The joys of bathing with a cast...

So, trying to keep Bridger clean while he has been in a cast has been an adventure! We were just sponge bathing him for like a week and a half after but really that can only last so long before you just have to find a way to get a good bath in....so we put his leg in bags and tape and saran wrap and tape some more. Then he is placed in the bathtub and the water ran until there is simply no hot water left at which point he screams because he doesn't want to get out yet. The other night we pulled him out and were cutting all of the plastic layers off with the scissors. We finished with the layers and put the scissors down. He started screaming and reached for the scissors and handed them to us and told us to cut it off and pointed to his cast! He thought we were going to take his cast off....bless his little heart...luckily he only has a few remaining days of his life in a cast. Wednesday is the big day for him and we are all ready to have a happy little Bridger back!

To My Big Brother...

Yeah, I know it is a day late but the thought has always been there!!! Happy Birthday, Jason....you have been the best big brother a girl could ever have. I know life hasn't always been easy but you inspire me with your determination to keep on living life the best you can. I think back fondly on times with you as we grew from children to adults. I remember you tying a rope to your skateboard and pulling me with your bike...me falling off every few minutes and you telling me to get up and lets do it again!!! I remember you always let me in your room in Kansas and would wrestle me to a pulp on that blue velvet bedspread...you were practicing, right? I remember snow forts, and dancing on your feet in the living room, drives in the Jeep just because you wanted to drive it and listen to your music with your massive speakers, going on dates with you, discovering the joy of fritos, velveeta and chili, eating cookie dough straight from the prepackaged roll, endless afternoons of you teaching me how to play basketball in the driveway, the protectiveness of a big brother from all the idiots out there and so many more!!! I have loved watching you as a Dad....you are amazing at what you do and you are so important. You are an amazing people person and I have loved watching the impact that you have made in others lives....Jason is one of the most giving, caring, fun-loving and hard working men that I know! So here's to you brother on your birthday...

A Cast For 3 Weeks...

Wednesday, Bridger had his appointment with our orthopedic surgeon. We of course had to wait a while to be seen and he wasn't very happy about that fact at all...he kept trying to get one of us to take him home! He is nobody's dummy, now is he? While we were waiting I was trying to distract him and I walked him over to the name placard where the doctor's names were posted. He immediately began pointing to all the letters and naming each one by name followed by their sounds. This is a normal occurrence for us at our house and didn't think anything of it until we turned around and a woman was just staring at us. She smiled and asked how old he was and I was able to tell her he just turned two a few months ago and she was in total shock that he knew all the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that each one made! It was a proud moment for a mommy.....after waiting we were taken back and they took new xrays to confirm the prior diagnosis and have a comparison for later. Brandon(he is a nurse practitioner and Dr.Bycks number one man in the office and O.R.)came in and said "well, his fibula looks just fine! It is not broken....the tibia however is broken!" So this adds to my fire about the insta care that we took Bridger to and the lack of care and competence that was at that clinic that day. The Tibia is the main support and largest bone below the knee and therefore will take a little longer to heal and explains why he has been hurting so much. How do you mistake which bone is broken? I mean really......uhhhhhhhh! okay there i vented:) I am just feeling blessed that we have a very competent orthopedic surgeon and his staff is competent as well. Here is a picture of Bridger getting his cast on.....Brandon gave him the choice of a blue cast or a red cast and held the package up for him to choose! He chose with such authority and decisiveness as he grabbed the blue package and said "RED ONE!!!" So while he may know his letters very well, I can see we need to work on colors!!! The bottom picture is how Bridger has spent the last week of his life! In the middle of the floor, surrounded by his toys and scooting on his bum to reach what he can't or what his brothers just won't get for him! He is training us all very well in how to get him just what he needs and I have the feeling that we will have to break some habits when he is all healed and back to his normal self...

good news...

Well, I am grateful for medication that can help Bridger get through this! I really thought that he would be feeling at least a little better by now but this is just a miserable deal for him. The good news is that radiology called yesterday and his foot xrays were normal and his ankle appeared to be normal as well....that means that he should be able to heal quickly and NO SURGERY!!!! We will take what we are given and run with it. My heart just breaks for him...he tries so hard to get around but even crawling hurts too much. Charles is so guilt ridden and has called more often than usual to check on him while he is at work. I feel bad for him and I try to convince him he doesn't need to, accidents happen, but if the roles were reversed I too would feel the same! Thanks to all for your concern and we will keep you posted....He has his appointment tomorrow with the Orthopedic Surgeon where they will get new xrays and cast his leg if the swelling is down enough.

