Our Little Invalid

I have been meaning to write about this for a while but frankly, our life here at the Stevenson house has been a crazy one...a big part of which is our Little Maise Paise.  A few Fridays ago I went to an all day Conference for the Paper Dolls with Camille.  Jeff was kind enough to actually take the day off so he could watch the girls.  He decided to take them to Sonic for lunch and then to go to the park so he could be an extra cool Dad (which he is).  At one point in the park part of the day, he found himself going down a slide with all three of the girls on his lap.  Maisy started screaming uncontrollably.  When they got to the bottom he wondered why she was so afraid of the slide...she kept screaming and screaming and he finally figured out after she couldn't walk on her leg that maybe she had twisted her ankle or pulled a muscle or something.  He told me that while he was in the park alone with three toddlers, trying to comfort Maisy and finally deciding to go home, Laurel and Norah decided to take a little exploration trip.  He looked all around and saw them...on the other side of the large park.  Somehow he got all of them back into the van and got home. 

When I came home a few hours later, Maisy was happily sitting on the couch chatting away.  Jeff kind of gave me the rundown on what had happened so I went over and asked her if her leg hurt.  She affirmed that it hurt and showed me the band aid Daddy had put on her (he asked her where he should put the band aid to try and figure out where it hurt).  The band-aid was on her ankle area but there was no swelling or bruising.  I asked her if she could stand up on it and she just started crying and saying "ouwcheee, ouwcheee".  I thought we should take her to Urgent Care just to make sure it wasn't broken. 

Maisy and I went to Urgent Care while Jeff fed and put the other girls to bed.  Maisy was laughing and telling me all of the animals in the National Geographic in the waiting area and I was thinking,

"Why are we even here...they'll just tell me that she pulled a muscle and tell us to go home."

They called us in and the Dr. pushed different parts of her leg.  She was so good about telling him where the pain was and it was in an entirely different place than her band-aid, more in her shin area.  The Dr. said he could almost guarantee it was a spiral fracture on her tibia (shin bone).  He said he had seen it at least 20 times in his 12 years of practice and it is almost always caused by a slide.  After some painful x-rays (for both of us...my heart hurt so much for poor Maise and I couldn't comfort her at all because I'm pregnant and had to stay away from the x-ray machine :( ) the Dr. was right on.  I've never seen such a long fracture.  It literally goes from right under her knee to a few inches above her ankle...almost the whole "skinny" part of the tibia bone.

The bone looked a little displaced in the x-ray so they advised me to get to Primary Children's Hospital as soon as possible.  He was pretty sure she would need surgery.  Maisy was a champ.  He gave her a sucker and that made her very happy.  As we left the Urgent Care she triumphantly said, "I have an ouchie!"  The Dr. laughed and said, "Yes, Maisy, you definitely have an ouchie!" 

We decided I should just drive Maisy to Primary Children's so that Jeff could try and sleep.  We knew one of us needed to get some sleep that night especially if she would be needing surgery.  Maisy and I got to the hospital ER around 11 p.m. and waited and waited until about 2 a.m. when finally she had x-rays taken again.  During that time we called both grandparents and asked them to pray that Maisy wouldn't need surgery if at all possible (I found out later that my parents called all of my siblings and asked them to say a special prayer too).  As we waited for the x-rays the nurses seemed to be prepping her for surgery.  They put an IV in (which of course was extra traumatic for poor Maise...she's had this once before when she had pneumonia) with Morphine for the pain and instructed me not to give her any candy or anything to drink "just in case".

The second x-rays looked so much better than the first.  Her bone seemed to be back in place.  I don't know if it is because they set it at the Urgent Care or all of the prayers coming her way but we felt like it was a little miracle that the bone was were it needed to be to heal without surgery!  What a relief!  At about 4 a.m. we arrived home!  It was a doozy of a night and has been a doozy of a couple of weeks but we are surviving and thriving.  It has been such a blessing for me to have so much help from Jeff's parents and Camille and Micah. They have gone above and beyond the call of "Family Duty" and we appreciate them SO MUCH.

It was a sacred experience for me being with Maisy that night in the ER.  She is such a strong, special little girl and I am so privileged to be her Mom.  She was such a trooper and has been through the whole healing process. She now has a half leg cast and crawls everywhere...she is like a little monkey!  I'm so amazed at how resilient this little girl is.  

Here are a few photos of our little invalid:

Showing off the full leg cast she had for about a week

Hanging out with Grandpa Stevenson - so happy to be outside after a day on the couch

Loving all of the stickers and Pooh cards Grandma Anderson sent!