Click Mary to go to the gallery.

We got quite a bit of snow. Both kids were thrilled. Jeff woke Mary around 8am, took her to the window, and boy those eyes went wide.

Daddy: Do you just want to go back to bed?

Mary: NO!

Daddy: Well, what do you want to do?

Mary: Throw Snowballs!

So we did. The Snow wasn’t really suitable for building snowmen… Very powdery, and dry. You couldn’t really compact it. We did make footprints in the snow and some Snow angels. She didn’t want to stay out very long, however…. It was pretty cold outside, and her gloves don’t help much after you’ve picked up the snow. So we came back in, and Mommy started some Hot Chocolate for us. (And yes, I had to go out last night, after the snow started and the roads iced, to get the milk.)

Yes. Daddy made a trip to Kroger for Milk when we knew it was snowing. Thankfully, we already had bread.

William required that he go outside. This is the first time he’s gotten interested in the snow, and naturally, it’s the best snow in 5+ years in Nashville, with William in a spica cast that can’t get wet.

We did what we could. Throw some socks on, wrap a few towels around the cast, and bundle the upper body. Roll him out in the stroller to the picnic table and let him play in the snow from his seat.

He was not pleased to come back inside.

Shawn, The Balloon Guy bravely decided to battle the forces of copyright and Walt Disney’s Empire by making a hat for William, that I’m sure is NOT Mickey Mouse. He doesn’t normally do something of this scale, especially on a crowded night, but as predicted, William got an excellent Balloon animal once the cast was revealed.

Mary, having noticed the sing along guy in the front of the restaurant, helped get the party started.

What was two, soon became a whole flock of kids…. To the point that these pictures were the ones at the beginning… when we could still see Mary. Shortly after this, the numbers doubled, and then doubled again. We’d see a curl here and there, and then nothing….

They played (William did the Chicken Dance VERY well for only having the upper body mobile) like you would not believe. We thought for sure that they would pass out the moment we got the home.

Oh no. Second wind turned into forth wind, and no one slept well..

Load ‘em up, move ‘em out. Back down to the pond to feed the geese, take advantage of the nice weather, and get out of the house!

A package came from Great-Grandmomma Williams and William enjoyed playing with his ribbeting frog. He and MaryVic both played with her light-up mermaid pen. One minor crisis when William had it and refused to give it back. What a two-year old not wanting to share??

He took a short little nap around 1p.m. He got really mad about not being able to outside. “No William, the snow will get your cast wet and it is really cold!” Logic and two year olds… He had a tantrum pretty much and I took him upstairs. He fell asleep again for 45 minutes and then wanted to be with momma the rest of the evening. He would perk up and then fall into a bad mood again. I got both kids down and in their respective beds (whoo-hoo!). I had given William a dose of tylenol after his sponge bath. He was fussing on and off about being ‘stuck!’ prior to falling asleep. William woke up screaming. Changed the diaper and got him sleepy again. Tried to put him back in his crib and he woke and wailed. ‘No, Don’t!’ stated repeatedly. Really sobbing. I picked him up and he pretty much stayed with me the rest of the night. I got him back to sleep and we tried one more time to get him in the crib but he woke up screaming. We gave him another dose of pain medicine after midnight and then just tried to make the best of it. He was fussy all night aside from the fact he takes up a whole side of the bed himself now. Maybe Thursday night will go better. Will keep him dosed most of tomorrow and see if that helps. *yawn*

Spent a large part of the morning doing some research, everything from childcare licensing requirements to SPICA care and feeding. Grandma came up. I’m surprised she was able to hold out this long. She brought a blowup chair that we thought would be good for the configuration of his cast, but it just wasn’t stable with him in it. However, it was Pink with Princesses on it. Plus it has a color changing LED inside. So it’s not like someone in our family isn’t going to grab it immediately. I was surprised she didn’t try to pull it out from under him to begin with. She hadn’t seen the Princesses at this point, so that’s probably why.

We setup the appointments for William’s followup visit. 3 weeks of Vanderbilt on Tuesday. We can only hope that all is going well. The first one is next week. I’m sure there will be chastising of our care. It’s not that I feel like we are doing a bad job, it’s just I’m sure that there is SOMETHING that we could do better.

You do something better when all he wants to do is get OUT of that thing (pushing down on the cast and crying “Stuck, STUCK”. If it wasn’t so sad, it’d be pretty darn funny.)

