on wheels

Well, we've made it through a full week of school with Katelyn on wheels. She got her new ride last Friday, was very hesitant to go out in it on Friday, did great on Saturday (well ... until we realized we were out in the sun too long without sunscreen), then the nerves kicked back in when it was time to go back to school on Monday. She was VERY worried about everyone staring at her ... and yes there was a fair amount of staring, but all in a positive way. Everyone at school has been so helpful and concerned about her. Her friends fight over who gets to unpack her bookbag and who gets to bring her things.


She's now enjoying all of the attention and in some cases getting a little too comfortable with it. While overall she has been very good with her manners when asking for help and thanking people for visiting or helping her, she definitely needed a reminder this morning. Her friend, Jackie, was helping her check back in last night's book and check out a new one when Katelyn looked at her and simply said "Jackie - card"....indicating that Jackie needed to get her the library card for her to check in her book.

Decorating this hot pink cast has also been quite the project. She has it nearly filled with signatures -- well the top half anyway, I keep threatening to roll her over so people can sign the back :) But simply signing someone's cast is no longer enough decoration. She has applied lots of glitter glue to add sparkles (thanks Becky) and even has a cool "gemstone" glued to it at the top. Very cool! Of course her toenails need to be painted pink to match and so far I think her outfits have mostly been some shade of pink....good thing she didn't get a green cast.

While she does still get bummed out about not being to do things, she's managing pretty well. Does this look like the face of "poor Katelyn stuck in a wheelchair"?

The only bad news that we received this week is that the initial timeframe was a bit off. The orthopedic doctor in the ER said 3-4 weeks with the cast on then she'd be ready to walk on it. At her appointment this week, her doctor informed us that the 3-4 weeks is just for this cast. Then she will likely get a shorter cast (below the knee) which hopefully can be a walking cast for 2 more weeks. Then she will get a removable boot cast for another few weeks. So a bit longer recovery time than we were told, but she should still be better by beach time!

My Tough Girl

Out of all the children I know I would've placed Katelyn near the very end of that list in order of the likelihood to break a bone. With as careful and cautious as she is I thought for sure we would not be making trips to the ER for her -- Lindsay, yes, but not Katelyn. But at the ripe old age of 7 she has proven me wrong.

I got the call around 11:15 yesterday from the school nurse. It's amazing how technology changes things. I saw the school number show up on my work phone's caller id, but I was mid-sentence on a conference call so didn't pick up right away. By the time I excused myself from the call, my cell phone was ringing. It was the school nurse. Katelyn fell in gym class and was upset and wanting her mom. Luckily I'm less than 5 minutes from school so was able to get there quickly. Now I'll admit that my first thought was that she was fine and just being a bit overdramatic. She did have a bump and complained that it hurt really bad, so the nurse and I agreed that I should take her to get an xray. As soon as I tried to pick her up to take her to the car, I knew what the xray would show. For it to hurt her too much for me to lift her was definitely unlike her and just broke my heart.

The medics were called and we rode to the children's hospital in downtown Charlotte in an ambulance with Mike following behind us. Everyone was great with her - explaining what they were going to do to alleviate her fears. They even gave her IV syringes so she could see what was in her arm, but more importantly to squirt any doctors or nurses....for some reason she thought it was ok to squirt Mike and I too.

The x-rays confirmed that she had broken her left tibia (the bigger of the two bones in the lower part of her leg) and she was outfitted with a very stylish hot pink full leg cast, which she gets to wear for the next 3-4 weeks. She's still in quite a bit of pain, but hopefully tomorrow will be better and she'll get to give her new crutches a try.

While we've had to encourage her to toughen up quite a few times in the past, she's been handling all of this very well and is really showing me she is my tough girl.

p.s. I know I've been away for awhile and I have lots I've wanted to write about, but to say things have been busy is an understatement. Thanks to everyone who is keeping Ruth in their prayers. She's making progress and is in the ICU-step down unit now, but she continues to have ups and downs. She's had a few really good days where she's been able to talk to us - she even talked to the kids via cell phone as they were peeking in her room window.