Man Down!! or Woman Down!!

We had a rough start to this week with Lauren playing spider man and breaking a leg...literally. All was well in the Nelson household on a Sunday afternoon about 6pm. Home teaching was done, we had just finished dinner and were about to go on a walk when we heard a terrible scream from the basement. When Kelly flew down the stairs Lauren was under a computer armoire that we figure she must have been climbing on. We scooped her up and cruised to the hospital a mile down the road.

Once we got there they looked at it gave her some pain killer and stopped the bleeding (it was a compound fracture). They took some x-rays and found that she had broken both her Tibia and Fibula about 2 inches above the ankle. They called in an orthopedic surgeon who looked at it and recommended that we transfer to the children's hospital downtown. However St. Paul Children's was full so they sent us to Minneapolis Children's hospital. The good part about that was that the doctor on call was an excellent doctor.

Lauren did a fantastic job of being very brave in the hospital. She cried some but deserved to cry about 10 times more based on the brake. She even fell asleep in the ambulance ride to the hospital. Finally at mid-night she went into surgery where they were able to clean the wound and reset the leg without using any pins. Just before the surgery the doctor asked Lauren what color of cast she wanted and before he could give the two options, pink or blue, she blurted out purple! He quickly ran back to his office to bring back some purple cast material and wrapped her up in purple.

Needless to say the next couple of days were rough as Kelly and I swapped off staying with Lauren in the hospital until Tuesday evening when she came home. To make matters worse Kelly spent most of the day on Tuesday with Dustin at the doctor and then the same hospital as Lauren trying to get a urine sample to see if he had a bladder infection (he didn't give at the hospital or doctors office even with catheter tubes but managed to really wet his diaper on the car ride between the two).

Overall I do have to say we did have some "tender mercies" from the whole experience. First it happen while we were all home and able to quickly react, including a friend that came over to watch the kids until I got home at 4am. Second, Grandma and Grandpa Anderson flew into town on Monday so they have been a huge help in watching the kids while we have been trying to get things resolved. Three, Lauren has been a super trooper! She did a great job during the night when it happened and did very well on recovering at the hospital. She even watched the doctor open up the window in her cast to take out the drain tube and stitch and didn't even flinch when there was quite a lot of blood on the dressing. She enjoyed telling her mom about it!

Lauren is now home and enjoying a wagon limo which in her mind is much better than a wheelchair. We also found a care package from some of my great co-workers at home. The Cheetos are long gone but the fun art projects will keep her busy for a long time! And true to Lauren's love for getting out of the house she wants to go on every errand that we run, cast and all.