I'm going to preface this with "July has not been a super easy month." Kaydence doesn't want to eat, I lost a person I'm going to miss, I keep having dang migraines, my insurance got cut off early and that is not easy to fix, Vacation Bible School at church happens, and now Wade has broken his arm. It is also appointment kick off time, and now in addition to Kaydence's appointments, we now have a boatload for Wade complete with higher copayments for specialists. Please hear the excitement that I am radiating at this moment.
I can't fix most of these issues, but I can fix the way I react. I am trying to do this boutique thing and these headaches! Why? I have to take meds, and I can't do what I need to do for this business. It's frustrating. VBS at church. I have been director enough years that I need to pass it on. It's time. I enjoy VBS, but I lost my oomph for it recently. It still turned out great with great attendance. There are kids who visit us during this week that I sincerely hope return soon. Especially to children's choir, which I dearly love leading. And even though Satan chips away at my enthusiasm, I really did love my time this week spent in VBS.
To top all of this off, Wade broke his arm. There are slight silver linings all around the situation though. Let me attempt to paint a vivid picture of the day for you. Kirsten, a super calm teenager, brought over her two babysitting boys and her brother Kasen, a true sports enthusiast. They've come to swim in our pool a few times this summer and it is always fun to have them over. Abigail was gone to a friend's house to play for the day. I was hating she wasn't there to play in the sun with her favorite Kirsten, but she was probably more excited to play at her friend's house. So Kirsten, Kasen, and the two littles were swimming. I let Kaydence swim for a little while with them. She had been slightly fussy, and I had just taken round two of migraine medication for the day. I decided I needed to work on music for VBS that evening because I was seriously slacking in my music direction this week. I was working on learning the motions better so I could help these kids learn. Wade and his buddy Riley showed up, and immediately got in the pool to swim. I got Kaydence out and put her in the tub to clean up and start the process of getting us all ready for VBS. While she was playing in the tub, I continued to learn how to pulse correctly from side to side and sway my hands to and fro with the music words correctly. I was awesome at this. Music with kids is my thang. I look stupid and don't even care. I paused to get Kaydence out of the tub and I hear Kasen and Riley yelling, "Mrs. Wendy! Mrs. Wendy! We need your help! Wade's hurt!" I set Kaydence right back in the tub and ran to the boys and I knew from their faces something was so very, very wrong. All I could think was that Wade must've hit his head and fell in the bottom of the pool. Kasen quickly said that they were playing basketball and hurt his wrist. I ran out the door and found Wade very close to the door sitting on the ground in his wet shorts, tennis shoes, and screaming his head off and crying. I looked down for a second and noticed that his arm was limp and squiggly in the middle where it is normally straight. I immediately knew his arm was broken. My mind instantly brought up a memory when Asa was a senior playing basketball in Fairfield and his teammate Weldon broke his arm in the middle of the game. I will never forget that because it was horrible to watch and here was my son basically reinventing that same moment in our driveway!
Kirsten had come in and I was very panicky telling her to finish drying off Kaydence and to get the DVD out of the DVD player and the book from my nightstand and get it to someone at VBS. I think I repeated this to Kasen. I grabbed my ever faithful Nike flip flops, found my purse, and then frantically ran through my house looking for my phone. I finally found it, grabbed Wade a shirt as he had asked for, even though I knew he couldn't get it on, threw a towel over him and we took off. He had grass and dirt stuck to his legs, no shirt, and we were both freaking out because he was sitting in the front seat and couldn't put a seatbelt on. HAHAHA! Who frets over a seatbelt when an arm is laying limp across a person? Just me and Wade. I try calling Tommy twice. No answer. I call one of the ladies who also work at the bank. No answer. I call Kirsten's mom, Jennifer, to brief her and verbally hand off Kaydence to her until we get home. We get behind the slowest car to ever drive through Centerville as we are on Highway 7 just trying to get to the interstate. I actually honked and turned on my emergency flashers and they slowed down more and I rode their butt all the way to them turning off at Texas Burger. Sorry, not sorry. I needed to get my kid to the ER slow person! Wade was also yelling at the slow people and telling them to move and then yelling because every bump made him shift. I call my friend Neshia to tell her I won't be at VBS and to do whatever necessary to make it all work that night. (So much for my awesome pulsing moves and arm waving.) She comforted me reminding me of her son's experience breaking his leg. We decided Abigail would go home with them after VBS if we aren't back, but figured they would just splint him and send us home until we could go to an orthopedic doctor. Wade is screaming and wailing through all of this. Neshia said later she laughed at me because Wade is all, "Is this going to hurt? How long?" and I kept saying very matter of factly that yes it's going to hurt for a while. His arm was broken. That stuff takes a while to feel better. I finally got Tommy on the phone and he said he would meet us in Madisonville.
