Better Explanation

Here is the story of what actually happened (as far as we can piece together). Beware, this is a pretty long post.

Our water heater went out. My dad couldn’t fix it so he bought a new one and wanted to put it in a different place. We had an old piano there, so we had to pull it out of the way. Brad was at work and couldn’t help. We just pushed it out of the house and put it against a concrete wall just outside our door.

These pictures are the best ones I can find to help illustrate. To the right of this picture is the concrete wall the piano was against. To the left of the picture is our door. (This is when we were planting our “garden.”)

It was up against the wall, with the back of the piano facing our door. The piano is a super old, upright piano. It was my grandma’s and she got it from an old church building I think. Anyway, it was missing a caster in the back.

This is the part we’ve pieced together since. Apparently Kaden, Aaron, and their cousin Sydney were sitting on the concrete wall (pictured below). Behind Kaden in this picture you can see a ledge underneath the stairs. That’s where they were sitting.

I guess Kaden was thirsty so he used the piano as a stepping stool to get down and come in the house. Only he didn’t make it to the house. He must have thrown it off balance (there was already a caster missing in the first place). I don’t know exactly how it hit him, but he was extremely lucky. Me and my father heard a loud crash (nothing like the sound of a piano hitting the ground) and then some screaming. Our door would barely open because the piano was blocking the way. My dad got there first. The piano was propped up on a step so Kaden had wiggled his way out on his own. Dad was holding him when I managed to get through the door and I took him upstairs.

I was thinking, “Get his shorts off and see if he’s bleeding or what’s going on.” I set him down on my parents’ couch, but his right leg was hanging off the side. I lifted it to put it on the couch so I could look and his knee twisted the wrong way. My dad made it upstairs so I ran to get my purse, shoes and car keys. We put him in our van and I decided to drive him to Jordan Valley Medical Center because Brad was there working. This was all around 4:30 p.m., June 17th.

I called Brad on the way. He was in the middle of an exam, but they pulled him out for me anyway. I told him we were on our way and what had happened. I said, “I’m pretty sure his right femur is B-R-O-K-E-N.” I didn’t want to say it because I was afraid Kaden would freak out even more, so I spelled it out.

After a 30 minute car ride that I will never be able to forget (it’s AWFUL to hear your child in that much pain and not be able to do a single thing about it except keep driving) we made it to the hospital. Brad ran out to the car, saw his leg and told me to pull up right to the doors. He ran inside and asked for some help transporting his son with a broken femur. The ER doctor came out, lifted Kaden out, then sat on the end of the bed holding traction on his leg, for at least 30 minutes. Holding traction in this instance basically meant the doctor pulled on his knee so the muscles weren’t rubbing on the broken bone; holding the leg in it’s proper position.

They took x-rays (we had half the radiology department over there because that’s where Brad works!) We were given the option to have the orthopedic specialists at Jordan work on him, or transfer him to Primary Children’s. We decided to transfer him just because they work with kids all day every day. After the long wait for the ambulance, we were on our way. Brad rode with Kaden (who was happily on pain meds) in the ambulance and I drove. By the time we got there it was probably 8:15 p.m. We didn’t see the orthopedic resident until 11:30 p.m. Long wait. At any rate, they decided on a spica cast and said it would happen the following morning.

We spent the night in the RTU (rapid treatment unit). It was awful. We didn’t get moved to our room until just after 1 a.m. Kaden was up every 30 minutes to an hour screaming in pain. He kept having muscle spasms. They gave him valium and did all they could, but nothing really seemed to help. The nurse was awesome though. She talked to me about the procedure, told me things I needed to make sure were done. She called the orthopedic resident to get Kaden’s prescriptions changed. He was hesitant at first and she told him if he wouldn’t change it then she’d call him from Kaden’s room, put it on speaker and just leave it! (He was screaming a lot.) Awesome!

Anyway, the rest is relatively uneventful. The took him to the OR just after 9 a.m. He chose his cast color. They spoke to us and wheeled him away. We waited in a waiting room for an hour. The orthopedic surgeon came and told us he was in recovery and everything went perfectly. She said the break should heal nicely because of the angle it’s on. About 15 minutes later the recovery room called us and we went in to be with him. He was still out, but they were in the process of waking him. We looked at the cast and asked how we were supposed to put clothes on him. A nurse suggested velcro or something. I’ll show you what we came up with in another post. He slept that whole afternoon (he was so exhausted). Although he did eat and go to the bathroom before he fell asleep. We finally woke him around 8 that night. He needed more food so he could take his pain meds by mouth. He ate and took his medicine (nasty stuff). Then they lifted him to make sure he’d fit in his car seat. He fit, we were good to go! Brad went and pulled up the car and we brought him home!

How’s that for a long story? Absolute craziness but we are so so so grateful for the outcome. When I took him in for his one week follow-up, the doctor came in and said, " We still can’t believe this is ALL that happened to him.” And we are about halfway through this, hurray!