Second week update

Friday, March 13th.

Daddy took her this time and she saw her Dr.'s physicians assistant, but the PA said everything still looked good and no surgery! She thinks her arm is doing so good that her original Dr. wants to see her in 2 weeks (and 5 days) this time.

Her next appointment is Wednesday, June 1st. At this time they are hoping to get the cast off. She will still be in a sling, but at least she will be able to have movement in her arm!  We have not told her about getting her cast off because the Dr. is not really sure yet, so we don't want to get her hopes up and something go wrong that she still has to wear it for another week or two.

She is doing a lot better! She just figured out that she can still use her fingers to hold stuff and grasp stuff. Before she would not have anything to do with that arm or hands (in fear of hurting it again).

Keira only has 2 days of school left. On Tuesday, she went with her preschool class to the zoo for the letter Z. The teachers and volunteer parents kept a good eye on her. One of the parents told me that they wouldn't let her play in the sand because they were afraid she would get sand in her cast.

Keira is doing a lot better. She hasn't had any of her pain meds since Thursday and I just gave her Tylenol before she went to bed for the first time today. I feel so bad for her! She can't do anything that she used to.

It makes me wonder if everything Keira went through (Iv's, blood pressure cuff, nose oxygen, heart monitors (she does have a heart murmur), ambulance transport, Children's Hospital)  in the 2 hospitals that she was at from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m is what everyone with a broken arm goes through. I talked to my little brother because my niece had a broken arm a couple months back and he said they went to the hospital, put on a cast and was sent on their way, maybe a minimum of 2 hours.

We take so much for granted in our daily lives. Some of us can walk fine, talk fine, and can have a normal life. But then there are others who can't and have to make accommodations to their everyday lives. Keira's accident has really made me think that we really can't take anything for granted ever again! She used to be able to get herself dressed, now she needs my help or dad's help to get her dressed. She is afraid of picking her cup up with one hand because she doesn't want to drop it. She cannot go to the bathroom by herself anymore without help getting onto the toilet, wiping, and pulling her pants up. She can't sleep in her own bed anymore because she can't use her other hand to grab onto the rails. She has to sleep in Aden's bed with him (Aden has a full size bed. Aden is at the head and Keira is at the foot of the bed). She has fallen so many times since she has gotten her cast just because she is off balance and when she does start to fall she cannot catch her self. Today (Monday) she was dancing around and tripped over the step stool and hit her head on my bed rail, luckily she is okay! She cannot get on or off of the couch by herself, I walked into the living room the other day and found Keira upside down on the couch because she was trying to get up by herself. She can't get up or down from her chair at the dinner table. She CAN unbuckle her self in her car seat and that makes her so proud!

People have tragedies in their lives, kids that can't walk or talk due to an accident or kids who have mental illnesses, or kids with cancer. This is our tragedy, we are just going to take it one day at a time!

Keira has her first weekly appointment at Children's in Omaha on Wednesday, May 4th. I will keep the updates coming.

We went on family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City. We went up there Easter Sunday after Church and stayed Sunday night and Monday night. All day Monday we went swimming, made teddy bears (like teddy bear factory), got tattoos, used magic wands on the magic quest, and went swimming again.  Dan and the kids came back in the room about 9:30 p.m. Monday evening after swimming. We were getting all the kids ready for bed, Keira was climbing up the bunk bed ladder to go to bed and fell off.

When I got to her I thought she hit her head. Before Dan took her downstairs to the lobby she was falling asleep on the bed, I had tell her that she couldn't go to sleep. They actually checked her head at the E.R. and everything was fine!  When she fell she was no less than an inch from the foot board of the bed across the bunk bead on the floor. She wouldn't stop crying and said her arm hurt. She wouldn't move her arm and her arm started swelling, then I knew it was broken.

In this picture: On the right is the ladder of the bunk bed. On the bottom left is where she landed. Her head was less than an inch from hitting that board (lower left, lighter brown vertical board.)

Dan then took her down stairs to the lobby to see where a near by hospital was. I stayed in the room with the other two kids to get them calmed down and to put them to bed. While he was down there he talked to a paramedic and they also thought it was broken. They took down information for an incident report and sent Dan and Keira on their way to a nearby hospital.

 Dan got to the hospital about 11 p.m or so. Dan did not like this hospital at all, they were not child friendly at all. Dan said they were not very nice to Keira at all while taking X-rays, they were moving her arm all around and making it hurt worse instead of helping her. They wound up saying that she had see a specialist  and be transferred to Children's Hospital in Kansas City because the X-rays revealed a break in the growth bone, which means if it doesn't heal correctly the arm will not grow with the other arm. After about 2 hours at the E.R. they transferred her by ambulance to Children's Hospital.

Picture of Keira at the E.R. You can tell she is not happy and is in pain!

When they got there Dan finally got answers and just loved the way him and Keira were treated. Dan found out that she had broke her arm in 2 different places and dislocated her elbow. They had her on IVs and a nose oxygen.  They had to put her under to put her elbow back into place. Then they put the cast on and she was ready to go. They had to make sure she could wake up and stay awake for a while before Dan could leave with her.  They were finally back in the hotel room about 5:30. We had to get a separate room so she had somewhere to sleep. She was not getting back on that bed!! She has a full arm cast now and has to go back to Children's Hospital in Omaha weekly!

I am very upset about this fall! Not upset at Keira, of course, but at the hotel! Keira has a bunk bed at home and climbs it about 3 times a day and has never fallen off! There are a couple things about this bunk bed (that you can see in the upper picture of the bunk bed) that I think should be changed....1. The ladder is straight up and down and Keira and Aden's is slanted and is actually easier to climb up. 2. There is no where to grab on to when you climb up it. 3. The top is closed off and can't grab on anywhere.

I was a nervous wreck all night. I did not sleep at all that night. Neither did Dan obviously..since he was at the hospital for 6 hours. They got back into the room at 5:30 a.m., Keira and I slept in the separate room, I still was not able to sleep even when she was back because she kept waking up moaning and in pain.

We came back home Tuesday after noon. She was not doing good at all. She was still in pain and very sleepy and just laid around all day at home. She didn't want to eat and her stomach hurt all day.

She gets to go to school tomorrow (Thursday) I am very nervous about this. Just because I don't know how the other kids are going to react and I just hope she is okay! She has swimming on Thursdays at school she can't even go swimming with her friends. She cannot go swimming at all, she can't do dance, which was Tuesday night, and she can't go to her dance recital, which is Saturday afternoon.

She is doing a little better today. She has been up walking around. She knows that when she is walking around she has to have her sling on. But when she is laying down or sitting down then she can take it off. She is still in pain and is still complaining about her stomach hurting. I think she is just getting nervous about the pain and it is upsetting her stomach. She takes her medication and is okay for a couple hours.