Daniel vs The Chair

Yesterday while I was cooking lunch Daniel decided to scale the wing back chair in the dining room. Before you ask, I don't know why!

His arm looked awful when he got up off the floor. He looked at me and said "call 911, call 911, call 911." He was pitiful. He was scared and hurting. (If you want to see what his arm looked like go here.

I hurried and put up lunch, put shorts on Daniel, because he still had his pajama pants on. After all he does have mono! Grabbed my phone, which was dying, and hurried Anna and David out to the truck. Samuel was on a puppet ministry trip with the church. He was due home soon, but I couldn't wait. Stephen was in Ft. Smith helping with the funeral of a friend.

I began praying immediately. We are 30 minutes from any hospital, and I was unsure of where to take him. God gave me the names of people to call and ask advice from and I ended up going to Baptist in Little Rock.

Daniel was so quiet. He wasn't crying or talking. We put the flashers on and sped our way to Little Rock. Daniel slept most of the way there. I woke him up a couple of times just to make sure he hadn't hurt his head or anything. You know how a mother worries!

We got to the er and were taken back to a room pretty quickly after the triage nurse saw his arm. He had great nurses that were gentle with him and loved on him. David and Anna sat in the hall of the er until my Aunt Suzy came to pick them up. I called her when we got back to a room and the word surgery was mentioned! She came quickly from work and took them for a few hours. I'm so thankful for her. I'm thankful that she wasn't too busy that she couldn't get away and that she was close by to come and get them.

We prayed as we waited for doctors and nurses to come in the room. We prayed that God would make him strong and give him courage. We also thanked God for furniture.

Stephen came just as David and Anna were leaving. The er doctor consulted with the ortho doctor and decided a reduction was in order. (reduction means to set the bones straight with manipulation instead of an incision.)

The nurses tried to put an iv in Daniel, but because of the mono and being a little bit dehydrated his veins were small and they had trouble. They stuck his right arm twice, his right foot, and finally were successful in the left foot. I just want you to know that he didn't yell, scream, say Ouch, or that hurts. Not one time. He would let tears fall, but that's it.

What a brave boy!

They took him to a pre-op room, then to the or, and then to recovery. Every nurse spoke about how brave he was and how proud they were of his attitude.

Stephen prayed with Daniel again. Praying and thanking God for doctors, and how our bodies are made and are able to be put back together.

He came out with a cast up to his underarm. They had to cut his shirt off of him to put the hospital gown on him which left with no shirt to go home in. So, after recovery we put his shorts on him and they let him leave in the hospital gown.

Everyone at Baptist was terrific! So friendly and helpful, fast and courteous. They didn't even tow the truck that I had parked in a space not intended for vehicles.

We prayed when we got home. Thanking God for answering our prayers for strength and courage. God is good all the time!

Thanks for all of your prayers and notes and calls of concern and support. For those of you that are just finding out now, I know you also wish him well.

He is a trooper and hoping to leave for church camp on Monday. I'm not 100% on board with that idea yet, so we'll see if that really happens!

And let me finish by saying that if July doesn't hurry up and get over with I'm going to SCREAM!! This has been the worst month for us. July 2010 will go down as one bad month!

Julie