It is just after midnight as Jeff and I sit in the waiting room. Nathan has been in surgery for over two hours now. We were sitting at Landon's first baseball game when Jeff got the call from his brother Justin. He had come down from Montana and Nathan had taken him to go rock climbing out to Momemtum. Nathan was bouldering when he fell 13 feet landing on the seam were the two mats meets breaking and dislocating his ankle. He was taken by ambulance to IMC. Jeff and Justin met them at the hospital. I stayed at the game until Landon finished pitching. Nathan didn't want me to see it until they had straighten it. But I got there right after they took X-rays. It was not a good sight and terribly hard to see your son that way. They did conscious sedation while they put it back in place. Even with the meds he was holding on to the bed rails. Luckily he doesn't remember any of that part.
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| You can see why he didn't want me to see this... |
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| It definitely looks much better straight |
While Jeff was on his way, Brad from his work called and he told Lori, who called her brother Drew who is an orthopedic surgeon for ankles. After seeing Nathan's X-rays he took over and called the ER doc and was on the phone with Jeff. They moved him to trauma so they could speed up getting his medical care. After post X-rays and a CT scan they splint his ankle and moved him to a room until the surgery. Drew made arrangements for an OR room.
Drew came in just before ten and explained everything again to us. He dislocated and broke his ankle on all three bones that stable your ankle. One clean break on the outside and 4 to 6 breaks on the inside. Not good. They went in to clean everything and if there is not too much swelling take care of everything...plates, screws, bone graphs etc. they just called and said that they had finished cleaning and that they were going to be able to move on and finish his surgery. It will be another hour and a half before he is done.
I will write later after he is out of surgery and we learn more. It sure isn't easy to watch your children go through these trials. I wish it was me and I could take all the pain away. If it was only as simple as when they were little and you just put a bandaid on it and kissed him better.
It is Wednesday night. It has been a long two days but, all has gone well. They finished up his surgery about 2:00 a.m. He has two metal plates on both sides of his ankle and 12 screws total. He will be in the hospital for two days for antibiotics, your ankle is high risk for infection...they won't take any chances. It will be two weeks before the cast it or put it in a boot. No weight on it for 12 weeks. It is going to be a long haul but, it could have been so much worse.
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| The new hardware in Nate's Ankle |
3 comments:
This is just terrible! We'll keep him in our prayers.
Sometimes I wonder if these things are harder on the parents than the kids.... I hope you have recovered and are getting some rest! Our boys are strong and resilient and he will be back to his old self in nothing flat! Life will be tipped up side down for a while for all of you, so just remember we are here to help - don't hesitate to ask. Dave said when he stopped by the other day, Nate was watching a movie on the couch with a girl - that made me smile :)! We might have some movies he hasn't seen and Tom offered up all of his video games, so when he gets bored, come on over and we'll load you up! Take care Watkins family - you are always in our thoughts and prayers!
Ouch!! Ian has lots of books & video games to send his way if he needs them!
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