ER scare

Things seemed great tonight. Clayton and Porter had friends over. They had pizza and were watching a movie. Who knows what these weird boys are doing.

And then Carter came up from the basement, where he had been playing, crying and saying owie. The worst part was that before I even unzipped his pajamas, I could see that his hip was swallon. As I took off his pj’s, I sort of flipped out and Laun didn’t like what he saw either. His left hip (where he just had surgery 9 days ago) was swallon, almost like a goose egg. It was hard and red and massive. There was a little blood coming out of the bottom part of his incision. I felt sick. I changed his diaper around 4pm and then I think just around 8pm is when he started crying. Did he get an infection that fast? Was he going to lose a limb, get sick or even die from the infection. Did he just get hurt somehow and brake the bone where he just got his hardware out? The problem with Laun and I having already experienced having a baby die, is that sometimes we go to the worst possible outcome, because we’ve been there. Right away I called and the doctor told me to come to Primary Children’s hospital, I don’t think Shriner’s has an ER. I had to drive Carter there by myself because Laun had to stay with the pile of kids at our house. I had a hard time holding it together for that hour drive to the hospital. By the time I got there and ran Carter in to the ER. I sat down and started crying, not knowing what was going on with my precious baby, who’s already been through so much. As a lady came over to check us in, I had a panic attack (1st one ever) and was afraid that I would pass out. The lady said she was going to put me on oxygen and then take care of my baby and I guess that was the reality check I needed. I don’t want to have a mask on (talk about PTSD) and I want the attention on my baby! I was really glad she said that (and she was so nice about it) because I think it made me realize how bad I was doing and calm down. I went to the bathroom, splashed some water on my face and got it together to avoid being a patient myself. She gave me some apple juice and I calmed down. Carter was looking at me confused and sad, poor guy, he’s used to me being so calm in medical situations. They got him in a room real quick. The doctors were worried that if it was an infection, that it came on that fast. They did an x-ray and thankfully his bone looked great, even where the hardware had been taken out (9 days ago).

A sweet nurse let Carter play with these duck and pig toys and he stayed entertained.

I tried getting some pictures of this boy, but he moves so much. The pictures don’t even do justice for how awful his hip looked. Besides taking these pictures, I tried not to look at it, because it hurts my mom heart.

They put an IV in and drew blood for 3 labs. While we waited for results I walked him all around in the stroller for probably 2 hours and he never fell asleep, but he ws so content. I’m so glad I brought his stroller! I was impressed with how little he touched the IV, I was worried he’d try to pull it out.

Carter must be clapping for joy! The labs came back great and showing zero sign of infection, so I’m grateful for answered prayers. If he had an infection they would’ve operated and cleaned it out. I’m so glad they let me know that losing a limb is very unlikely and I’m thankful we avoided yet another surgery. The doctor said he must have hurt it somehow and that it swelled so badly since he is only 9 days out from surgery. He also said that Carter possibly could’ve popped some internal stitches, but that the outside incision looks good. He should be ok, it will just take him longer to heal and take awhile for the swelling to go down. This boy is a trooper! I sure love him.