A Broken Bone!!!

Well, knowing the fact that we have three boys and that the oldest is 6.5, we were bound for some sort of casting injury sooner or later...I just never thought it would occur from an accident that involved my husband or myself!!! I had always envisioned a broken arm from falling off a bike, or a broken leg from trying to be an acrobat or learning that they really can' t fly like Super Man!!! This break for us will be number two in our family.....the first was a tiny hairline fracture in Isaac's elbow from being shoved off a bunk bed by his brother....It healed very quickly and they never had to do anything for it outside of a little ice and some ibuprofen. Really, the next day he seemed all fine! I think the only lasting impact on him was that his desire to sleep on the top bunk disappeared completely.......The number two break made family history for the Mills this Sunday morning as we trudged through bitter temperatures to attend our nephews baby blessing. The blessing was very nice and all was going well until we left the church house to go and have a family breakfast at Charlie's sisters house. It was so icy and cold out from a storm that blew through on Friday night...Charlie got Bridger from the van and decided to carry him in as there were large ditches and gutters full of ice and snow and we didn't want to lose him in one of those! Just walking along (on inches of ice by the way!) and there was Charlie and then there was screaming and Bridger's head bouncing off of the concrete in the driveway as I watched helplessly in shock! As a mother bear would, I believe I had Bridger scooped up in my arms even before Charlie had finished falling all the way...his head hit so hard and the intense feeling of hurt that coursed through my body and that little(i shouldn;t say little but so goes the saying I suppose) feeling in my gut told me that something was very wrong! 

Just to give a little history here....Bridger was born 10 wks early and as such he truly has been our toughest little guy yet! He is also tough because he is the youngest of three boys. Generally, Bridger could smash a finger in a door, or skin his knee, or hit his head on a table or sharp corner and cry for a second, then he will get mad because it interuppted was he was trying to accomplish and about 30-60 seconds after the event he will be playing or doing whatever it was that he was doing prior to the injury. 

Okay, so on with the story....after about 10 minutes of his screaming ( i mean that literally) we decided to take him into instacare for fear of a head injury. He would cry and say "Done, Done, Done with hurt". We arrived there and were greeted by a nurse who said "oh, he is just fine...this happens all the time!" Well, I am glad that I don't live at her house because this has never happened at our house before....Then we are taken to a room where a doctor comes in and looks at his eyes, in his ears,  rubs his head a little and says " He is fine, just fine, He is just mad about falling still" Knowing my child, only the way that a mother could, I wanted to slap him in the face!!! ( By the way, Bridger remained crying and saying hurt, done! the entire time all of this occured) The doctor started to head out the door and turned around and said " Here, just have him walk back and forth between you and your husband and then you will see that he is just fine!" Bridger had not let me go since I scooped him from the ground after the fall and he wanted nothing to do with Daddy....he is nobody's dummy! So Charlie took him from me because then we knew he would walk to me because he wanted me and only me. So, he starts to put him on the floor and Bridger starts screaming and shaking like i have never seen before but his desire to get to me was so strong he began to step and totally buckled in tears! At that point, I really wanted to kick that doctor in the pants. He shook his head, told us to take off his pants like we were inconvieniencing him and as soon as the pants slid off his leg was swollen and red from the knee to the ankle. He ordered xrays and sure enough a fracture to his fibula had occurred. That is the smaller of the two bones that are in the leg below the knee and runs along the outside portion of your leg. By the time the first set of rays were done, Bridgers foot had doubled in size and turned purple. So, the doctor ordered another set of rays for his foot and his femur. He couldn't read the results and had to send them for a radiologist to examine and we won't hear until the morning....there were another series of events that I won't go into detail over but man, that doctor need to go on a vacation or find a new vocation!!! He didn't give Bridger anything for pain either!!! 

So, Charlie feels like crap because of Daddy guilt (as you can imagine), Bridger hurts and doesn't understand why, and Mom gets to take care of it all!!! Happy New Year! My heart just breaks for that little guy though and how much he is hurting....that is the worst part. you want to be super mom and make it all disappear and sometimes you just feel so helpless....I guess that is where we learn to rely on our Heavenly Father though because he is the healer and can help all things!!!

We will keep you posted on our progress and we pray that Bridger does not have to endure surgery or pain that will last a long time....Happy New Year to all of You and I hope that for all of you your year has started off eventful and new but maybe not as eventful as ours!!!