Thursday, June 23, 2011

I Just Bought 4 ONE WAY Tickets Home....

Yes, you read that correctly - ONE WAY tickets.   I am telling you this now, but the decision was really made within an hour after Wyatt broke his leg on Friday.  I told you the partial story of what happened that day, but let me share it again with all the details.

We had always planned on staying here for 6 months - at least.  In fact, because of the results we were getting my husband said if we had to stay 2 years it would be worth it.  Thankfully we didn't have to do that and were blessed with the opportunity of opening our own center.   There were a few times that the thought entered my mind of going home early, but it always left when I thought about Wyatt and making sure he got what he needed while we were here.

On Friday I dropped Wyatt off at Brain Balance and then went to pick the other kids up from a play date. We went home and had lunch and things were going quite well.

We left to take Brody to Brain Balance and as we pulled out Wyatt said "jump".  I figured that would be a perfect thing to do while Brody was in BB because we had just the right amount of time and it was inside and out of the heat!  We got to Jump 2 It and the fun started.  It is hard to keep track of the kids in there because they are all over the place, but luckily I only had 2 that day.  Also, I don't worry too much about Hazel, so I stuck with Wyatt to make sure he didn't run out the door and down the road.

Wyatt loves to say "Im gonna get you" as his way of getting us to chase him up the stairs and down the slides, etc.  This particular day was no different.  We usually do it on a certain slide, but on Friday he was trying something new.  He was on a different slide where you had to go through a whole maze pretty much to get to the stairs and then down the slide.  I was too old and tired and just waited at the bottom of the slide for him.  When he would get to the top he would say "I'm gonna get you" and I would run up the slide as far as I could and he would laugh.  He would then slide down (in the way shown in the videos on a previous post) and start again.  We had done this about three times when it happened.  Luckily,  I was standing right at the bottom of the slide (having just ran up it) and not sitting on the chairs, or visiting, etc. 

As Wyatt jumped on the slide that last time, this time with his leg underneath the other, I heard a very distinct "crack" and I instantly knew his leg was broken.  It was very strange because I usually would have told myself that I was being overly paranoid, but there was not a doubt in my mind that he had broken his leg.  I ran up the slide and scooped him up.  He immediately started crying and holding his leg.  I told Hazel we needed to go and that Wyatt was very hurt and she wasn't listening too well.  Luckily, one of the girls working there has babysat for us before so I asked her to help me get Hazel to the car.  I called my husband when we got in the car and he was VERY concerned.  I told him I would call him after we went to the Doctor.

Poor Wyatt was sitting in the back of the car crying and holding his leg and I felt so bad for him.  I called a friend and luckily, she answered.  I asked her if I could drop Hazel off and she said she would pick up Brody at BB as well.  I asked her where the hospital was and she said it was kind of far.  She said there was an urgent care but she didn't know if they did x-rays and that I should call.  I got back in the car and went and tried to comfort Wyatt.  As he sat there still crying (which is pretty unusual - and great in a way - because he never used to feel his own body enough to feel pain) he looked up at me and said "Erase, Erase".  It just about broke my heart.  When Wyatt spills something, he says erase.  If there is something that he doesn't want on the table or his shirt, he says erase.  That was his way of telling me that he wanted me to take away what had happened and the pain that he was experiencing.  Although it was so sad, I loved that he was trying to communicate with me in a way that he knew how. 

I called the urgent care and luckily, they did x-rays so I headed over.  Luckily, we got right in - which is usually unheard of at an urgent care.  I was VERY nervous about how Wyatt would react there since it sometimes takes multiple people to hold him down just to look in his ears.  He has gotten better over the years and I knew that he was better because of BB, but this was a lot bigger than looking in his ears.  I was also nervous because most doctors we have seen don't really understand and are not very compassionate towards Wyatt.  They don't have patience for the fact that he is crying or won't stand on a scale, or refuses to put the oxygenation monitor on his finger.   Luckily, this day was different.  The entire staff was so nice, understanding and compassionate.  Wyatt did AMAZINGLY well and although he was scared and whimpering, he let them do x-rays and even put the splint on him.  I was in shock.  I thought he would be struggling and crying and he was so good and almost seemed mature and like he understood what had happened and what had to be done? 

