One little monkey playing on the bed....

she fell off and
BROKE HER ARM!!!

On Wednesday (12/28) Andrew was playing with Ainsley and they ended up in my room. He set her on my bed and she fell off. He brought her to me and told me what happened. She was crying and her arm was hanging kind of funny, but I got her to stop crying so I thought she was fine. I did try to have her crawl but she would only crawl in a circle because she would not use her right arm. She kept laying her head down so I decided maybe if she had a nap she would wake up and just forget about the fall. She actually slept for about two hours and when she woke up she was just laying down, which is not normal for her. She is usually sitting or pulled up to stand. When I saw her just laying there I knew something had to be wrong. Then when I got her out of the crib I felt her arm and it was very swollen. It was then that I knew she needed to go to the doctor. Matt had the car at work so a great friend took us to the instacare. As soon as the doctor felt her arm he ordered xrays. She was really good though me moving her arm all around and didn't cry too much. Once the xrays were done the doctor looked at them and turned to us and said "she broke her humerus and you need to take her to Primary's" In my mind I just kept saying he didn't give us any options, this can't be good. Matt asked about surgery and he said they would determine that up there. This is what her arm looked like when we got to Primary's ER....

They couldn't believe how good she was. She was not even crying unless we moved or touched her arm. And I didn't give her any pain meds all day because she was so content. The ER doctor checked her out and looked at the xrays and said she would call the orthopedic surgeon on call to come in and look at her. He was in the room in about 20 minutes and the first thing he said was "we're going to need to do surgery to put pins in" Matt and I both said "wait what?" But honestly I think we both knew something like that was going to need to happen. We asked the resident tons of questions and he told us how the surgery usually goes and that they would probably place two pins, maybe three but not more than that. He also said it is just a quick 30 to 45 minute surgery and it's one of the most common ones they perform. Matt and I both felt a little bit better after talking to him. We were still worried about our baby having surgery but I think feeling like all of our crazy questions had been answered helped. The resident splinted her arm and the nurses put her IV in and gave her some morphine. She was quite uncomfortable at this point. Then we waited for the surgeon to get there and the OR to be ready for her. This picture is while we were waiting..

They finally came to take us up to the OR and then it seemed more real. I was holding Ainsley as we walked in the surgical area. We met the anesthesiologist he was really nice and talked to us for a few minutes. He answered any more questions we had. Then we met the surgeon. He talked to us about the surgery again and explained that they would probably place two pins and they would try to place the bone with out having to cut her arm open. He said to expect them to be in there for 45mins max and that if we weren't in the waiting room he would come look for us in the cafeteria, we were super hungry. Then a nurse came up and introduced herself and said that she would be with Ains the whole time. The next thing I knew the nurse said "do you think she'll let me hold her?" When I handed Ainsley to the nurse she was perfectly happy. We waved to her as they walked with her down the hall and then we were led off in the other direction to be shown where the waiting room was. I think that was the hardest part. Watching someone else take your baby from you and know what was going to happen to her. I felt so helpless. I had been so strong the whole day but at that point I was no longer the strong one. Matt and I got some dinner, but I think we were both totally focused on the clock. It had been about a half hour so we decided to go back to the waiting room because we wanted to be right there when the surgeon came to tell us how she was doing.

We sat in this very large, very empty waiting room for what seemed like forever. Matt and I sat where we could see if the surgeon was walking down the hall but we could also see the clock. The clock just kept ticking away...35mins...45mins...55mins... ONE HOUR... At the hour mark I called my friend and said "this is taking way too long!" I was getting worried. Just as I said those words to my friend the phone in the waiting room rang. I told my friend the phone was ringing and she told me I better answer it. So I did. It was the nurse telling me that they were having a little trouble placing the pins just right so it would be a little longer. She made sure to say that Ainsley was doing very well and that her vitals were great. I asked how much longer they thought and she said probably another 30 mins. Ugh...more waiting. Now Matt and I were really stressed. Luckily there was an ice machine in the waiting room so I got myself a cup of ice to chomp on to relive some of the stress. It didn't work. We had to get out of that waiting room so we went out to the car to charge our phones. We stood there and looked at the view of Salt Lake City from Primary's, but I just couldn't handle being outside of the hospital knowing my baby was in surgery so we went right back in. Once again we watched the clock...30 mins....45mins....55mins....TWO HOURS!! We started to get stressed even more...this was seriously taking WAY TOO LONG!!!! Then the phone rang! It was the nurse saying they were done and that the surgeon would be there to talk to us in a few minutes!!!!! Matt and I were so antsy, we were about to find out what took so stinking long and how she was doing. Matt couldn't handle waiting in the waiting room anymore he stood in the hall so he could see when the surgeon was walking to the waiting room. That's what this picture is of...

The surgeon finally walked down that hall and talked to us for a while. He said Ainsley did great! He said they had placed four pins....FOUR in her tiny arm. He told us this was the longest elbow surgery he had ever done. He said the reason it took so long was because her bone was broken a little worse than what the xrays showed, so that made it harder to place just right. Also because she is so young and her bones are so malleable it just made it that much more difficult. He said he tried to place the bone for the first 45mins and he just couldn't get it how he would want his own child's arm so he had to make a cut in her arm so he could get the bones just right. Then he put the four pins in to make sure it would stay sturdy and heal well. He gave us this copy of the xray with the four pins in her arm and he said he was keeping a copy for himself to put on his wall to look at when we was getting a little full of himself. Matt and I thought that was so funny. I don't think he knew he was going to be dealing with a little stinker like Ainsley :)

After we talked to the surgeon it took just a few minutes and someone came to get us so we could be with Ainsley. She was still sleeping and looked so helpless in the bed. The anesthesiologist was still watching her and told us how said it was to see them have to mess with her arm for so long. He just stayed and chatted with us for a while. It was nice to talk with him. He said that she didn't even cry before they put her under and that she is such a cutie. Ainsley finally got moved to her room at about 10:45pm. When the nurses took Ainsley's vitals she woke up a little more and was trying to do her silly face to them but she was way to out of it to do it. Matt stayed in the room with her while the nurse showed us all the cool stuff they have on the floor for parents and the kids. After we knew she was doing pretty well Matt decided to go home so he would be able to go to work the next day. I walked out to the car and got the car seat from him and then on my way back in stopped for a coke and a little snack. I figured it might be a long night. When I got back in she was getting a little cranky. The nurses and I decided she was probably hungry and and some pain so I gave her a bottle and then they gave her some more pain meds. Once the meds kicked in she fell asleep. She actually slept most of the night. She would only wake up if she rolled over and was putting pressure on her arm. Then I would just fix her position and she would go right back to sleep. It was really a much better night than I thought it was going to be. When the surgeon came to see us in the morning he said she was good to go anytime and so we hurried out of there! 

I am so grateful that the instacare doctor knew she needed more help with her arm than they could give her there. And I am so grateful for how awesome Primary's is! We are so lucky to have such a great children's hospital like that so close. Everyone was so nice and you could just tell how much they cared. I am also so greatful for such great friends that were willing to take my kids on such short notice, drive me and Ains to the instacare and then pick us up from Primary's. 

Ains was very sleepy once we got home

her lovely new fashion trend...for the next few weeks anyway