Christmas chocolates and a trip to the ER

Being diagnosed with cancer just before Easter meant that I didn't get to do my usual chocolate dipped eggs. For those of you who know me, you know that I LOVE dipping chocolates and especially Easter eggs! For Christmas I dip chocolates for my family, it's a tradition that my Grandma started way back! Now that she is older and not doing any candy making or chocolate dipping I have taken on the job of doing this for all my siblings, their kids, my mom's parents and a few of my Dads neighbors. This project is something that takes about 3 weeks. I got started with the process on December 3rd following one of my radiation appointments. It felt great standing over a hot stove taking in the yummy smells of candy cooking on the stove. The first day I was able to make all the caramel needed for turtles and homemade twix bites. The following day I made a large batch of caramel. The plan was to spend the following Saturday dipping with the help of my girls and husband. Saturday rolled around and after getting my oldest son off to a cub scout activity we began the long process of dipping. By the time my oldest son was back from his scout activity we were still up to our elbows in chocolate. My husband decided to take the boys for a bike ride to keep them entertained (and out of my hair) while the girls and I continued to dip. Following their bike ride they returned home to get gear for the skate park. About an hour after they had left to the skate park I reached a point in my dipping where I needed to take a break to get the next batch of candies ready for dipping. It was during this short break that I got a phone call from my husband asking what hospital emergency room he could go to with Bradley, whom he was sure had a broken leg. Being a Saturday our insurance was closed so I did a quick search on the internet and told him he could go to St. Marks. At this point I stopped getting ready for the next batch of dipping and left in my own car to meet them at the hospital. My oldest daughter came with me so she could bring my other son home in my vehicle. My son had an X-ray that confirmed he had a broken bone, actually 2 broken bones. He broke both the Tibia and Fibula, and because of the nature of the break the tendon at the top of foot stretched and broke the bone on the top of his foot. With a break like this they consulted with an orthopedic surgeon at Primary Childrens, and then decided it was best that he be transported by ambulance to Primary Childrens to be seen. The surgeon there wanted to be see him himself to decide if my son would need surgery. My husband drove our car and rode with Bradley in the ambulance.The ambulance ride was VERY bumpy, and after almost being t-boned by another car we finally made it to Primary's. They were quick to get us in a room, but the Dr. was slow to see us. Turns out that because the weather had been so nice that day there were a lot of broken bones and the only on-call orthopedic surgeon was busy taking care of other ER patients. The nurses were good to take care of our son while we waited. Sometime around 10-11pm the surgeon came in to take care of our son. It was decided to do conscious sedation, set the bones and put on a cast; no surgery. But because they were doing the cast so soon after the injury and with his leg swollen he would need to stay in the hospital to make sure he didn't get 'compartment syndrome', which is the leg swelling inside the cast and causing too much pressure resulting in insufficient blood supply to

muscles and nerves. This would require immediate surgery. By 2am he was taken to a hospital room and at about that time I drove home to get some sleep. The following morning I was awoken by a phone from my husband saying they were discharging our son and to come and get them. My son came home with crutches and some really good pain pills. He was pretty out of it for a couple days and didn't move a whole lot. I was able to go pick up his wheelchair as this was how he would be getting around for a while. 3 days after coming home from the hospital we went back for a follow up visit and everything looked good so they said he could go back to school. Our elementary school was great about getting everything ready for him to come to school in his wheelchair! My son was excited to go back, and truthfully I think he was mostly excited to show off his new wheels.  My son during all of this was a really good sport! My husband and I took turns in the morning getting him to school. After school I picked him up; the novelty of this was short lived for me as the school parking lot at the end of the day being a nightmare! My son has since learned to get around by scooting on around on his bum in the house. He hates using his crutches and the wheelchair in our house doesn't work very well. 10 days after breaking his leg we took him back in to get a new cast, the swelling had gone down so much he could wiggle his leg in his cast, which was very painful and not good. His new cast was tighter and went  higher up his thigh and was VERY PINK! He loved his pink cast! 5 weeks later (this past week) he was taken in for a shorter cast. His new cast stops just below his knee and is bright hunters ORANGE! :) He has a shoe he straps to his cast so he can walk on it. However he is very timid and doesn't want to walk on it yet. He's afraid it's going to hurt and his muscles are pretty weak. My husband and I keep encouraging him to try walking oh his leg, hopefully he'll get the hang of it soon! Tomorrow I'm sending him to school with only his crutches. Thank goodness for NO snow, right?!

Many of you were so kind to our son and our family during this whole nightmare! We are so grateful for the kindness shown to us! We loved all the visitors, love notes and goodies! Thank you for your love and prayers! My son still has a long road ahead of him but he is expected to return to his normal self! Next month we go back to get this cast off and then he'll wear a walking boot for about another month. If all goes well it looks like he'll be cast and boot free by the time I have my final chemo! Another reason to celebrate!!