Well, we've had a little bit of trauma at The Cruthirds household this past week. I'll try to give you all the details without getting too long winded (my apologies now if it get's too long). It all started Tuesday night around 6:00 pm. I was getting dinner together for the kids and had asked Brady & Hudson to go ahead and sit down at the table while I finished getting everything together. And being the sweet obedient children that they are they did just that - no kidding I didn't have to ask but once.....they must have been really hungry. Poor things I don't even know if they ate because in about 30 seconds everything turned to complete chaos. I'm in the kitchen, but have my back turned away from the table and I hear a loud bang and then bloody murder screaming. I turned around and see that Brady is out of his chair and it has fallen on top of his foot. He's screaming and hoping around so I can't really tell how bad the damage is. I finally get him to let me look at it and I see that his big toe is swollen, it's completely blue, and blood is gushing everywhere. I try to stay calm and immediately call my friend Misty who is a nurse and thankfully lives down the street. She's here in about 10 seconds and when she walks in the door everyone in my house is crying. I'm still trying to keep some type of control, now mind you I don't do blood very well.....It doesn't take much to make me quesy, but I managed to keep my composure. I give Brady to Misty so she can take a look at it and then I try to calm Hudson and Ella down. They didn't have a clue why they were crying they were just upset b/c Brady was so upset. Bless their hearts, they were so worried about Brady. Brady knew this and he looked over at them, tried his best to stop crying, and said, "It's okay. Don't cry....bubba's okay...it's not hurting anymore. I'm ok." My heart just broke into for this precious little boy who was in soooo much pain, but didn't want his little brother or sister to be upset so he put on this "I'm okay" face. He's such a sweet big brother!!
Anyway, Misty and I decide to get a third opinion from Heather who lives across the street and is a nurse practioner. She comes over examines Brady's toe and her and Misty both agree I need to take him to the ER. I finally agree it's ER worthy and now try to locate my mom and Andy. Thankfully, both are only a few minutes away. I load Brady in the car and send Hudson & Ella with Misty (thank you Misty....I don't know what I'd do without you!) Andy & my mom pull up within a matter of seconds and both give Brady's foot a look....both agree we need to get to the ER. So I send my mom to pick up the kids from Misty and Andy and I head to the ER at Baptist. The Baptist ER is the only ER I will go to. I call ahead and see who the ER docs are and how crowded the waiting area is . We're in luck! At the time I called no one was waiting in the waiting room and my two docs of choice - Dr. Bobbie West & Dr. Jeff Fitzgerald were both working - HOORAY!! We were immediately taken in to triage and I asked the traige nurse if at all possible could we see either Dr. West or Dr. Fitzgerald. We were blessed and were able to see both Dr. West & Dr. Fitzgerald. They were WONDERFUL!! I highly recommend Baptist ER. I cannot say enough wonderful things about the entire staff. They were so sweet to Brady and he was such a big boy. He didn't cry once the entire time we were in the ER. People were in and out taking x-rays, cleaning his toe, examining his toe, and not once did he even flinch. The diagnosis - Brady's toe was definitely broken but the problem was the cut and why it would not stop bleeding. To look at it from the eye it just didn't look deep enough for stitches. Andy & I, along with ER docs, made the decision not to put Brady through the trauma of stitches when they weren't even sure it would even work. Dr. West recommend we put pressure and I think some type of medicine (I didn't catch all the terminology) try to stop the bleeding and then wanted us to see Dr. Robbins, a Pediatric Orthopeadic Specialist. So they wrap his toe pretty good and send us home around 10:00 pm.
Fast forward to Wednesday at about 12:30 our appt. with Dr. Robbins. He walks in introduces himself and begins to talk to Brady. I immediately liked him and liked the fact that he tried to get to know us, especially Brady before we got down to business. He unwrapped Brady's foot and as soon as I saw the look on his face I knew it wasn't going to be good. I don't think he was expecting what he saw. He stepped out to get the x-rays and study over them a few more minutes. He came back in and was still very sweet and joked with Brady and then looked at Andy and I and basically said something to this affect, "this needs to be fixed in the operating room today." WHAT?? Did he just say OPERATING ROOM and TODAY???? I'm just hearing things, right? Andy looked at me with the "Are you okay look?" and it was then that I realized I'm not hearing things....he did say operating room and today. He then explained what had happened and why it had to be fixed today - remember the injury happened the night before and it is still bleeding. The fracture was an open fracture and apparently when the bone broke it pushed up through the nail bed and that's where the open fracture was....hence all the bleeding. He had to go in and remove the toenail, clean and repair the nailbed, possibly pin the fracture, and then replace the toenail - OUCH!!! We told Brady he was going to have surgery, but we didn't give too many details. We just told him Dr. Robbins would give him some medicine to make him sleepy and while he was asleep he would fix his toe. He was completely okay with that and not once made any complaints. So we left Dr. Robbins clinic at about 2:00 and had to be back at Baptist hospital by 5:00. I don't remember too much between the time we left his clinic until the time we checked in at the hospital but I some how managed to make a few phone calls and get arrangements made for Hudson & Ella. A special thanks to my sister, Dad, and Diane for taking such good care of Hudson & Ella. It was nice to know they were being well taken care of and I didn't have to worry for one minute about them. Back to the surgery. Everything went GREAT!!! Dr. Robbins was able to repair the nail bed and able to reattach the toenail. He didn't even have to pin it which was GREAT news. Brady did WONDERFUL!! He never once cried.....even after the surgery. He was such a BRAVE little boy and I couldn't have been any prouder of him. I don't think I would have been that brave. Thanks to everyone for the prayers and phone calls. He's wobbling around pretty good. We go back Monday for our checkup so I'll let you know how that goes. I did manage to get a few pics but they're from Andy's phone so the quality is not the best. I did take one of his toe while we were at the ER so if you have a weak stomach you may want to skip the first one!
