Saturday, August 23, 2008

A Brave little Boy

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!


The Damage - it just looks so painful!

Getting cozy while we wait to go down to surgery

Watching a little TV in his Doctor hat while we wait

Wheeling away into surgery!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Mommy's Little Helper

Ella's new favorite thing is to help with laundry. She absolutely LOVES to help me put clothes into the washer and then from the washer into the dryer. What use to take about 4 or 5 minutes to put a load of clothes in to wash now takes about 10 - 15 minutes!! If I want to do laundry alone, I either have to sneak into the laundry room or do laundry while she's sleeping. (I hope she's this excited about laundry when she's 15!) Well the other night she was helping put me clothes into the dryer. She kept opening and closing the dryer door, another new favorite, and of course I kept going behind her closing it. I finally managed to get her out of the laundry room. A little while later I walked in the laundry room to put something away and noticed the dryer wasn't running but the timer was on 30 minutes. So I pressed the restart button and then heard the loudest K-Plump sound ever. I opened the dryer and this is what I found:


The result of the K-Plump sound!

a camera box, American Girl Baby doll, & a microphone

Gotta love the help of a two year old!!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

First Day of School

Well, the day is almost over and I survived!! Today, my babies started school. Brady started Kindergarten and Hudson started K3. I can't believe they are both in school. My babies have turned into big boys!! They were so sweet this morning as they were getting ready for school. Brady kept telling Hudson what he was going to do when he got to school, where he would go, and he even told him when he'd go to recess....he's such a GREAT big brother!! (FYI - Hudson has Mrs. Jenkins, which was Brady's K3 teacher. She is AWESOME & we are soooooo excited to have her!!) Brady has Mrs. Cole and she is such a sweet, sweet lady. I'm so glad both of my boys got the teachers we had been praying for.....looks like we're in for another great year at PPCA. Hudson was so sweet this morning. He said, "Mommy, I don't want you to cry." So I was going to have to make it through the morning without crying in front of him. It was tough, but I did it. I think it helped that they were so excited about school and Hudson was especially excited about carpool -it's always the little things that make him happy. Andy & I both took them to school....and we were so proud of them when they kissed us bye, hopped out of the car at carpool, and went in like this was no big deal. My eyes were filled with tears and my heart overwhelmed with a multitude of emotions - joy, happiness, excitement, sadness, and even emptiness. The sadness & emptiness didn't last too long because I realized they're only gone until 11:30 each day and I still have Ella at home to keep me busy! I didn't get any great pictures because they were too excited to cooperate....you can see the excitement in Hudson's face in the picture below!!

Hudson, Brady, & Ella
My big school boys waiting for their turn in carpool
Getting out at carpool
I think Brady was trying to grab Hudson's hand and walk him inside!
Sweet Ella....where'd my bubbas go???

Biker Babes!

My dad has started riding motorcycles over the past couple of years and recently got a new Harley Davidson. He rode his new bike over this past weekend and of course the kids thought it was very "cool". Well, all except for Ella....she's not very fond of the loud noises it makes. They've always been interested in Papaw's "motormykle" as Ella calls it, but never cared to sit on it too much. They're must be something about a Harley because all of the sudden my kids were very interested in riding Papaw's "motormykle". Hudson was the first one to hop on and ask for a ride. I don't know what got in to me because I put their bicycle helmets on and let my dad take them for a ride down the street.....I'm I crazy or what??? Actually, my dad was very careful with them and they went maybe 100 yards down the street and back. Thanks Papaw Chappell.....they loved it and keep asking when they can go again!!



Hudson & Papaw

There they go!

Jacob (my nephew) & Papaw
Brady & Papaw

Monday, August 11, 2008

Nascar's Newest Rookie!!

For our 10 year anniversary I gave Andy a trip to Indianapolis to attend the Richard Petty's Driving Experience. Well that trip actually turned into another "Anniversary Celebration". I originally planned to stay home that weekend and just Andy go and visit some friends in Indy. However, at the last minute we decided I should go and my sister said she'd watch the kids.....gotta love having a sis so close!!! I'm so glad I decided to go....we had a blast!! It was such a relaxing weekend. For the most part we just hung out with our friends-Brad, Erin, Brian B., Brian D., and Lauren. The weather was beautiful - no humidity!! I just loved sitting around outside doing nothing. However, we did manage to see a movie on Saturday then dinner at St. Elmo's steakhouse in downtown Indy and then went bowling. The driving experience was Sunday and I'm so glad I was there for that. I thought it was incredible just watching and experiencing it from pit row so I can't imagine how awesome it was for Andy. He was able to drive 8 laps around the Brickyard 400 (which is 2.5 miles long). He said it was an amazing experience and he definitely wants to do it again soon! I think next time I may opt for the ride along experience where you can ride 3 laps with a professional driver. I think I definitely scored a few "brownie points" for a while....he said for our 20 year anniversary we're going to Italy to race ferarri's!!! Of course I never had my camera with me except for when we were at the race track so most of the pics I have are of Andy and his driving experience.

Here's the one pic I got of Andy & his friends, sorry Brian D. you missed this one....so this is what the guys did while you worked!


Andy, Brian B., & Brad taking a spin in theSpeedster!

Suiting up!

Doesn't he look so cute in that suit!

Climbing in & getting ready to go!

A few last minute instructions...he looks a little nervous!


There he goes!

One of the pit crew grabbed my camera & took this picture

He then took this picture as Andy came around

Coming in to Pit Road!