Broken Femur

Here is my "turtle shell"!

Laying with Daddy after getting my IV and moving to a new room

Coloring in the Hospital Bed

Yes, we have a broken femur in the Deters's House. It is Jake's femur in his left leg. We are going to be at home for the next 4-6 weeks recovering. Let me start from the beginning...

Thursday morning, I went over to my parents' house to pick up Jake. He had spent the night there, as Joe and I were helping Jamie move out of her apartment. Jake was so excited to see me. He did not want to leave and come home. Jamie watched him while I ran to a garage sale. While I was gone, she taught him how to use toilet paper to "TP" Grandma's kitchen. He LOVED it! Thanks, Jamie. We now have to keep tabs on all our TP. Jake and I headed home with some new garage sale toys and were ready to play. I brought him down to the basement to play with his new bowling pins and balls. I also pulled out some cars that had been packed away from the move. While Jake was playing, I was going through some boxes still sitting in the basement. I had my back to Jake and turned around to carry two camera boxes to a shelf in the laundry room. I saw Jake sitting on the floor, a car under him, and his left leg twisted in a way that was not normal. What was odd was he was so quiet. No noise when he fell, no tears, nothing. I dropped the boxes and ran over to scoop him up. That was when the tears and the screams came.

I panicked. I did not know what to do. Did he break a bone? Was it just a bruise? I called Joe at work. He could hear Jake crying/screaming in the background. I told him I thought we needed to take him in. Joe was on his way. I held Jake and tried to comfort him. He would not let me put him down, sit down, or put my leg up on a chair for support. I had to hold him the exact same way I did when he was a baby, across my stomach. It was the only way that did not hurt. Any movement I made to adjust his position made it worse. We left for the hospital as soon as Joe got home. We knew Jake could not fit into his car seat, so I sat in the back of the car and held him. Thankfully, we live less than a mile away from St. Francis Hospital. We were admitted right away into the ER.

The physician that came in to see us did not think, at first, that Jake had broken a bone. He was thinking it may have been a hip dislocation. After taking him to get an x-ray (which he did not like at all), he came into the room and Joe and I both knew instantly it was a broken bone. They told us they would splint his leg in the ER, and either send him upstairs to the hospital, or to Children's' or Methodist, to have it casted. The orthopedic surgeon came in to talk with us and said he would do the cast in the OR at the hospital. We were lucky that it was a clean break, the bones had not displaced, and that he would not need surgery, or have the bones set. They did need to put him under to have the cast put on. That meant they needed to start an IV. What a horrendous process that was! The nurses did a great job, but Jake was just not having it. They placed it first in his right had and it somehow slipped out. They had to try again in his left arm. Jake was beyond upset. Joe did a great job of sitting in the hospital bed holding him. Once the IV was in, we were moved to the Same-Day Surgery area of the hospital.

Once we were settled into the room, both grandmas were there. The nurses did a great job of trying to cheer Jake up. They even took his new stuffed dog (Thanks, Mom!) and put a blood pressure cuff and surgical hat on him. Jake named him Kirby...go figure! Joe and Jake were wheeled off together to the OR. They started the anesthesia when they were right outside the room. Joe said it was very hard to let him go. The procedure took about 25 minutes. The doctor said it went smoothly. Jake spent about 45 minutes in the recovery area waking up. He missed his nap, so he was tired on top of the medicine. The nurse said he woke up and looked at her and then started crying for his mama and daddy. I was able to sit in a wheel chair and hold him as we were getting ready to be moved to the Pediatric Floor. It was so hard to see him in his big, bulky cast. Even though the doctor described what it would look like, it looked so different on his tiny body.

We were brought up to his new room and had more visitors. Papa Nuteson (Knutson) , Papa Bien, and Auntie Jamie all stopped by to see Jake. He spent most of the time in Joe's arms in the rocking chair. We watched cartoons and a little of the Twins' game. He was on morphine for the pain and was still pretty tired. We ended up moving him to the hospital bed, which made him more comfortable. It changed up our sleeping arrangements a little. Joe slept at the end of the bed with his legs on the rocking chair, and I slept in the fold-out chair/bed. Joe did not sleep very well. Jake slept pretty good. He woke up a few times during the night and cried a little, but went back to sleep. I was glad we stayed the night. The nurses took such good care of all of us. Jake was not a big fan of them coming in to check his vitals or look at his feet. He covered his head with his " B" (blankie).

We were discharged from the hospital shortly before noon on Friday. We had to lay Jake in the backseat of the car and creatively buckle him in. I am glad Joe was the one to do the buckling. We surrounded him with pillows and I sat with him. There is no way he can sit in a regular car seat, so we won't be going far during the next month. When we arrived home, we settled Jake into the recliner and brought him some little toys to play with. We spent the rest of the day watching movies, TV, and resting. Jake stayed up a little later than normal, because he just did not want to go to sleep. Joe read several books to him and eventually Jake was tired enough to go to bed. We put a pillow under the mattress to elevate his head and put two pillows on the floor next to his crib. We had recently taken the side of the crib down, so the pillows were a must. He slept through most of the night. He cried out a few times, but went right back to sleep. Apparently, there was a thunderstorm that went through..none of us heard it!

Today, we had lots of grandparents stop by for visits. They played with Jake, watched movies, and helped me clean. I also snuck in a little nap, too. He is still in pain, and will be for the next few days. He is on Tylenol with Codeine and Ibuprofen. It is so hard to see him in pain, screaming, cringing, and crying...and not be able to scoop him up and cuddle with him. He did let me sit with him in the chair today and hold him for a bit.

We will keep you posted on his recovery. Send him some get well vibes. He is a tough kid and will get through this!