As we are driving, Wade is telling me that they were dunking the basketball and somehow Riley bumped into him causing him to fall to the ground and smack his arm across the edge of our concrete driveway. He also made comments like he never wanted friends over anymore, he would never play sports again, why did this happen to him, why him, and more. It was dramatic and scream filled. In this midst of him crying at the thought that his sports days are over I turned my head and flatly said, "This is why good grades are important. Things can change." You see, Wade loves sports, and he is constantly talking about how he wants to attend college wherever he can play on scholarship. I knew he loves sports, but did not realize the depth of this love until later. We always emphasize that having good grades in school and studying hard are more important because injuries happen and dreams change out of necessity.
We arrived in Madisonville at the Huntsville Hopsital Emergency Room and they got us right in. There I sat all sweaty, in shorts and a t-shirt, flip flops and no makeup with my hair up in a clippie. Wade sat in his wet shorts, tennis shoes and a towel. They got us in the back and Tommy finally arrived, clad in his banker's attire. I joked that he looked like business and we looked like summer vacation. Wade was given medicine to cut the pain and they x-rayed Wade's arm and one bone was overlapping itself and the other bone was broken but not all the way through. It was bowed really bad. The best part was that the staff there was wonderful. They worked hard to get him set up with the next set of doctors. When Wade heard them talking that he could need some plates in his arm, he really got upset, and right then, our friend Joel walked in to check on us. Our favorite Aunt Tammy had sent him over. He completely diffused the situation and Wade chilled out. I am so thankful for that and Joel and Tammy will never understand how grateful I am. The doctors in Madisonville decided Wade probably needed to see a pediatric orthopedic doctor, so they got us set up to drive down to Texas Children's Hospital in the Medical District of Houston. If we could get reward points for visits there, we would have really racked them up by now between the girls and now Wade.
I know some may say, "That was a long way to go! Couldn't you have just waited and went to someone in Bryan the next day?" I guess we could have, but we felt that this was a better choice for him. If they could deal with it now, then why wait? On our way down, we stopped at Academy in Conroe and picked up some button down shirts and a new pair of shorts for Wade as well as some socks. He was definitely going to need something to slip over that arm easily. I also picked up a change of warmer-type clothes because I was dressed for hanging outside and not for a cold hospital. We also didn't know how long we would be staying. When we got to TCH, we went to the emergency room, which was surprisingly low on business it seemed. They were waiting for us and got him right in. Talk about wonderful staff! Wow! We are familiar with TCH of course, and these people are all just amazing. We have yet to have anything other than an outstanding experience there. The nurse got us in an exam room, took his vitals, and talked to us. Then they moved us to a bigger room. The nurse gave him morphine as soon as they got him in the bigger room, so that he wouldn't be in much pain and they could move him for more X-rays. The attending doctor was so sweet and told us there would be two possibilities of treatment. Either they would sedate him with medicine that would knock him out, but he would still be able to respond to them and they would set his bones back to normal in the room, or if the damage couldn't be fixed, he would be taken into surgery. Wade was so nervous. He was just shivering and tearing up.
After the orthopedic doctor looked at his X-rays, he decided to try and move his bones back to their normal position there in the room and felt like he wouldn't need to put rods in, but it was still a possiblity. They gave Wade the good drugs, and he said I can feel it in the IV, then said, "I feel weird," and he was out. It was fast! The nurse took us to an empty ER room instead of us waiting in the waiting area. They offered us food and beverages and were really great. About 30 minutes later or so, they came to get us because they were done. No surgery was needed, thank God. He just had to wake up good and keep a beverage down before we could go.
