Mama On The Move

I walked into Emily's room and woke her up from her nap by whispering. "Emilyyyyyyyy" She sat straight up and looked at me, eyes wide. "Do you know what day it is?" I asked quietly. "Um....Thursday?"she responded just as quietly, obviously puzzled. "Yes.  And do you know what happens on Thursdays?" "What?" "It's boneless wing Thursday at Buffalo Wild Wings." Her eyes grew even wider, "It is?" she whispered. "It is," I whispered back.  "It only comes once a week, like a little present from God.  And we haven't been for quite a while, which is really quite rude of us." Emily crossed her self and blew a kiss up at the sky. "I think we should go," I said. "To honor God," Emily responded somberly.

Surgery day came quickly.  Katie wasn't allowed to eat from midnight the night before, so Emily and I didn't eat either.  Solidarity, sister! When they put the IV in the back of Katie's hand, she squeezed my hand so hard I thought she was going to break some of my bones and they'd need the surgery room for both of us.  Katie didn't cry, but you could tell by her face that it hurt a lot. As soon as that was done, Emily stood up and said, "I'm going to go find something to eat."  The nurse, who was still bent over Katie's hand, took one look at Emily and said, "Sit back down!"  Then she turned to another nurse across the room and said, "Get some juice and crackers!"  Emily had gone white, even her lips were pale.  She can handle getting shots on her own, she just doesn't like seeing it happen to Katie. W e had to wait quite a while, but the time for surgery finally arrived.  They gave Katie something to relax her and...

Thursday morning we headed back to the hospital to handle pre-op.  I had to sign another dozen papers.  Then we had to meet with anesthesiology, then Katie had to have blood drawn, then we had to go to the pharmacy and get all her medications for after the surgery, then we had to go to physical therapy for lessons in how to use crutches. Katie had already been using crutches for six days so I really didn't think there was much they could show her.  I was really surprised at how much more information there was though.  I had mainly been thinking of just walking with the crutches but they also showed her how to sit in a chair while using crutches and how to navigate stairs. They even had her practice on a little staircase. The physical therapist asked me who the surgeon was and when I told him he said, "Good.  If I was having surgery, that's who I'd want doing it.  And I'm not just saying that." That made me feel much better.  Her sur...

  So, Katie had to spend the weekend with a fractured foot.  She kept it elevated and iced it when possible. The same day we found out it was fractured, there was a party being thrown for us to give us a chance to see friends we hadn't seen in four years. At one point during the gathering I looked over at Katie and realized she was really hurting while waiting for her pain meds to kick in. I got a live bunny and put it in her lap to distract her until she felt better. It worked! The flight home was awful.  It was a red-eye - meaning we flew out at 8:00 PM and landed at 8:00 AM the next morning.  Then we had to catch another flight which lasted for three hours. We were supposed to have a wheelchair assist between flights but when we got off the first flight in Dallas the wheelchair wasn't there.  Katie struggled off the plane using her crutches but was exhausted by the time she got up the ramp and into the airport.  Emily and I were carryin...

We were able to take an unexpected trip back to Hawai'i.  More about that later. This story is about what happened to Katie in Hawai'i. Katie was invited by a friend to go to iTrampoline with a youth group.  Ten minutes into the evening she jumped on a trampoline, landed oddly, and hurt her foot.  She said it was as if her toe was pointed straight down and her foot rolled forward (with the top of her foot towards the floor) instead of backwards (with the bottom of her foot towards the floor).  Here is a picture of all the teens at iTrampoline.  Katie is on the sofa with ice on her foot. Kerry and I were at a Bible study at our church.  I got a call from Katie where I thought she said she hurt her knee.  She was laughing and joking and it didn't sound too bad. Then we got a call from the trampoline place letting us know that Katie had hurt her foot but it didn't look serious and they were putting ice on it.  We saw her later ...