Anyway, Misty and I decide to get a third opinion from Heather who lives across the street and is a nurse practioner. She comes over examines Brady's toe and her and Misty both agree I need to take him to the ER. I finally agree it's ER worthy and now try to locate my mom and Andy. Thankfully, both are only a few minutes away. I load Brady in the car and send Hudson & Ella with Misty (thank you Misty....I don't know what I'd do without you!) Andy & my mom pull up within a matter of seconds and both give Brady's foot a look....both agree we need to get to the ER. So I send my mom to pick up the kids from Misty and Andy and I head to the ER at Baptist. The Baptist ER is the only ER I will go to. I call ahead and see who the ER docs are and how crowded the waiting area is . We're in luck! At the time I called no one was waiting in the waiting room and my two docs of choice - Dr. Bobbie West & Dr. Jeff Fitzgerald were both working - HOORAY!! We were immediately taken in to triage and I asked the traige nurse if at all possible could we see either Dr. West or Dr. Fitzgerald. We were blessed and were able to see both Dr. West & Dr. Fitzgerald. They were WONDERFUL!! I highly recommend Baptist ER. I cannot say enough wonderful things about the entire staff. They were so sweet to Brady and he was such a big boy. He didn't cry once the entire time we were in the ER. People were in and out taking x-rays, cleaning his toe, examining his toe, and not once did he even flinch. The diagnosis - Brady's toe was definitely broken but the problem was the cut and why it would not stop bleeding. To look at it from the eye it just didn't look deep enough for stitches. Andy & I, along with ER docs, made the decision not to put Brady through the trauma of stitches when they weren't even sure it would even work. Dr. West recommend we put pressure and I think some type of medicine (I didn't catch all the terminology) try to stop the bleeding and then wanted us to see Dr. Robbins, a Pediatric Orthopeadic Specialist. So they wrap his toe pretty good and send us home around 10:00 pm.
Fast forward to Wednesday at about 12:30 our appt. with Dr. Robbins. He walks in introduces himself and begins to talk to Brady. I immediately liked him and liked the fact that he tried to get to know us, especially Brady before we got down to business. He unwrapped Brady's foot and as soon as I saw the look on his face I knew it wasn't going to be good. I don't think he was expecting what he saw. He stepped out to get the x-rays and study over them a few more minutes. He came back in and was still very sweet and joked with Brady and then looked at Andy and I and basically said something to this affect, "this needs to be fixed in the operating room today." WHAT?? Did he just say OPERATING ROOM and TODAY???? I'm just hearing things, right? Andy looked at me with the "Are you okay look?" and it was then that I realized I'm not hearing things....he did say operating room and today. He then explained what had happened and why it had to be fixed today - remember the injury happened the night before and it is still bleeding. The fracture was an open fracture and apparently when the bone broke it pushed up through the nail bed and that's where the open fracture was....hence all the bleeding. He had to go in and remove the toenail, clean and repair the nailbed, possibly pin the fracture, and then replace the toenail - OUCH!!! We told Brady he was going to have surgery, but we didn't give too many details. We just told him Dr. Robbins would give him some medicine to make him sleepy and while he was asleep he would fix his toe. He was completely okay with that and not once made any complaints. So we left Dr. Robbins clinic at about 2:00 and had to be back at Baptist hospital by 5:00. I don't remember too much between the time we left his clinic until the time we checked in at the hospital but I some how managed to make a few phone calls and get arrangements made for Hudson & Ella. A special thanks to my sister, Dad, and Diane for taking such good care of Hudson & Ella. It was nice to know they were being well taken care of and I didn't have to worry for one minute about them. Back to the surgery. Everything went GREAT!!! Dr. Robbins was able to repair the nail bed and able to reattach the toenail. He didn't even have to pin it which was GREAT news. Brady did WONDERFUL!! He never once cried.....even after the surgery. He was such a BRAVE little boy and I couldn't have been any prouder of him. I don't think I would have been that brave. Thanks to everyone for the prayers and phone calls. He's wobbling around pretty good. We go back Monday for our checkup so I'll let you know how that goes. I did manage to get a few pics but they're from Andy's phone so the quality is not the best. I did take one of his toe while we were at the ER so if you have a weak stomach you may want to skip the first one!