Now this was the fun part. The staff had warned us that people were apt to say some crazy things when they were coming out of these meds and Wade was no exception to that rule. He had been watching the Astros play as he went out and it was still on the sports channel as he was waking up, so the entire rest of the night was all chatter about sports. These moments defined, for me, just how sports obsessed Wade Neyland is. I really had to re-evaluate my thoughts on how passionate he truly is about sports. First of all, the nurse asked him some questions and he answered all rapid fire like he was answering a drill sergeant. Then he started talking about Jordan World, and Jordan Kingdom. Michael Jordan was the king and told him to buy the Russell Westbrook shoes. (Looks like I'm buying a new pair of Jordans next week!) He said God was there, so was our pastor, and they needed "fresh J's." This is when I started recording his antics. He was an Indian, then a turkey, then he had a war cry, and he also declared that he is going to be the best basketball, baseball and football play ever and we now know his future. He is the next Russell Westbrook. He made sure the nurse knew he really goes by Wade and not Thomas (his actual first name) so that when he is a star player, the nurse would know him. Michael Jordan should have NEVER played baseball and some other player was apparently a disappointment to his family. Wade called out every player it seemed. He was also glad that the doctor didn't have to put a Dennis Rodman in his arm. Tommy was the best dad in the world, but as for me, I was "Stranger" all night. "You're not my MOM! You didn't make me human! God did. God put me on this earth to play basketball and believe in Him. And play baseball." He even yelled "STRANGER DANGER!" a couple of times and was very loud. Needless to say, he entertained everyone in the room. My wrinkles definitely wrinkled more from laughing. About Midnight, they released him and we were on the road about 12:30. We were headed home to our town that most of the nurses know because they stop at the ever famous Woody's.
Wade wanted to stop for Whataburger. Actually we all did. We were all starving. Those shirts I bought came in handy and he put one on before we went in to eat. That might have been the best Whataburger meal we've ever eaten. We got home at 3 AM. He broke his arm about 3 PM the afternoon before, so this was a twelve-hour trip, quite different from the 3 hour tour Neshia and I thought it would be. It was like Gilligan's Island translated into a medical story.
Things I can say from this experience thus far...first of all, God had everything taken care of before it happened. Someone was there to keep Kaydence. And not just anyone, Kirsten was there. The girl who wants to be a doctor. Calm and able in a crazy situation. Abigail was with a friend who would take her to VBS. PLUS, the friend she was with has a sister who has broken her arm and when they finally told her about it, she was able to tell her that she knew he'd be okay because of her own experience. If Abigail had been there and seen that, the drama would have escalated because she LOVES her brother. The girls both had people to just step in and take care of them. The other volunteers at VBS just stepped up and my good friend Neshia made the music work for the night. With VBS happening, our church body was quick to know the situation and pray for Wade. No surgery was a big deal and that was an answered prayer! I will also point out that I had taken two rounds of migraine medication on this day. Usually this makes me drool myself into a stupor, but on this day, I wasn't like that at all. I never felt tired. Looking back, I am sure that it is partially due to the whole fight or flight phenomenon, but it was also just the hand of God taking care of us because I should have been asleep way before this ever happened.
We are so fortunate to have a wonderful church family and beyond blessed to have such wonderful friends who can step in an emergency situation and help us. Jennifer Jeitz, bless her. She has dug through my house for clothes for all of us I think. Kaydence couldn't have been in better hands.
When Wade was freaking out over the possibility of surgery when we were in Madisonville, he asked me what would happen? I looked at him and said that I had no idea, but we just had to let God take care of it. Same as every day. Sometimes it is really hard to do that, but there just isn't a choice in those situations because you can't fix it yourself. When things are out of our hands, you just have to give it to God. I know I have some friends who are pretty cynical about that, but I've experienced it many times in my life already. There are some who would say I am ignorant, but to those I say that I have witnessed the power of God, and I have also experienced the peace of the presence of the Lord in troubling times. This day was no different and I just do not know how one can go through life's issues without God's presence. Now to keep praying for his arm to heal well and sturdy because, though I don't know the future God has planned, Wade Neyland wants to play some ball!
