The always uninvited "split-second"

It always comes when you least expect it, and what it brings is never good. Sometimes the split second is life changing in the worst way, other times it may be a terrible accident, and yet other times it can be something that will disrupt your life for a little while, but then end and things can go back to normal.


This last split-second visited our home on sunday evening. We were running in from church and changing quickly to head to a family super-bowl get together. I took the older girls to change them and Kevin took Lexie while he went to change. He set her on the bed, in the middle, and went to the closet. He could see her from there, but she's turned into an expert roller these days. Right off the bed she went. That was just a split-second.


After an hour of her trying to sleep and repeatedly waking up screaming I took her to one of those 24 hour emergency rooms. We got right in and they took X-rays of her and a cat-scan. Since we didn't see how she fell or what exactly was hurt, they had to cover the bases. I had a feeling it was her legs and after waiting a few hours for radiology to review her scans, they told me that she had fractured her hip. This is an incredibly rare injury for infants to have so they didn't know how to treat it there and wanted her to be seen by an orthopedic surgeon. At 11:00pm we headed down to memorial hermann to be seen. Little did we know that we would be waiting in the emergency room down there all night.


We got to the ER and went back to a room by 1:00am and waited. They gave her some pain meds by 3, and took blood to get her labs done in case she needed surgery. We waited till 5am to see the ortho, but she didn't know what they were going to do yet. So we waited some more for her to consult with some other doctors. I was so nervous that she would have to have surgery or be put into a cast for 6 weeks. They both sounded like awful choices. Finally at 7am, she came back and told me that they were going to put her in a sling/harness. I was so grateful. It's still not fun for her and I'm sure she's a little uncomfortable, but of the options we had, this was by far the best one. After that, we waited until about 10:30am for the prosthetics people to show up with the sling and fit it to her. Lucky for us, while waiting in the ER we were blessed, all night, to be able to listen to the lovely sounds of people coughing and vomiting since we're in the middle of flu season. It was the longest night of my life.

Our happy and strong baby girl, this is what the harness looks like, no one can imagine it, including me, so I thought you might like to see just what it is.

Her legs can go back and forth, but not extend. She isn't moving her left leg at all though, she learned quick to hold it still!

At last, by noon we were up in our own room so she could be observed for 24 hours to make sure the sling fit right and wasn't bothering her too much. Luckily, the let us go early and we came home last night. She's doing amazing and is spending most of today catching up on all the sleep she lost, I'm sure the pain meds are helping her sleep a little bit better too. She's a trooper and smiles bunches, but she'll be sure to let us know when she's not feeling too good as well.

It was awful to be visited by that mean split-second, but we feel blessed that it wasn't worse than it is. I'm so grateful that it wasn't her head or her spine that were injured, and that she's handling things so well. I'm also so grateful for the priesthood and the fact that Kevin could give his daughter a blessing and in turn, give me the comfort that I needed. We are also so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family around to support us. Especially those that were able to come in the middle of the night so Kevin could go with me downtown. We are so grateful for all the words of comfort and all the help offered by so many of you, you have made this so much easier for us than it would have been.

We're just praying that she heals quickly and isn't in pain for too long. Thank you every one and I hope that pesky split-second will go on vacation for a really long time!

On a side note, this was the big news on sunday at our house, until Lexie fell that is, Peyton got a fun new haircut! I love it, and think she looks like the sweetest little doll! What a cutie!