Elle's Broken Arm

I am still in shock with the fact that Elle broke her arm. We wanted to go to the bike park to have fun as a family, and instead we ended up in the ER until 1:00 AM.

Everything was going perfectly fine. The kids were all loving the bike park. They rode and rode and rode. Elle really enjoyed it, and was doing better than anyone. She even asked to go on bigger jumps (ya, right). But then, on the very last run of the night, Elle fell. Her bike landed on her arm, and she landed on her bike. I heard her scream, and I saw Johnny run. I knew in the pit of my stomach that it was bad. But when she held up her arm and said, “Somebody help me,” I was shocked. Her arm no longer looked like her arm. It was bowed and mangled. As a mother, it broke my heart.

Johnny scooped her up and ran immediately to the car. I ran after him with Emerson. Luckily we were with friends, and they took Hudson. He watched us run, but was not concerned beyond that—thank goodness.

Down the hill from the bike park was an urgent care, but as soon as we arrived they told us her injury was beyond their capabilities. We were then sent downtown to the ER. They immediately put Elle on morphine, but were unable to do more until the doctor had time. Poor Elle. She was in so much pain, and kept saying, “Doctor. Doctor. Somebody please fix my arm.” It was hard to watch. I wanted to take all of the pain away from my little girl.

Our wait turned into hours, as the ER was beyond busy. Elle kept getting bumped, because more urgent cases kept coming up. But finally, we got x-rays, and the doctor was able to see her. He told us that he was going to try and manipulate her arm, since none of her growth plates were affected. So they put her on drugs that didn’t put her to sleep, but made her unaware. They then yanked and pulled on her arm with extreme force. I had no idea that this was how they manipulated breaks, and I was alarmed and scared. At one point I remember wondering if the doctor knew what he was doing. Johnny assured me that he did, and then he told me to turn around.

After what seemed like forever, the doctor stopped and ordered another x-ray. With the x-ray we found out that her bones were now off the top of each other, but they were not lined up. He said there was nothing more to do but splint her arm and wait until Monday to call the doctor.

We then had the fun of seeing Elle come out of the medication. She was hallucinating, and she could not remember anything. She knew who Johnny was, but not me or Emerson. She kept calling me lady, and she wanted me to go away. I tried not to take it personal, but it was hard. But she did say some of the funniest things. We are still laughing at them. Some of the crazy things she said were: “Is this real life?;” Am I a robot?;” “Go away Lady;” “Why do you have four eyes?;” “Am I going to grow another nose?;” “What’s medicine?;” “What’s a baby?;” and so many more. It was funny and sad at the same time.

And finally, after many hours in the ER, we were allowed to go home.

The next two days of waiting were hard. Elle was a good sport (as long as we kept her on the pain medication), and she kept her spirits up well. She was in a lot of pain, but she seemed more like herself. I think it helped that so many people came to see her and brought gifts. She felt so loved. But it was still hard seeing Elle in pain, and I had so much guilt.

Monday finally came, and we were able to call the doctor and get in that morning. He told us that she needed to have surgery that day, and he could get us in in one hour. So we took Hudson to a friend’s house, and headed to the hospital for surgery.

Elle, of course, did great, and she now has a pink and purple leopard cast to show for it. I am proud of my sweet, brave, and tough little girl.