I can't fix most of these issues, but I can fix the way I react. I am trying to do this boutique thing and these headaches! Why? I have to take meds, and I can't do what I need to do for this business. It's frustrating. VBS at church. I have been director enough years that I need to pass it on. It's time. I enjoy VBS, but I lost my oomph for it recently. It still turned out great with great attendance. There are kids who visit us during this week that I sincerely hope return soon. Especially to children's choir, which I dearly love leading. And even though Satan chips away at my enthusiasm, I really did love my time this week spent in VBS.
To top all of this off, Wade broke his arm. There are slight silver linings all around the situation though. Let me attempt to paint a vivid picture of the day for you. Kirsten, a super calm teenager, brought over her two babysitting boys and her brother Kasen, a true sports enthusiast. They've come to swim in our pool a few times this summer and it is always fun to have them over. Abigail was gone to a friend's house to play for the day. I was hating she wasn't there to play in the sun with her favorite Kirsten, but she was probably more excited to play at her friend's house. So Kirsten, Kasen, and the two littles were swimming. I let Kaydence swim for a little while with them. She had been slightly fussy, and I had just taken round two of migraine medication for the day. I decided I needed to work on music for VBS that evening because I was seriously slacking in my music direction this week. I was working on learning the motions better so I could help these kids learn. Wade and his buddy Riley showed up, and immediately got in the pool to swim. I got Kaydence out and put her in the tub to clean up and start the process of getting us all ready for VBS. While she was playing in the tub, I continued to learn how to pulse correctly from side to side and sway my hands to and fro with the music words correctly. I was awesome at this. Music with kids is my thang. I look stupid and don't even care. I paused to get Kaydence out of the tub and I hear Kasen and Riley yelling, "Mrs. Wendy! Mrs. Wendy! We need your help! Wade's hurt!" I set Kaydence right back in the tub and ran to the boys and I knew from their faces something was so very, very wrong. All I could think was that Wade must've hit his head and fell in the bottom of the pool. Kasen quickly said that they were playing basketball and hurt his wrist. I ran out the door and found Wade very close to the door sitting on the ground in his wet shorts, tennis shoes, and screaming his head off and crying. I looked down for a second and noticed that his arm was limp and squiggly in the middle where it is normally straight. I immediately knew his arm was broken. My mind instantly brought up a memory when Asa was a senior playing basketball in Fairfield and his teammate Weldon broke his arm in the middle of the game. I will never forget that because it was horrible to watch and here was my son basically reinventing that same moment in our driveway!
Kirsten had come in and I was very panicky telling her to finish drying off Kaydence and to get the DVD out of the DVD player and the book from my nightstand and get it to someone at VBS. I think I repeated this to Kasen. I grabbed my ever faithful Nike flip flops, found my purse, and then frantically ran through my house looking for my phone. I finally found it, grabbed Wade a shirt as he had asked for, even though I knew he couldn't get it on, threw a towel over him and we took off. He had grass and dirt stuck to his legs, no shirt, and we were both freaking out because he was sitting in the front seat and couldn't put a seatbelt on. HAHAHA! Who frets over a seatbelt when an arm is laying limp across a person? Just me and Wade. I try calling Tommy twice. No answer. I call one of the ladies who also work at the bank. No answer. I call Kirsten's mom, Jennifer, to brief her and verbally hand off Kaydence to her until we get home. We get behind the slowest car to ever drive through Centerville as we are on Highway 7 just trying to get to the interstate. I actually honked and turned on my emergency flashers and they slowed down more and I rode their butt all the way to them turning off at Texas Burger. Sorry, not sorry. I needed to get my kid to the ER slow person! Wade was also yelling at the slow people and telling them to move and then yelling because every bump made him shift. I call my friend Neshia to tell her I won't be at VBS and to do whatever necessary to make it all work that night. (So much for my awesome pulsing moves and arm waving.) She comforted me reminding me of her son's experience breaking his leg. We decided Abigail would go home with them after VBS if we aren't back, but figured they would just splint him and send us home until we could go to an orthopedic doctor. Wade is screaming and wailing through all of this. Neshia said later she laughed at me because Wade is all, "Is this going to hurt? How long?" and I kept saying very matter of factly that yes it's going to hurt for a while. His arm was broken. That stuff takes a while to feel better. I finally got Tommy on the phone and he said he would meet us in Madisonville.
