We will never forget 9/11

There are many reasons why we will never forget 9/11 – the day of the terrorist attack, Uncle Lance’s birthday and now it was the day Emily broke her leg!

The children all dressed in red/white/blue and we drove to the front of the complex to a flower garden to take a commemorative photo. I drove because there were a flock of neighborhood kids outside our door and they were killing me with questions on what we were doing. After taking the photo, Andrew and Emily asked if they could walk back to the apartment. They have done this hundreds of times so of course I said it was okay. I drove back to our side of the complex, got out of the car and was immediately greeted by Devin, one of the neighborhood children. He was on his bike and screaming “Emily broke her leg”. I asked where she was and all he could do was scream “Emily broke her leg”. I started running towards where I had dropped her off but by the time I got to my front door, one of the neighborhood kids was carrying Emily home. I scooped her up and carried her to her room. She was wearing jeans so I couldn’t tell the extent of the damage. I pulled off her jeans and saw a knot on her leg the size of a ping-pong ball. I tried to feel the bone to see if it was broken but the swelling was too bad. I put her in some shorts, told the boys to hang tight and I started driving to the hospital.

On the way to the hospital, I started making calls. I called John to come get Carter & Nathan (he was about an hour away from getting them anyway) and I called CW to come home and watch Andrew. I arrived at the hospital in Altamonte and started carrying Emily into the emergency room. I was greeted by a woman who didn’t have all of her oars in the water because she asked me for my insurance information. I look down at Emily (whom I am carrying) and look back at the woman and say I can’t get to my information because I’m holding my daughter who possibly has a broken leg!!!!!! They immediately bring me a wheelchair and I start filling out paperwork. We are rushed through triage and taken back almost immediately. Unfortunately, half of Orlando was at the hospital and the best they could do was give us a stretcher in the hallway. I didn’t care because at least we weren’t in the waiting room!

Derrick was our nurse and he got her pain medicine right away. Unfortunately, I think Emily got my metabolism because the pain meds did NOTHING for her. We had to wait over an hour for our x-ray. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to get a great picture because Emily wasn’t able to move her leg and would scream anytime anyone touched it. They took the best x-ray they could but the doctor needed a full set with two different views so she ordered Ketamine to knock Emily out enough for them to move her leg.

Derrick and another nurse started Emily’s IV. I was very impressed with how Derrick treated Emily. He was truthful but gentle by telling her exactly what he was going to do and telling her that it would hurt but for less than her counting to three. He even showed her the catheter and explained that they would insert the needle but then remove the needle and only leave in the catheter. She cried hard when it was inserted but I was so proud of how still she held her arm while the needle was being inserted. After the IV was working, they gave her Morphine which did NOTHING.

We went back to the x-ray department but there was now a line with 4 people ahead of us. When it was closer to our turn, Derrick came over and administered the Ketamine to help knock her out enough for the x-ray. I remember them giving Andrew Ketamine and he was out like a light! Not my little girl! It made her loopy but didn’t come close to knocking her out. It took me and two nurses to hold her down while her leg was moved for the x-rays. I have never heard such a bloodcurdling scream before!

The x-rays confirmed she didn’t just break her leg, she broke both the fibula and fibula on her left leg. Hey, I always say if you’re gonna do something, do it right! We finally get moved to a room and Emily was on cloud 9 because we finally got to watch Disney. She broke her leg at 7:15 and we were finally able to get her leg splinted at 11:38!!!! The doctor gave her another dose of Ketamine and this time she was out like a light. They splinted her leg from groin to toes and I expected them to release us and tell us to follow-up with an orthopedist to get her full cast just like we did with Andrew. I figured wrong. The doctor explained that Emily would most likely need surgery to implant a plate in her leg. When you break both bones in the lower leg, you need something more substantial than a cast to hold the bones in place. I was also told that Altamonte doesn’t have the facilities to admit pediatric patients so we would need to be transferred downtown. Just our luck, Florida Hospital South didn’t have any pediatric beds so we were stuck in the ER until they could get a bed for us.

Emily woke up from the Ketamine nap and I explained to her what was happening. I explained that we would need to stay the night there and then go by ambulance to another hospital. I also explained that she was probably going to need surgery. Her only concerns were: “would there be tv in the room”, “how good was the food” and “would mommy be with her the entire time”. Her strength is what kept me going.

I just realized, I told the events as they happened but failed to mention how Emily broke her leg. She hadn’t been out of my sight for more than 2 minutes when the accident occurred. She was running down the sidewalk and Al (two years older than Emily) was coming from the opposite direction on his bicycle. They both tried to swerve to miss each other but unfortunately they swerved in the same direction and collided. The part that angers me the most is the fact that Al got back up and kept going. He never apologized and never stopped to see if Emily was even okay. To add insult to injury, Al is Sydney’s brother (Sydney is Emily’s best friend).