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| Hooray for moving up to the green theraband! I even coincidentally matched it that day. |
I didn't think I'd get a beach vacation this year because I thought I'd be working by now, but I ended up being able to go to Destin, Florida with my family. After the traumatic start to vacation, it was wonderful. We found out that we could get into the house as early as we wanted since nobody was staying there the week before us, so we decided to leave last minute on Thursday around 5pm. At 10pm, we packed up and left. My mom, dad, John, Kel, Little John, James, and Daisy all went in the big van. Kevin and I took a separate car, and Kelly's parent's and niece Gwen drove separately from Pittsburgh.
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| Long, sleepy drive. I think we're too old for overnight trips now. |
After driving all night, we were all exhausted because nobody slept that well. We got into the house around 11, then went out to lunch. We came back, and within 10 minutes of being in the house, my brother was screaming "We need to get to the hospital!!!" Never what anyone wants to hear, ever.
Little John had slammed his thumb in the sliding glass door and was screaming bloody murder. All of us were trying to figure out where the closest hospital is, and there was blood all over the place. The tip of his thumb was completely smashed across the nail bed down to his bone. Our doors at home are difficult to push, so he usually opens them and closes them without us worrying about his fingers because they move so slowly. The door in the house we stayed at was incredibly heavy, and went flying with the lightest touch. We weren't really aware of this yet since we had been there less than 10 minutes.
My mom, dad, John, and I took John Nathan to the ER. The Porters weren't there yet, Kel stayed with James, and Kevin helped Kel clean up and stayed at the house to be there for her. The entire experience at the ER was horrendous.
John cried almost the entire time, and was bleeding and bleeding. Unfortunately it wasn't a pediatric hospital, so they had pretty much no idea what to do with kids. They didn't give him anything to come him down, and gave him zero pain meds. NOT EVEN FREAKING TYLENOL or any topical numbing medicine before the numbing shots. He was absolutely hysterical as they injected his thumb with 6 shots to numb it for the stitches, which obviously hurt because it's SIX SHOTS IN A TINY LITTLE TWO YEAR OLD'S THUMB. He had to soak his thumb in a sterile bath thing after that, and the nurse left the room and goes "Let me know when it's been 10 minutes," then left John to hold John Nathan's thumb in the tub of water. While he's screaming and crying. Thankfully he calmed down a bit, but every time the nurses came in the room he'd go "No no no no go back. Go outside. Noooooo." He also repeatedly said "Go back home. Go back home. Go back home." in between sobs and coughs. It was the saddest thing I've ever seen.
After 10 painfully slow minutes passed, I went and fetched the nurse, because obviously that's that patient's family's responsibility, not the nurse's, especially in an ER that isn't even that busy at all. USE YOUR WATCH AND TIME IT YOURSELF, LADY! We're a bit busy trying to calm down an hysterical two year old. When she finally strolled to test if his thumb was numb, it somehow wasn't, which they all appeared shocked about. So they gave him six MORE shots in his thumb. By this point, we've been there an hour or two, John hasn't slept more than a couple hours in the past 24 hours, and hasn't eaten anything or drank much the whole day because he napped during lunch. So take a two year old in those circumstances and then imagine them with a smashed, bloody finger and tons of pain.
After his thumb was finally all numbed up came the worst part. They stuffed John Nathan in a pillow case, taped his arm to a board, taped his fingers to a board, wrapped him in more pillowcases, wrapped tape all around his whole little body like a mummy, then made John hold him down on the table. It. Was. Horrendous. They asked my mom and I to leave at this point, which was probably good because seeing him like that made me cry as hard as he was. I wish one of us could have stayed to be there for my brother though, because he needed some support, too. They apparently then ripped off little John's nail and gave him 5 stitches while John held him down. Awful, awful, awful.
I understand that it was necessary to restrain him in order to properly stitch his finger, and that it could have been SO much worse, but it was probably one of the worst days of my life seeing him cry so hard and not being able to make the pain go away or help him. I could honestly feel my heart breaking. I also understand that he could've lost his fingertip without those ER doctors, but it would've been nice if they had any clue how to treat children.
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| Poor little buddy finally back from the ER with his hand wrapped up. We had to change the bandage every night, and give him antibiotics 3 times a day. He also wore a surgical glove, AKA the "Mickey Mouse" glove with tape over it on the beach to prevent sand/water from getting in it. |
We were eventually allowed back in the room, and Little John finally passed out and slept for a while. We made it back to the condo, and the rest of the vacation was much more relaxing. On to the good stuff...
We stayed RIGHT on the beach! I'd never been to Destin before, and it's gorgeous. The sand is white and fluffy, and the gulf is crystal clear. Some of the highlights of the week were seeing dolphins jumping like they were in a SeaWorld show right off the coast from the beach, riding waves in an inner tube, seeing a gigantic jellyfish at night, Kevin catching a stone crab with a net, going for long walks on the beach without my knee hurting, going on a dolphin cruise, and playing with my nephews (as always :). We walked to an awesome breakfast place called the Whale's Tail that's right on the beach, and to an amazing coffee place multiple times called Bad Ass Coffee. They even had almond milk and ice cubes made out of coffee for their iced lattes. It turned out to be a wonderful week with everyone.
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| Kevin, Gwen, and I |
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| Mom & Dad |
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| Kelly, James, John & John Nathan |
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| Don, Gwen, and Suzanne |
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| Me, John, Kevin, Gwen and John. This was before a giant wave came and flipped John and I off of the inner tube. The second we got him back out of the water, another wave smashed him in the face even though we held him up as high as we could. Luckily it didn't traumatize him too much and he went back in the water the next day. |
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| Kel and Jamesy-baby |
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| Gwen with a bunch of hermit crabs |
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| Kevin & I |
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| Miss Daisy-do |
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| View at breakfast from the Whale's Tail |
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| Walking to Bad Ass Coffee |
I was surprised at how well my knees did. The house we stayed in had 3 full flights of stairs, so I got a lot of practice with those. Walking in the sand was good therapy, too, and so was going in the water. My knees felt pretty good until the end of the week though, so I was happy they lasted throughout the vacation. Kevin only had to carry me up and down the stairs a couple times.
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| Happy knees :) |
We had another long drive back on Saturday, and since then I've been going to PT and running a lot of errands before I begin work. I've also been trying to relax a bi since both knees have been pretty sore recently. You think with so many months off, I wouldn't need one more minute to relax, but the past few months have been jam-packed with PT, appointments, and activities, and I'm learning that even nearly 5 months post-surgery, I am still having to take it a bit easy. I am really excited to finally be able to work, although I'm not going to lie, I will definitely miss sleeping in and long, lazy summer mornings.
I start work on Monday at a Children's Hospital in acute care. I just found out that I'll be working mostly with infants at first, too, to make it easier on my knees. I am absolutely thrilled beyond belief about this because it's always been my dream to work with babies! Everything happens for a reason!! :D I'm also starting part-time for a month to make the transition easier on my knees. It's been quite a journey, and I'm ready for this next step. Hopefully my knees are, too.
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| Celebrating that I'll finally begin working! |
Family Update: My dad is doing okay. His eye surgery went well and his eye seems to be bothering him less and less. He's still getting horrendous headaches but his back has felt okay. James was fine after he came home from this hospital, and his oxygen levels stayed up. Hooray! My grandma's shingles are still pretty bad, and we're all just hoping and praying they go away soon. My great aunt began walking with her physical therapist, and the bones in her pelvis and wrist are healing. Little John's hand is doing much better now, too, and he's using it as if nothing ever happened to it!
Have a good weekend, everyone :)
