Our 24th fo July

Our 24th of July started out like any day. We watched the big parade in Salt Lake on tv. With Mike being out of town we didn't do much. The kids were taking turns cooking dinner and loving it. That night Kaden cooked hot dogs and beans. After dinner the three younger boys went outside to play. At 6:30 Camden came in the house holding his right arm and crying. All I got out of the story at the time was Camden fell out of the truck by himself. As the night wore on Camden slowly told me more and I figured it out. The boys were playing hide and seek. Camden had climbed in the bed of the truck to count and had fallen out on his way down. No one saw the fall but Camden says he fell on the rocks so my guess was he climbed over the side. The minute I saw his elbow I knew something was wrong. It didn't look right.  As I started to examine his arm I noticed his bone poking out in his arm. It did not look good. It looked gross. Trying to stay calm we said a prayer as a family and got busy. I didn't know who to call except for Mike. Being in Colorado he couldn't help much but he called his parents who lived 20 minutes away. They dropped everything to help me out. I am so grateful to them for all they did for me that night. I left the older kids at home and went searching for an instacare with Camden and Reyen. Grandpa went to our house to watch the kids and Grandma met up with me. I tried a few instacares close by but when they were all closed I had to call my insurance and find more places. Needless to say, we ended up at Lone Peak Hospital Emergency room because everything was closed. By this time Camden had calmed down but was in a lot of pain. He wouldn't talk to anyone at the hospital except for me. Grandma took Reyen. She fed and changed her. They took some x-rays and the doctor concluded that he wouldn't touch it and was referring us to Primary Children's Hospital. I asked if there was another hospital that could take him but the Dr said there was no one specialized to work on Camden. My guess was that it was because Camden was little. So off we went to another hospital.

Camden had a great time getting rides in wheelchairs at both hospitals. The nurse who helped us out to the car let Camden keep a pillow for his arm. He was very quiet seeing all the people around.

We headed to Primary children's with all the paperwork in toe and waited. Kathy was a big help. She helped me not freak out and took care of Reyen. There were other kids there with injuries from falling out a two story window to falling down the stairs. Waiting was what we did most of. They made Camden do more x-rays because the first hospital didn't do the right angles. Camden didn't like that. After the x-rays they said he fractured his ulna and radius. If you look at the x-ray you can see the bones are not touching like they are suppose to. The main concern was the elbow. They said a specialist was going to work on him and they didn't know until they tried to put the elbow back in place if it was bad enough that Camden would need surgery. When they told me that I got really worried. I prayed that Camden wouldn't need the surgery. By this time it was around 1am.

These pictures are when they put the IV in Camden's arm. When we found out what was going to happen the Dr said we might as well get the IV in at the beginning with medicine. The guy who did it was so nice, he told Camden what he was doing in boy terms. Camden was really scared through the whole thing. He only made a few sounds and that was it. He was very concerned about what was now on his hand. Through it all Camden did awesome. He let them work.

We had to wait until the surgeon was able to come down and that was about a half hour. When they are getting ready to work on Camden they brought in so much equipment. They also had what seemed like 10 people crammed in this little room all for Camden.  We were given the choice to stay or leave. We left the room just as they were putting Camden to sleep. There was no way I was going to watch. Even though I knew Camden wouldn't feel anything for some reason I thought it would still be painful. Kathy watched and took these pictures. I just prayed everything would be okay. I was relieved when Kathy told me they were putting a cast on his arm. That was a good sign. The doc said things looked good and the elbow went back in. They took more x-rays and even though it didn't go back together perfectly as Camden grows it would be fine. I was so happy to hear that. We stayed awhile longer waiting for Camden to wake up.  We got all packed up and headed home after that. It was around 3:30am when we pulled in the driveway. I am so grateful for wonderful in-laws who helped me so much.

When I took some pictures Camden wanted a picture of his cool socks from the hospital. He didn't want to wash them when they got dirty and no one could use his hospital pillow. 

We were instructed to go back the following week and get a hard cast.  They took more x-rays and were told things looked good and to come back in a month to see if the elbow has healed the correct way. If it has Camden will get a smaller cast for just his arm. If not Camden will have to have surgery. We are praying he heals right.

Camden picked a black cast. It has worked out great because you can't see dirt. We were told he could swim but no dirt and sand. There was no way Camden would stay away from the dirt so when he wants to play we put a grocery bag over his arm. It makes us both happy.

I hope some day Camden starts caring more about how he wears his clothes. He loves his cast and is doing a lot with his arm. He is getting good at eating with his left hand. I've always wanted a kid who was left handed but never in this way. I'm so grateful Camden was brave through all of this and things have turned out good. This is something I don't want to go through again but my mother-in-law reminded me that I have boys and this is just the beginning.