As we are driving, Wade is telling me that they were dunking the basketball and somehow Riley bumped into him causing him to fall to the ground and smack his arm across the edge of our concrete driveway. He also made comments like he never wanted friends over anymore, he would never play sports again, why did this happen to him, why him, and more. It was dramatic and scream filled. In this midst of him crying at the thought that his sports days are over I turned my head and flatly said, "This is why good grades are important. Things can change." You see, Wade loves sports, and he is constantly talking about how he wants to attend college wherever he can play on scholarship. I knew he loves sports, but did not realize the depth of this love until later. We always emphasize that having good grades in school and studying hard are more important because injuries happen and dreams change out of necessity.
We arrived in Madisonville at the Huntsville Hopsital Emergency Room and they got us right in. There I sat all sweaty, in shorts and a t-shirt, flip flops and no makeup with my hair up in a clippie. Wade sat in his wet shorts, tennis shoes and a towel. They got us in the back and Tommy finally arrived, clad in his banker's attire. I joked that he looked like business and we looked like summer vacation. Wade was given medicine to cut the pain and they x-rayed Wade's arm and one bone was overlapping itself and the other bone was broken but not all the way through. It was bowed really bad. The best part was that the staff there was wonderful. They worked hard to get him set up with the next set of doctors. When Wade heard them talking that he could need some plates in his arm, he really got upset, and right then, our friend Joel walked in to check on us. Our favorite Aunt Tammy had sent him over. He completely diffused the situation and Wade chilled out. I am so thankful for that and Joel and Tammy will never understand how grateful I am. The doctors in Madisonville decided Wade probably needed to see a pediatric orthopedic doctor, so they got us set up to drive down to Texas Children's Hospital in the Medical District of Houston. If we could get reward points for visits there, we would have really racked them up by now between the girls and now Wade.
I know some may say, "That was a long way to go! Couldn't you have just waited and went to someone in Bryan the next day?" I guess we could have, but we felt that this was a better choice for him. If they could deal with it now, then why wait? On our way down, we stopped at Academy in Conroe and picked up some button down shirts and a new pair of shorts for Wade as well as some socks. He was definitely going to need something to slip over that arm easily. I also picked up a change of warmer-type clothes because I was dressed for hanging outside and not for a cold hospital. We also didn't know how long we would be staying. When we got to TCH, we went to the emergency room, which was surprisingly low on business it seemed. They were waiting for us and got him right in. Talk about wonderful staff! Wow! We are familiar with TCH of course, and these people are all just amazing. We have yet to have anything other than an outstanding experience there. The nurse got us in an exam room, took his vitals, and talked to us. Then they moved us to a bigger room. The nurse gave him morphine as soon as they got him in the bigger room, so that he wouldn't be in much pain and they could move him for more X-rays. The attending doctor was so sweet and told us there would be two possibilities of treatment. Either they would sedate him with medicine that would knock him out, but he would still be able to respond to them and they would set his bones back to normal in the room, or if the damage couldn't be fixed, he would be taken into surgery. Wade was so nervous. He was just shivering and tearing up.
After the orthopedic doctor looked at his X-rays, he decided to try and move his bones back to their normal position there in the room and felt like he wouldn't need to put rods in, but it was still a possiblity. They gave Wade the good drugs, and he said I can feel it in the IV, then said, "I feel weird," and he was out. It was fast! The nurse took us to an empty ER room instead of us waiting in the waiting area. They offered us food and beverages and were really great. About 30 minutes later or so, they came to get us because they were done. No surgery was needed, thank God. He just had to wake up good and keep a beverage down before we could go.
