Since we found out about the bone cyst in his left femur about 18 months ago, we knew that it could fracture at any time. That time unfortunately came… On March 22nd, around 4:30PM I got a call from our neighbor saying that Thomas was upstairs and he hurt his leg. I immediately knew what happened and told the neighbor I’d be right over. Jacob and I got in the car and went straight down. Thomas was upstairs and got himself into a sitting position on a couch. It turned out he tripped while walking upstairs and simply fell the exact wrong way. I carried him down the stairs as gently as I could and got him into another chair. He was scheduled to have surgery on the cyst on April 4th so I thought it would be best to call his doctor to find out what he wanted me to do. I was able to fairly quickly track Dr. Solomon down and he told me to take him to the UC Davis Medical Center and he would notify the orthopedist in the emergency room that we were on our way. I got Thomas into the car and left Jacob with the neighbors and we made the trip to Sacramento. Thomas was a champ.
Upon arrival at the ER, the triage nurse got Thomas out of the car and onto a gurney and into the ER. Morphine and valium were quickly administered and Thomas started to feel a bit better. We got x-rays and sure enough, there was a fracture. He was going to need to be put into traction so it could heal. The orthopedist thought that morphine and valium would be enough, personally, I had my doubts as Thomas was in extreme pain any time the leg moved. When they went to straighten the leg, it was obvious that the pain was going to be too much. Conscious sedation was going to be what was necessary. Thomas was really a good sport about it and I had to laugh when he told me, “Daddy, don’t tell me about it when I wake up.” He was out pretty quickly after the sedation began and everybody got to work setting the leg. In about 15 minutes, Thomas was in traction and he was going to have to stay that way for about 2 weeks.
After waiting hours for x-rays, we finally got some and they looked good. Around 11:30PM that night we finally went up to our room. Unfortunately, Thomas needed to move from his gurney to the bed and that meant moving both him and the traction apparatus. Any kind of movement was incredibly painful for him but the nurses were all great. With the absolute minimum amount of discomfort, we had Thomas moved to the bed and had the new traction equipment in place. Sleep finally came for Thomas as well as could be expected. He was in a lot of pain anytime he moved and he tends to move a lot in his sleep so we woke up a few times through the rest of the night.
Amy was in Las Vegas for a tea convention. She immediately dropped the conference and left Las Vegas very early Wednesday morning and got to the hospital around 8:30AM. Thomas was really happy to see her. This was the beginning of a long two weeks at the hospital…
