The girls were playing outside after dinner and Alyssa came running in the back door. "Mom? Help." Often, she's very dramatic, however this time, there was nothing in the tone of her voice that alarmed me. I had my back to her as she came in the door, and she again repeated herself very calmly and plainly, "Help, Emma's hurt." As I turned around and saw the expression on her face I knew something was seriously wrong. The color was completely gone from her face and her eyes had this very blank but fearful look to them.
I got out into the yard and our neighbor was cradling Emma in her arms, she handed her to me explaining that as Emma was jumping on the trampoline she had suddenly grabbed at her ankle and told everyone else on the trampoline to please stop bouncing. The odd thing was that nothing out of the ordinary had seemed to happen. Emma was bouncing, bouncing, bouncing, then she just collapsed. I laid her down on the couch and I could tell right away that she needed to be x-rayed. The little ankle had already swelled up like a puffball. I've seen lots and lots of sprained ankles at gymnastics, and a few broken ones, and from what I could tell based on outward appearances, this certainly looked more on the broken side. I was wondering though if my initial feelings of fear were causing me to see something that wasn't actually there because she wasn't crying. She whimpered when Ka'eo tried to put the ice on, but she seemed "okay." Rebekah asked Emma if she would like to pray for her ankle, then Rebekah proceeded to say the prayer she says when we are about to eat, and said, "There, I'm cheering Emma up now."
As the next half hour passed the swelling only increased and it was obvious she couldn't walk on it, so Ka'eo brought her to the ER. Alyssa and Rebekah kept asking every five minutes when Emma would be home, did I think her ankle was really broken, will Emma be in a wheelchair when she gets back? They were worried and I had a hard time getting them to rest. At one point Alyssa was just sitting at the window waiting for them to come home.
When they returned around 10:30 Emma's ankle was in a soft splint. She had broken the growth plate and needed to see an orthopedic surgeon the next day to be sure that they didn't need to repair it surgically. Everything went way better than I ever could have asked for with the surgeon. My dad's cousin, Rory is an orthopedic surgeon and he was happy to see her the next morning. It was reassuring to see someone we know and have him look at the x-rays and show us right where it is broken. The poor thing did a really good job breaking it in two places on both the inside and outside of the ankle bone. He confidently explained that this is a fragile area of the bone structure for a child Emma's age, and we didn't need to worry about surgery or the healing process. It's a relatively common area for a break, and Rory expects it to be as good as new in as soon as four weeks. Praise God! Rory was so great and attentive to her pain, he complimented her for being brave and tough, gave her the coolest hot pink cast, and said all the things Emma needed to hear. We are very thankful he was able to so gently fix her back up again!!
Emma's broken ankle puts a slight hitch in our vacation plans for the end of the week. Once she was all casted up I was so relieved but my next thoughts naturally went to our vacation, and the upcoming visits to theme parks where she will likely have to pass on many of the rides she has been looking forward to for months. I know there are so many worse things beyond missing out on rides that a child could have to go through, but Emma tends to be so tenderhearted about this kind of thing. She cried WAY HARDER when she realized that I was not leaving her at school to enjoy the final day of play with her classmates in room 28, than she did when the injury took place the day before! I dreaded explaining to her that the vacation was going to be very different than what she had been planning for.
Dave beat me to the punch on that conversation {another thing which I am so thankful for} and I thought he explained it to her in such a great and perfect way. Later that night Emma announced that whenever there is something she can't do, she will just go shopping with Grandmommy. She will be Grandmommy's helper and shopping partner. Trust me when I say that Grandmommy doesn't require any help with shopping, she is very capable of doing significant damage in this area on her own :-), but Emma is so happy to have this new responsibility. It was sweet to hear Emma so genuinely excited to have this special time to spend with Grandmommy who I am sure will be grateful for an excuse to stay off some rides. Many, many times I have seen her get on a ride that she is absolutely dreading for no other reason than to be able to share the experience with the kids, and now she has a very good reason to say, "oh, no the baby better not go on this one, we'll be in the gift shop!" I don't think Kahiwa will have to worry about missing out on anything :-)
Anyway, Rory was so efficient fixing up Emma's ankle that we were able to return to her class for about the last hour or so of the day, and she enjoyed cupcakes and icee treats with her classmates. Her last memory of 1st grade didn't have to be tearfully saying good bye to everyone as had happened earlier that morning. Another huge blessing to be thankful for! She even disappeared on me for a few minutes, leaving me wondering how a child just learning how to use crutches could outrun me in the school. She had decided that she needed to run back to her classroom to have her friends sign her cast since she found the correct kind of marker for that in the school office. Just took off before I even knew she had left {someone had stopped me to talk and I was very distracted.}
In a way, her broken ankle has helped her discover a new interest that she has. We've learned over the last two days that Emma LOVES to scrapbook. She can't get up and play with the kids the way she would like, so we needed something to keep her busy and happy while she's sitting down. She got a cute scrapbook kit from her friend Jaydon for her birthday, and I have a bunch of prints from her party, so she has worked very diligently to get a birthday scrapbook together. I think it even took her by surprise how much fun it is to organize the photos and decorate the pages. It's turning out to be so cute!
Yesterday we spent a nice day going out to breakfast with my parents and taking the girls to the library to sign up for summer reading before we head out on vacation. I also got a lot of packing done while they watched movies with the girls. Fun distractions to help Emma pass some time that otherwise could have been unpleasant. While we wish we could have protected her from the injury, we have lots of things to be thankful for coming out of her rather unexpected mishap on the trampoline.
1 comment:
Oh wow! Poor Emma. I do love her pink cast, though! She seems like such an easy going, sweet girl. She sure is making the best of the situation. I hope she has fun shopping with her grandmommy! That's a role I would gladly accept too, what a lucky girl! Praying her ankle continues to heal quickly and she'll be back to running and jumping around in no time!
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