Now this was the fun part. The staff had warned us that people were apt to say some crazy things when they were coming out of these meds and Wade was no exception to that rule. He had been watching the Astros play as he went out and it was still on the sports channel as he was waking up, so the entire rest of the night was all chatter about sports. These moments defined, for me, just how sports obsessed Wade Neyland is. I really had to re-evaluate my thoughts on how passionate he truly is about sports. First of all, the nurse asked him some questions and he answered all rapid fire like he was answering a drill sergeant. Then he started talking about Jordan World, and Jordan Kingdom. Michael Jordan was the king and told him to buy the Russell Westbrook shoes. (Looks like I'm buying a new pair of Jordans next week!) He said God was there, so was our pastor, and they needed "fresh J's." This is when I started recording his antics. He was an Indian, then a turkey, then he had a war cry, and he also declared that he is going to be the best basketball, baseball and football play ever and we now know his future. He is the next Russell Westbrook. He made sure the nurse knew he really goes by Wade and not Thomas (his actual first name) so that when he is a star player, the nurse would know him. Michael Jordan should have NEVER played baseball and some other player was apparently a disappointment to his family. Wade called out every player it seemed. He was also glad that the doctor didn't have to put a Dennis Rodman in his arm. Tommy was the best dad in the world, but as for me, I was "Stranger" all night. "You're not my MOM! You didn't make me human! God did. God put me on this earth to play basketball and believe in Him. And play baseball." He even yelled "STRANGER DANGER!" a couple of times and was very loud. Needless to say, he entertained everyone in the room. My wrinkles definitely wrinkled more from laughing. About Midnight, they released him and we were on the road about 12:30. We were headed home to our town that most of the nurses know because they stop at the ever famous Woody's.
Wade wanted to stop for Whataburger. Actually we all did. We were all starving. Those shirts I bought came in handy and he put one on before we went in to eat. That might have been the best Whataburger meal we've ever eaten. We got home at 3 AM. He broke his arm about 3 PM the afternoon before, so this was a twelve-hour trip, quite different from the 3 hour tour Neshia and I thought it would be. It was like Gilligan's Island translated into a medical story.
Things I can say from this experience thus far...first of all, God had everything taken care of before it happened. Someone was there to keep Kaydence. And not just anyone, Kirsten was there. The girl who wants to be a doctor. Calm and able in a crazy situation. Abigail was with a friend who would take her to VBS. PLUS, the friend she was with has a sister who has broken her arm and when they finally told her about it, she was able to tell her that she knew he'd be okay because of her own experience. If Abigail had been there and seen that, the drama would have escalated because she LOVES her brother. The girls both had people to just step in and take care of them. The other volunteers at VBS just stepped up and my good friend Neshia made the music work for the night. With VBS happening, our church body was quick to know the situation and pray for Wade. No surgery was a big deal and that was an answered prayer! I will also point out that I had taken two rounds of migraine medication on this day. Usually this makes me drool myself into a stupor, but on this day, I wasn't like that at all. I never felt tired. Looking back, I am sure that it is partially due to the whole fight or flight phenomenon, but it was also just the hand of God taking care of us because I should have been asleep way before this ever happened.
We are so fortunate to have a wonderful church family and beyond blessed to have such wonderful friends who can step in an emergency situation and help us. Jennifer Jeitz, bless her. She has dug through my house for clothes for all of us I think. Kaydence couldn't have been in better hands.
When Wade was freaking out over the possibility of surgery when we were in Madisonville, he asked me what would happen? I looked at him and said that I had no idea, but we just had to let God take care of it. Same as every day. Sometimes it is really hard to do that, but there just isn't a choice in those situations because you can't fix it yourself. When things are out of our hands, you just have to give it to God. I know I have some friends who are pretty cynical about that, but I've experienced it many times in my life already. There are some who would say I am ignorant, but to those I say that I have witnessed the power of God, and I have also experienced the peace of the presence of the Lord in troubling times. This day was no different and I just do not know how one can go through life's issues without God's presence. Now to keep praying for his arm to heal well and sturdy because, though I don't know the future God has planned, Wade Neyland wants to play some ball!
Comments
Post a Comment