Poor Sean (Luck & Forgiveness)

We should have known that one day our luck would run out. We’ve been parents for almost 8 years and so far have had zero trips to the ER (not including the time I took Z for a midnight case of croup and mosquito bites~. not one of my finer moments...). Yesterday our luck ran out and it all started at Ali Jane’s ballgame. Jeff had taken Sean down the slide (there is a small park at the fields) and then he put Sean on Joe’s lap for a turn. The only problem was Joe started going down before Sean was ready and in the process of going down the slide, Sean’s legs got trapped under Joe. He cried a lot (obviously) and was quite clingy through the rest of the game and for the remainder of the evening. He would calm at times so we thought it was a combination of sore legs and just a tired camper. When we got home and Sean refused to stand on his own and screamed any time someone even brushed his leg, we knew something was wrong. I called my mom and she came over to watch the three Bigs and Jeff and I were off to the ER with Sean.

To make a long story (3 hours) shorter, Sean had a shot of morphine in his leg, drank a shot of Benadryl (probably worse than the needle shot), had two x-rays and then another two in between a lot of waiting. I held Sean the entire time and I think that the x-rays were as painful for me as they were for him. The x-rays showed no breaks but because something was clearly wrong (and he was still screaming even with the morphine), they sent Sean home with a splint and and told us to see the orthopedic the next day. Sean finally fell asleep at 11:30 (didn’t want to let his guard down in the hospital I guess). Thankfully he only woke up briefly at 3am and was back asleep before I could give him more medicine. I, on the other hand, could not sleep and lay awake thinking until probably 5am.

In the morning, Joe saw Sean’s leg and felt terrible. I saw his ‘prayer journal’ where he wrote how sorry he was and how he prayed for God to make Sean better. In the morning Jeff took the Bigs to VBS while I nursed the little man who was clearly still hurting but otherwise in OK spirits.

The hope was that at his orthopedic appointment they would take off the splint and all would be well. Unfortunately by now you have seen that that was not the case. Though the x-rays still did not show a break, from Sean’s reaction to them touching him they decided to treat it as a fracture (it may be a small one that they are just missing), cast him for two weeks and then x-ray him again.

Hopefully at that time the cast will come off and Sean will be good as new... if not they will recast and we’ll do it all over again. The Bigs have been WONDERFUL playing with their brother in a way that he doesn’t have to move around. The cast is actually much better than the splint because we can touch his leg and he doesn’t scream. I posted a picture of Sean from the hospital on facebook asking for prayers and by the next day over 50 people commented that they were praying for him. We appreciate all the prayers and feel very blessed in many ways. Perhaps our luck hasn’t run out, it has just changed form a little... We’re actually quite lucky. Thank you so much for all your prayers (and Joe is very thankful for the gift of forgiveness).