock sold. One week we went to Houston to visit Dad, and after a week there, we drove home, arriving in Little Rock at about 8:00 at night on Friday, September 8, 2006. We brought in suitcases, got dinner, and got ready for bed. Tyler wanted to play one last game of hide and seek with me before bed, and I agreed. The next thing that happened changed our evening dramatically.

Tyler ran behind the couch to hide, and I didn't see exactly what happened, but he somehow tripped over or fell on a step stool. His leg immediately began to swell, and he was crying hysterically, unlike any cry I have ever heard. I knew we needed to go to the emergency room, and off we went. They quickly got us in (miracle!!), and the doctor could tell right away that he had a broken femur. The x-ray confirmed it. They sent us to Arkansas Children's Hospital where they had the capabilities to set it. By midnight, we were settled in a room, Tyler's leg in traction, waiting for our turn in the OR the next day. Dan arrived early afternoon, and they got Tyler in and out of surgery by 5:00

I had never heard of a spica cast, let alone had any idea how to care for it. The cast went from Tyler's chest, to his ankle on the broken leg and to his knee on the good leg. There was a stick between his legs and two holes, one to allow room for his chest and stomach to expand and the other known as the booty hole. They had to teach us how to keep the cast clean and how to keep him diapered. (So glad we hadn't done potty training yet.) We had to get a special seatbelt for him to use in the car since he now wouldn't fit in a car seat. We were even given instructions to watch his diet since he wouldn't be moving around much. Not to mention a visit from CPS, which we found out is required for a broken femur.

We went home the next day and now faced 6 weeks of caring for the cast. To be honest, it was some of the hardest 6 weeks of my life. Dan had to keep working in Houston, and so could only be with us occasionally. Grandma did come for 2 weeks and having her there made a huge difference. She cooked and cleaned and grocery shopped and got us out of the house. Tyler was quite a trooper. He could kind of sit up and would play on the couch. We watched a lot of television and movies. Near the end he actually taught himself to crawl a bit. And as hard as it was, we made it. At the end of the 6 weeks, we went back to the hospital for another x-ray and received the good news--it could come off. Except for taking a week to relearn walking, there have been no ill-effects from this adventure. Granted, we are supposed to keep an eye on him, and have had one follow up x-ray and will probably need another one when he is about 6-7. But we are sure grateful that our mishap was, in the grand scheme of things, quite minor.

And this my friends, is what a spica cast looks like: