Seth's Misadventure

Well, I have a few things to catch up on, but I figured I'd start with the most recent since my memories of the other things are already stale. Seth has been home from the hospital a week now. This is what happened...

On the morning of Tuesday, Oct 26th the children were supposed to be loading up in the car to go to school. Instead, Faith runs to tell me that Seth fell. She and Seth had gone in the backyard for a romp on the trampoline. Though it still isn't completely clear to me what happened since the only verbal witness is 6 years old, we do know that Seth was on the trampoline and a ball was involved. I carried him inside and took off his jeans to look at his legs, one of which Seth was clutching why saying "ow! ow! ow!" One thigh was significantly larger than the other, so I was pretty sure it was broken.

I got the elementary kids to school and then met Dave at the ER. Dave stayed with Seth for a couple of hours while I tended to some business. When I came back, Seth was being prepped to go to the OR. He did not need surgery, but he had a spiral fracture in his right femur that needed set. Because of Seth's young age and the extensive casting he needed, he had to be put under general anesthesia (intubated). Dave and I sat in the waiting room and received updates that all was going well with the casting.

This is him resting before getting his cast...


I stayed with Seth in the recovery room and Dave went home to tend to the kids and feed them dinner. The doctor had decided to keep Seth overnight which was a bit unusual (but a lifesaver!) Seth awoke and was transferred to a room for the night. The more conscious he became, the more obvious it was that he was having trouble breathing. He was wheezing and his chest rose and fell significantly with each breath. (Seth did have a slight cough before all this but nothing serious. It became serious.) He received 3 breathing treatments and one dose of steroids, but there was no change. It turned scary as more and more medical personnel gathered in the room and all were looking at each other with this "what do we do now?" look.

I called Dave to tell him things were not going well and that he should come up soon and arrange for a blessing. By the time he got there, a chest xray revealed that Seth's airway was extremely constricted. We are not completely sure why this happened it was just explained that sometimes when intubated, a person's trachea gets irritated and swollen. It was decided that he needed to be re-intubated to keep him breathing and he was going to be life-lighted to a Children's hospital about an hours' drive away. Dr. Wall, Dave's friend and a fellow church member from anesthesia, brought a welcome sense of order to the situation as he calmly took charge of the the situation, put a re-tubed Seth and stablized him in preparation for the transfer.

At this point, Seth's well being was very uncertain. We were scared. The children were brought to the hospital by Dave. They met a friend (and awesome primary president) from church, Deirdrie, who watched the children while her sweet, grandpa-like father-in-law and Dave proceeded to Seth's room. Dave doubted if he were in a state of mind to participate, but as Dr. (Brother) Wall was tied up stabilizing Seth, Dave composed himself enough (with lots of divine support)to participate in the blessing with Bro. Galan. I had hoped to hear the words "Seth will be healed!" but I didn't. Instead, I heard that the medical personal would be inspired to care for Seth. Call it mama's worry or lack of faith, I was not encouraged.

The helicopter arrived and we resolved to get started on our seemingly long drive behind them. As we were leaving the hospital, via the ER entrance, Seth was also leaving. The children saw him being wheeled out to the helicopter. The medical personnel paused so that we could each give him a kiss. After that I headed to the car, ready to get on the road. Meanwhile, Dave and the kids and our company paused with reverence to watch the helicopter take off. I did not realize this was a ceremonial event. Nevertheless, I waited patiently for them to spend whatever time they needed there and then as soon as Dave hopped in the car, I hit the gas!

Dave and I drove to the hospital- a seemingly very long drive as you might imagine. When we got there we were told we still had to wait 30 minutes to see our little boy because he was "getting settled" into his room. While we waited, I asked Dave if he thought Seth was going to die. I know it was an awful thing to ask, but I wanted to know where Dave's mind was and hoped it was in a better place than mine. It was. He told me he thought Seth was going to be okay and assured me that he was not just saying that to keep me from going hysterical.

We were so glad to finally be taken to see Seth and what a wonderful sight it was to see a smiling doctor at his side who confidently shared with us her treatment plan for Seth. After talking with her, I felt that Seth was in good hands and would be all right. A big weight was lifted and light began to permeate the darkness. The plan was to treat Seth with steroids throughout the night to reduce the inflammation of his throat. He was kept fairly heavily sedated during the night. Dave and I were assigned a sleep room and actually got a few hours of sleep. Seth was monitored during two one hour trial periods where he did his own breathing over the machine. He did great and so in the morning, after the sedatives had worn off, he was extubated and breathing normally all on his own! A beautiful sight!

We hung around until it was certain that he was able to eat and drink successfully we received instructions on how care for this little guy with a spica cast. He had begun antibiotics for aspiration pneumonia (the children's hospital's diagnosis). Seth was released in the afternoon and we were so grateful to bring him home to his brother and sisters!

We are so thankful for those who watched our children during these two days and for all those who prayed for Seth and our family! We even had a close friend drive up to the hospital and deliver snacks for Dave and I and a little monkey for Seth. Talking with her was a wonderful reprieve from all the stress that had been upon us. And we enjoyed the snacks... the ones that weren't stolen out of the "family center" refridgerator even though they were labeled.

Needless to say, after this frightening experience we are viewing dealing with a 2 year old in an extensive cast as a much lesser misfortune, burden, inconvenience, or whatever you want to call it.

I will soon report on the new and thankfully temporary "normal" that we are living right now and for the next few weeks.