It started as a regular Monday, for us at least. Buddy had a routine post chemo appointment at the hospital, all well, and then off to school. It was just me and Peanut for the rest of day until school was over. Peanut and I ran a couple errands, headed home and just settled into an activity when the phone ran. I recognized the number, it was the school calling, which usually is never a problem. This time not the case. The principal had informed me that Buddy had
fallen on the school playground and they think he hurt his knee, not sure but Buddy doesn't want to moved, let alone walk so they have called an ambulance.
It's a strange feeling coming to the school, seeing an ambulance driving across the school field, walking up to where everyone is standing and seeing Buddy laying on the ground. Him, not knowing what to say, just whimpered when he saw me. The paramedics were examining him, asking me how much he can speak and if I can get him to talk. I tried, but no luck, he was in pain and shock and was not about to focus his attention on telling me what happened. Unfortunately, no adult saw him actually fall either. We could easily see it had to do with his right leg, but without Buddy talking didn't know if it was his knee, leg or hip... or even his back or neck. Buddy got put on back board and neck brace and went for a ride in an ambulance. Now Peanut was with me at the time but with Buddy on a his way to the hospital, Peanut stayed at school with the Principal until Daddy came to pick him up and wait at home for updates from Mommy via the iPhone. (Love the iPhone.)
I have to say this experience in ER was a good one. Often you hear of long waits going late into the night with no action until the early morning. Not so this time. Buddy came in after 2pm, got examined, x-rayed and into surgery by 7:30ish pm.
Between 9-10pm he was in his room with the nurses getting him settled in for the night. Not bad, eh. During this time I was relieved to give updates that neck and hips were fine and it was clearly a broken femur, which is bad enough on its own, but still much relieved it was not anything else. The Dr. explained the options for "fixing" his leg being either body cast or rods. Weighing the pros and cons, decided with rods in the legs. This is never an easy choice because no matter what, a broken femur is simply painful at best. Buddy had morphine to help with the pain for the first 24 hours and than it was codeine and Tylenol.
Our little Buddy is an amazing trooper. This is not to say it was an easy trip. Even with the pain meds, when physio came in to get him sitting up and then transferred to a wheelchair he was screaming. What made it OK was once in position he would
settle. Which they tell me is good, but as Mom watching on the sidelines, it was terrible none the less. Really, when is any screaming at the top of your lungs good. In case your wonder, yes, I was crying see him go through this. Who wouldn't.
By the third day we were discharged. Unbelievable, but glad to go home. I had my doubts because how were we to move him without hurting him. But with two us moving him, one to pick him up and the other to hold/support his leg, we would move him. We had rearranged our work schedule to be home with him and whoever was at work would come home during the lunch hour to help move him from either laying on his mattress to the wheelchair or other way around. Both of us were chicken to try to move him alone for the first several days. Eventually we found ways to pick him up and support the broken leg by ourselves which began to make things easier. As the swelling went down Buddy was also able to handle more without
screaming. Except at night. You know, everything is always worse at night. When he would first fall asleep it would be for about four hours, and then up every 2 hours or less for the rest of the night crying "knee hurt". The worse part would be when we couldn't give him more codeine yet. Carefully, we would straighten out his leg, gently rub it and hope he would settle quickly. Most of the time he would settle, sometimes not. But come morning he would generally be happy and content again. Around two weeks into this we got around a lot of the daytime pain, the night time pain seemed to linger longer. We took shifts who would be on duty for night time so that we could have a night of uninterrupted sleep if going to work the next day.
So how did Buddy break his leg? Well from all the pieces of information that we have put together from school, we are pretty confident that he tried to go down the fireman pole on the playground. I'm sure with all the other kids going on it, Buddy totally ignored the adults telling him "no" when the opportunity arose with no one actually watching him that exact second. Buddy hasn't spoken much about the incident except for one time, about three weeks later, when I asked him how he broke his leg he replied "I go weeeee down, and leg hurt." Buddy has Down syndrome, and while active and capable of a lot of things, a fireman pole is still something not for him. He may not always look like he does, but he has low muscle tone
which would make it hard for him to really hold on to a pole and hard for him to land on his feet without falling. Buddy's speech is also delayed making it harder for him to tell us things. And there is the added element of having just finished chemo treatment for leukemia not even just 3 months earlier.
Currently Buddy is coming up to 5 weeks since the accident. He is doing so much better now and sleeping better through the night too. He went back to school, in a wheelchair, and was so happy to go back as he was getting board at home, especially with the other two at school. While he is still not walking on his leg, which might be the case for a bit longer, The Dr said his leg is healing beautifully and whenever he is ready to start standing on it and walking to go ahead and let him. Buddy also had a bone mineral density test done to check the condition of his bones as the extensive steroid use while on
chemo, can sometimes cause bone damage, and happy to say that his bones are good, so he isn't at a higher risk of breaking bones. We are very thankful that all is going well,... and we think its time that one of the other kids take one
for the team.
fallen on the school playground and they think he hurt his knee, not sure but Buddy doesn't want to moved, let alone walk so they have called an ambulance.
