The Leg!

I wanted to share the story of Tyler's broken leg!

We had a wonderful week of camping/quad riding in the Munising area.  Tyler had not been able to go for the past couple years do to working.  We knew this would probably be his last year vacationing with us....being 21 and all...so we were enjoying the last hurrah!

We were planning to head home the next morning (Sunday)...they were on the last stretch, on the last day, about 1 mile from the campground...when he went over an embankment and got thrown off and came down on his leg..ouch!  He did land on the trail (which ran right along highway M-28) and had the presence of mind to drag himself off the trail...as to not get run over by the rest of the group!  Some of you might remember that this is his second broken leg!!  He broke it back in the spring of his Kindergarten year!  FYI..after a quick review of the K graduation pics, it was indeed the same leg ....LEFT!!!!

He earned himself a ride in the ambulance, headed straight to Marquette General Hospital...about 45 min west of where we were camping.  After they got the I.V. in...the morphine made the ride bearable!

It was quickly decided that it was indeed broke...hahaha!

It needed to be "set" and a splint needed to be put on till the morning when surgery could be preformed.

Here is the splint man...getting it all fixed up....it looks pretty painless here..but let me just tell you ...that was not the case!

Surgery was preformed and all went well...they put a rod in the Tibia and plate/screws on the Fibula.

In Post-Op he had a breathing episode where he quit breathing and they had to quickly reintubate (put the breathing tube back down him...quickly!) him.  They are not totally sure of the reasoning....possibly a reaction to the Anesthesia or a fat embolism  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_embolism

 We will probably never know the real reason....but that earned him a stay in the  I.C.U.  They needed to keep a close eye on his breathing and other vitals.  He was pretty out of it most of Sunday.  His oxygen levels was the real problem..when he didn't have oxygen on his levels would drop down to the upper 70's...not good!

He was released to a regular room on Monday at 3pm.  He still had to have oxygen on but they can handle that in a regular room.

Here is the "Hardware"....this might set off a metal detector??

1 Rod & 4 screws, 1 Plate & 6 screws, 42 staples!

Doing much better! Enjoying some Lasagna!

Taking the bandages off

Signing himself out! Yeah...left on a Wednesday! 

We oped to not get crutches from the hospital because we just so happened to have a pair at home (maybe we shouldn't keep a pair in the attic...hmmmm?!?!?)

It was all okay till we had to make a bathroom stop on the way home.

Steve had to be the crutches....that's what you call a supportive parent!

The leg of many colors..isn't it beautiful?....it's like a rainbow!

The knee....actually there was nothing "wrong" with the knee..but this is where they inserted the rod.

Even though this hasn't been any fun...and we were stuck in the U.P. 3 days longer than planned....we were eternally grateful that a broken leg was all he ended up with...he could have had a way different turn out.  The quad could have rolled on him causing internal damages or he could have hit his head and had some head trauma!

 Thanking God for his protection!