Ethan Broke His Leg

On October 19th, Ethan was climbing out of the tub and slipped, resulting in a broken femur. We learned that we had one tough kid. He had to ride in an ambulance to the hospital. They could tell right away that his leg was broken because you could see the bone pushing the skin out on one side. They gave Ethan some medicine that was supposed to make him go to sleep so they could take x-rays without tramatizing him any further. He resisted sleep, however, and stayed awake the entire time. Once they learned what kind of break it was, we were transported in another ambulance to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma where they have surgeons who specialize in these kinds of breaks with children. Once there, Ethan was given some morphine so he would be comfortable for the night and was scheduled for surgery the next morning. The surgery to set his leg went well and they put him in a bright green cast (he chose the color himself) that goes from his right toes all the way up to his rib cage. Everything about this ordeal was extremely scary for Ethan, but he was so brave and did better than most of us as adults would have done.



Now that he is home, he is busily figuring out ways to get himself around and do the things that he wants to with or without our help. We were given a wheel chair for him and Julia likes to push him around in it (although we really have to watch her carefully as she doesn't seem to feel the need to steer). Ethan has figured out how to scoot himself around by using his arms and his good leg. He was really pround of himself last night when he figured out how to get himself from one couch to the next without having us move him. Anyway, he's a tough kid with a pretty good attitude about things (all things considered). He should be able to get his cast off on December 7th.