Took William out for a walk… That was a hit. He seemed to really enjoy getting out of the house.

Yes, that’s a wagon designed by committee. It’s not pretty, and we’ll need to work on the support and stabilization aspect. I think some good gas shocks , five point harness and maybe some train horns are in order.

But he was pointing at runners, Ducks, and anything else he could see. It was 20 minutes because Mary had to go to the Dr., but he definitely enjoyed it. We’ll be doing this again. I had to stop with Mary and take her in the van, but Jeff and Grandma took him up for a bit longer.

Mary is doing ok, but ever since last week, she’s been coughing up a storm at night, and randomly coughing during the day. When we took William to the Pediatrician, He told us to bring her in Saturday and they’d get her a prescription to help out. Of course, 20 minutes after that conversation we saw the fracture, and that pretty much sealed the end of our Weekend. But since Mary was still coughing, Jeff made her an appointment, and I executed to that appointment.

We got to the clinic, and it was packed. Mary enjoyed playing around in the waiting room, looking at the fish and tapping on the glass. The lady sitting next to us was quite taken with her, and we struck up a conversation. I mentioned that it wasn’t this packed on Friday, and explained about William. Shortly before we went in the back, she had passed through and had came back with two sealed Dvd’s from an children’s artist – a friend of hers. “I know he’ll be in the cast for quite a while, and hopefully this will help entertain him some.” I was extremely touched by this. It was completely unexpected, and a very gracious act.

Mary was a bit shy with the doctor, but warmed up. We got a prescription to take care of her cough, and it does seem to have helped quite a bit… I haven’t heard her cough tonight. She fell asleep going to Target to get the script filled, so my shoulder got another workout today carrying her around.

We did not have a good night getting everyone down tonight. Mary was goofing off at the foot of the bed, fell off and bumped her toe. Looks up at me (Did he see me do that? yes? AAAAAHHA !!! ) “You did that yourself, and I’ve been telling you not to. Come here settle down.” AAAAAAAHHHHH! Grandma! I’m hurt too, pay attention to me now! – She seemed to say. Of course, William has not been cooperating with anything tonight. He was pretty fussy during the washcloth bath, so I went and got his lortab. We’ve tried to get him to go to sleep a few times now, and every time we think we have it, he’s woken up crying, screaming and being VERY upset.

I finally was able to move him into his crib, but it took me and Jeff. I moved him, Jeff managed to calm him when he woke up after the move. He’s woken a few times now. He didn’t get a significant nap today, and may be overtired. We’ll definitely try to get that tomorrow. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a good night.

And now, they are talking storms tonight. I think Jeff’s Blood pressure medication is going to have to be renewed if this keeps up. It’s a tight squeeze in that bathroom with 4 of us… Now let’s consider William’s cast, AND Grandma.

Positive thoughts. Tomorrow is another day, and a day closer to the cast coming off.

Thankfully the storms went south of us. I don’t know what happened. I came back downstairs to clean the floor and set up again for the next day and William was asleep. Next thing I know he’s screaming bloody murder, none of the 3 adults can calm him. He finally started screeching ‘BED!’ and I laid down with him and he fell asleep. We finally got him in his crib. I went running the first time he woke up, laid my hand on his little face and he closed his eyes, went back to sleep. Now when I tried to move my hand, he wrapped his arms around my arm and pinned it. After the first few times of this, Grandmomma took over soothing him down and we made it through the night. Greg and I were about ready to head back to the ER with him.

William has had a good day. We’ve played Hide and seek. Jeff found a website that deals with children in spica casts, and immediately had the idea to adapt one of our chairs for him. She did a great job, as William looked and acted REAL comfortable when he was sitting in it. Smiling and playing about was not what I expected from him to start the day.

Mary has gotten jealous of William having so many pictures taken, and insisted on her own picture and posting… (Pose chosen by her)

Nana came up for a day visit to make sure that William was ok and got her hug:

I went searching for a bean bag chair for him, and grabbed some chicken from Otters. Best decision of the day. William tore into the chicken, grabbing the plate out of Jeff’s hand.

He’s done real well today, although since he still didn’t eat anything until the chicken, both Jeffie and I are awaiting the dreaded bowel movement in the cast. If it doesn’t happen tomorrow morning, a call to the Dr. is probably in order. So don’t be surprised to see a post dedicated to the joys of a dirty diaper. It’s not the most glamourous thing in the world, but it’s got to happen.