It's a strange feeling coming to the school, seeing an ambulance driving across the school field, walking up to where everyone is standing and seeing Buddy laying on the ground. Him, not knowing what to say, just whimpered when he saw me. The paramedics were examining him, asking me how much he can speak and if I can get him to talk. I tried, but no luck, he was in pain and shock and was not about to focus his attention on telling me what happened. Unfortunately, no adult saw him actually fall either. We could easily see it had to do with his right leg, but without Buddy talking didn't know if it was his knee, leg or hip... or even his back or neck. Buddy got put on back board and neck brace and went for a ride in an ambulance. Now Peanut was with me at the time but with Buddy on a his way to the hospital, Peanut stayed at school with the Principal until Daddy came to pick him up and wait at home for updates from Mommy via the iPhone. (Love the iPhone.)
I have to say this experience in ER was a good one. Often you hear of long waits going late into the night with no action until the early morning. Not so this time. Buddy came in after 2pm, got examined, x-rayed and into surgery by 7:30ish pm.
Between 9-10pm he was in his room with the nurses getting him settled in for the night. Not bad, eh. During this time I was relieved to give updates that neck and hips were fine and it was clearly a broken femur, which is bad enough on its own, but still much relieved it was not anything else. The Dr. explained the options for "fixing" his leg being either body cast or rods. Weighing the pros and cons, decided with rods in the legs. This is never an easy choice because no matter what, a broken femur is simply painful at best. Buddy had morphine to help with the pain for the first 24 hours and than it was codeine and Tylenol.
Our little Buddy is an amazing trooper. This is not to say it was an easy trip. Even with the pain meds, when physio came in to get him sitting up and then transferred to a wheelchair he was screaming. What made it OK was once in position he would
settle. Which they tell me is good, but as Mom watching on the sidelines, it was terrible none the less. Really, when is any screaming at the top of your lungs good. In case your wonder, yes, I was crying see him go through this. Who wouldn't.
By the third day we were discharged. Unbelievable, but glad to go home. I had my doubts because how were we to move him without hurting him. But with two us moving him, one to pick him up and the other to hold/support his leg, we would move him. We had rearranged our work schedule to be home with him and whoever was at work would come home during the lunch hour to help move him from either laying on his mattress to the wheelchair or other way around. Both of us were chicken to try to move him alone for the first several days. Eventually we found ways to pick him up and support the broken leg by ourselves which began to make things easier. As the swelling went down Buddy was also able to handle more without
screaming. Except at night. You know, everything is always worse at night. When he would first fall asleep it would be for about four hours, and then up every 2 hours or less for the rest of the night crying "knee hurt". The worse part would be when we couldn't give him more codeine yet. Carefully, we would straighten out his leg, gently rub it and hope he would settle quickly. Most of the time he would settle, sometimes not. But come morning he would generally be happy and content again. Around two weeks into this we got around a lot of the daytime pain, the night time pain seemed to linger longer. We took shifts who would be on duty for night time so that we could have a night of uninterrupted sleep if going to work the next day.
So how did Buddy break his leg? Well from all the pieces of information that we have put together from school, we are pretty confident that he tried to go down the fireman pole on the playground. I'm sure with all the other kids going on it, Buddy totally ignored the adults telling him "no" when the opportunity arose with no one actually watching him that exact second. Buddy hasn't spoken much about the incident except for one time, about three weeks later, when I asked him how he broke his leg he replied "I go weeeee down, and leg hurt." Buddy has Down syndrome, and while active and capable of a lot of things, a fireman pole is still something not for him. He may not always look like he does, but he has low muscle tone
which would make it hard for him to really hold on to a pole and hard for him to land on his feet without falling. Buddy's speech is also delayed making it harder for him to tell us things. And there is the added element of having just finished chemo treatment for leukemia not even just 3 months earlier.
Currently Buddy is coming up to 5 weeks since the accident. He is doing so much better now and sleeping better through the night too. He went back to school, in a wheelchair, and was so happy to go back as he was getting board at home, especially with the other two at school. While he is still not walking on his leg, which might be the case for a bit longer, The Dr said his leg is healing beautifully and whenever he is ready to start standing on it and walking to go ahead and let him. Buddy also had a bone mineral density test done to check the condition of his bones as the extensive steroid use while on
chemo, can sometimes cause bone damage, and happy to say that his bones are good, so he isn't at a higher risk of breaking bones. We are very thankful that all is going well,... and we think its time that one of the other kids take one
for the team.
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