I headed home and realized that I needed to go get some medicine for Wyatt and I wanted to get him a new movie or something to do - I felt so bad for him.   Luckily, I had already arranged for a babysitter to come over so that I could take Brody and Hazel to karate class.  I asked her if she would mind helping me for the night instead and she was glad to.  She sat in the car while I ran into Target.  The Dr. had told me to just get some over the counter medication but unluckily, every last one of them had high fructose corn syrup in it.  My poor child already has heavy metal poisoning and was sick and hurting.  Why on earth would I want to give him more toxins?  Sorry, I am just very annoyed that medications that are supposed to help people have harmful chemicals and toxins that hurt them. 

We went and picked up the other two kids and headed home.  The sitter helped me make dinner and took care of the other kids while I took care of Wyatt.  He seemed not to be in pain but more bothered by the splint.  However, how was I really to know?  I talked to a friend who is a nurse and she said she had broken her leg and it didn't hurt the first while, but it got really bad after a few hours.  She said I should call back to the Dr. and try to get a prescription for something.  I got nervous and didn't want him to be in pain, but I looked at the clock and it was 12 minutes after 8:00 and they urgent care closed at 8:00.  I decided to go ahead and try calling anyway and luckily, the Dr. himself answered the phone.  He called in some Tylenol with Codeine right away.  I called the pharmacy and they said they had just gotten the prescription but that they closed in 20 minutes.  Luckily they said they could get it ready in time and so I quickly ran to the pharmacy. 

I got about 2 hours of sleep that night or less.  I would wake up every 10 seconds to check on my poor little boy and so many things were running through my head: 

  • Luckily I had booked a last minute plane ticket for my husband to come for Father's Day.  It was so great to have him here to help and comfort Wyatt as well as come with me to get his cast on. 
  • Luckily Wyatt had just barely had his sensory motor assessment the day before this happened.  Otherwise, he would not have been able to do his assessment.  It had been scheduled for the middle of July because they were booked up, but I had called on Wednesday to see if there were any cancellations and luckily, they were able to get us in. 
  • Luckily, it was his right leg that broke.  I explained this a bit the other day.  Wyatt is supposed to balance on his left foot, we are supposed to stimulate the left side of his body and he is supposed to limit the sensory input on the right side of the body.  Now he is in a cast that limits almost all sensory input to his right leg and he is going to be forced to balance a lot on his left leg and use the left side of his body a lot more. 
  • Luckily, when Wyatt went to his Brain Balance session on that very Friday just 2 hours earlier, it was session number 36.  The 12 week Brain Balance program consists of 36 sessions exactly. 
Now, a few of you, if you are really quick, may have caught onto a theme going on here.   I used the term "luckily" 16 times (and could have used it a lot more!)  The problem is, I don't believe in luck.  I would like to think that anyone reading this would realize that there are WAY too many "lucky" coincidences in this story. 

All of these things kept running through my head all day long, but what is interesting is that within 2 minutes of Wyatt's injury (before we had even gotten confirmation that it was broken) I had a very strong feeling that just said "You are done here, you can go home now".   It was very obvious and all of the other things just kept falling inline to confirm that feeling.  This injury did not happen before or after Wyatt finished his 12 weeks.  It did not happen before he was able to get his assessment done, and it was not his left leg that broke.  Also, I have realized that if Brody or Hazel been the one that had gotten hurt, we would not be going home. 

Once again, the Lord has a plan for our family.  I don't always understand why, but there is no way we could ignore the fact that he was leading us and telling us what to do. 

When we decided to come here, everything fell into place within two days time.  Now that it is time for us to go home it came together just as quickly.  Luckily (okay fine - it is not luck!)  Since we had already purchased a plane ticket for my husband to come out for 4th of July weekend, we just needed 4 more one way tickets.  By no coincidence, there were still seats available on his same flight so that we could all fly home together - as a family. 

Goodnight!

2 comments:

  1. What great news Tammy. I have been praying so hard for you and the kids that everything would turn out good, and it has happened. We are so proud of you and love you all. Grandma Z

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  2. Tammy, You have a gift for seeing the blessings in difficult situations. Thank you for inspiring others to do the same.
    Jennifer Woods

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