Katie’s Broken Wing

Wow.  What a long few days it has been. 

Since I last posted on this past Tuesday, we have had this happen to our little princess:

Katie broke her arm doing aerial cartwheels at gymnastics on Wednesday night.  She broke both bones in her forearm in extremely dramatic fashion which allowed us to have her first ambulance ride, first trip to the ER, and first surgery.  Ugh. <----and that is putting it SO mildly.

It was absolutely horrific.  One minute she was bouncing around and was SO CLOSE to having the aerials (no-handed cartwheel) all by herself and the next minute, there was a LOUD snap and she was screaming and crying and holding her arm which instantly was shaped like the letter “M.”  Oh yeah.  I can almost throw up just thinking about it.  For the first 24-hours or so, the whole scene just kept replaying in my mind, as if I had hit the “repeat” button over and over.  I could not get her shriek or her cries out of my head.  It is subsiding a little now, but still gives me the shivers.  I am praying that she hasn’t been reliving it like I have. 

The surgery consisted of setting her arm and splinting it, and it didn’t take very long at all.  Of course, the 45 minutes or so that we were away from our baby felt like HOURS.  But thankfully she did great and I think I shed more tears than she did.  I have never prayed so hard in my life.

There is absolutely nothing worse than seeing your child in pain, and actually SEEING it happen right in front of your face.  Oh yeah- and did I mention that I was videoing at the time…oh my word, brutal.  I will never ever ever watch that again, and have advised anyone else not to either.  Jack and the boys all watched it after we got home the next morning, and quickly wished they hadn’t.  It is in the delete pile for sure.

So, we are home now.  We came home the next morning after a night of restless no sleep for all of us.  Although, I think the pain meds through her IV may have helped Katie a little…

She has had a couple of breakdowns that have absolutely melted our hearts.  She went to bed crying the other night saying, “I just want to swim and flip and I can’t do either…” Bless her heart. 

We, along with our amazing family and friends, have loaded her up with all kinds of inside fun stuff, and she said yesterday, “The only good about breaking your arm is all the presents you get.”   This is an extremely active child, and anything we can do to get her through the next couple months as easily as possible, we will do.  Her Daddy even went and bought her an iPad (that will be used by everyone once she is better) with a hot pink case to go with it…she LOVES it.  She’s played on my Mom’s a few times but we don’t have anything like that at our house!  It is going to be a lifesaver I think.

The plan: Right now she is in a splint, and the plan in PB was for her to be in it for 2-3 weeks, then she would get a long arm hard cast for 3-4 weeks, then a short arm hard cast for 2-3 weeks…or something like that.  We are going to STL tomorrow for a second opinion to make sure all is well and that everything is perfect.  I mean, she is EIGHT, we want it fixed and fixed perfect.  So just to ease our minds, this is what we are going to do.  I am praying that all is well as is, and nothing else crazy has to be done (crazy, like, more surgery or something).  Also high on the list of questions: waterproof casting…oh how this would be prayers answered if it’s an option for us! 

Please keep Katie in your prayers as we go to STL tomorrow.  Pray for wisdom for her doctor, and peace and comfort for her…and for God to calm ALL our nerves.

Love to you.

xoxo