Bowel update… He had a movement Sunday night, but frankly we were too tired to do much more than change it and try to get back to sleep.

William was up at 4:30am this morning screaming his head off. He’s doing well, all things considered, but sometimes you just wish he’d sleep.

So, let’s spend Friday Night at …. The Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital’s Operating Room!

A spot opened up at the OR, so once we had everything processed, we moved up to the OR’s prep area on the Third floor. This time, I got to be pushed about in the wheelchair, as William had taken a permanent station on my shoulder, pressing deep into the side of my neck. The attendant undoubtably wished that Jeff had been holding the child.

Cool thing at Vanderbilt that William missed the first time through: The Patient transport elevators have a LARGE hand crafted and painted Duck on the ceiling, surrounded by fishes and stars. It’s a great touch.

PACU

Staging area for the OR, we answered the same questions over and over.

“No, he’s not allergic” “They tell us he fell down” “Yup, Broken Femur” “No, I’m not comfortable, but he is”

Vanderbilt really does pay attention, and given the number of people involved, and checks to make sure that the information is correct. From verifying that the parent knows what the treatment is (and making sure there aren’t any mixups), to doublechecking anything that may be fuzzy, there is a lot of repetition.

William’s anesthesia was administered by Resident Jesse James. I thought that was a great name for someone who puts people under.

William had shifted several times by now, resulting finally in me bent over backwards, him laying across my chest, head on the opposite shoulder. Before we sedated him, it had gotten to the point that I was staring at ceiling, barely supporting my head on the crib with a pillow folded several times.

We were shown into the Sub-waiting room while William went into OR. Now then, the actual procedure has been done before in Trauma, and really isn’t that complex. William was not operated on, there were no incisions. He was put under so that he wouldn’t suffer during the reseting of the bone, and the subsequent application of the SPICA cast. Once the bone was reset, they took Xrays of the area to make sure the alignment was good, and started the casting.

I took Jeff down to the 2nd floor and picked up a couple of subs for dinner. We then took the bounty back to the waiting room. About an hour later, we talked to the doctor.

1. William will be fine.
2. He’s in the cast for 6 weeks, and we have to return to Vanderbilt every week for the first 3 weeks minimum to make sure the bone is healing correctly.
3. If it’s not, they can do significant adjustments with the cast alone, otherwise, they’ll put him under again and reset.
4. It’s likely the bone will ‘shorten’ due to the fracture, but the increased blood flow in the area due to the injury will encourage the bone to grow more rapidly and lengthen.
5. When the cast is removed, it’s quite unlikely that William will walk immediately. This is normal, due to the length of time he won’t be walking. He’ll walk when he feels comfortable doing so.
6. The Injury itself: “It’s not uncommon.” The doctor’s are trained to look for abuse, and I have to take the opinion of the Pediatric Orthopedic doctor for Vanderbilt pretty seriously. For an adult, this bone is almost impossible to break. In a child Williams age, it’s still growing, and this type of fracture can happen.
7. Simply put, 6 months from now, and there will likely be zero ramifications on William from this.

Back to PACU, and we see William and the cast.

It takes a while, but he finally wakes up again (They wake him after operating to make sure he comes out of the anesthesia alright). “Dink!” “Dink!”

He’s coming back to normal, ordering us to get a sippy cup for him.

2 containers of apple juice down, and they put him on a fluid restriction to make sure that he doesn’t get sick. Popsicles are ok.

Actually, that’s the BEST popsicle in the world. William devoured that sucker once he realized he wasn’t getting anything else. And he got MOST upset with the Nurse who took us to our room when she decided that it would be good to take the remains away. She quickly got him another. She didn’t have a choice.

William finally got to see the Duck on the ceiling this time, as we went up to the 8th floor for observation. “DUCK!” Point! Point! The elevator beeps with each floor, and William starts pointing at the buttons…. He wants to push buttons. He’s feeling better already (The Morphine helps, I’m sure).

We arrive in the room, and start trying to get settled down. More repetition to the Nurses on this level, but after some examinations, William falls asleep… With the popsicle stick still in his hand. Several times in the night, Jeff and I are amused to see him open his mouth, raise his hand, and try to lick the popsicle that has long since gone away, never waking in the process.