Big cast...

Connor's got the big cast on him and we're all finally back at home.

The cast went on with no problems, and Connor got through the procedure and we were back in his room around 2:00pm. The plan was to give him some food orally since he hadn't had anything but IV fluids since 10:00pm the night before. Connor had other plans though. He hadn't gotten a nap on Sunday before he broke his leg, and didn't sleep well overnight. He had a little bit of juice in the PACU area, but after we got back to his room, he refused to eat and fell asleep.

We decided to let him rest and waited until around 5 or 6 until we tried more food. He didn't want it, but he did eat some and proved he could stomach some food, fluids, and very importantly his pain meds. He's prescribed a mix of Roxicet, Valium, and Motrin. He still seemed to be in some pain, and would spasm in his sleep, but it's getting better and better.

Grandpa and Grandma Anders had to leave after Connor got back from the OR, and the Rudolphs came to visit later in the afternoon. Connor was somewhat alert and he enjoyed playing with all the cars and trucks they brought.



We got a new extra wide car seat and with Jessica's (Andrea's cousin) help we got it set up and into the car. We filled out the discharge paperwork, and finally the nurse removed the IV from Connor's arm. They originally had put it in the inside of his right elbow, which he never minded too much. Before the surgery they decided that it would be more comfortable in his left hand, but Connor absolutely hated that. After coming back from the OR, he clawed at it and complained about the IV more than anything.

About 7:00 pm, we discharged and Jessica helped us get everything out of the room and to the garage. We got home and Connor ate a little bit of fruit before we put him down for the night. He fell asleep quickly and I'm getting ready to check on him in the next few minutes. Every few hours he has to be adjusted so the pressure points are redistributed and his diaper needs to be changed. He also needs to drink a little juice if he's willing and take some more pain medicine.

After I put Connor down I ran out to Walmart to pick up a bean bag for him to sit in while he's in the cast. They didn't have any, but I got him a few things at Walmart and then went to Target to see if they had any bean bags. They did, but only in pink and purple. I decided that function was more important than form and I got him a pretty purple bean bag with embroidered flowers. I'm sure he'll love it. When I was checking out at Target I realized that I'd taken the cash envelope out of my wallet at Walmart and although I put the cash envelope back in my pocket, I'd left my wallet at Walmart. I hurried back to Walmart and thankfully someone had given the wallet to customer service. I am ridiculously tired, and not too surprised I made the mistake. I'm thankful there are some good people left in the world. No credit cards or cash missing even.

To finish this post, here's a video of Connor sitting with Uncle Nate. It's the first time I caught him doing his "Siren" sound effect on camera. It sounds about like: "Oooooo bah boosh"

Cast is on!

Getting ready to go back in to surgery:


The doctor just came out and talked to us. The cast was put on successfully and there were no complications. The doctor explained that it was going to be a tough cast to manage, but he estimated that it was going to be a five week recovery rather than the six to eight that the Ortho resident initially estimated.

We're currently waiting in the Ronald McDonald room while Connor comes out of anesthesia. No cell phones allowed, so we haven't been able to call anyone. Andrea's parents came up and are waiting with us.

I took a little video of him semi-conscious talking with Daddy about Elmo DVD before we went back to surgery.

Made it through the night

We had a really rough night, but we made it. Connor had a really difficult time falling asleep and his sleep was very fitful even when he did. Every once in a while he'd jerk/spasm and then would start screaming. They upped his pain medication and he's currently on valium, morphine, and roxicet. The nurse said that she'd never seen a toddler with such high tolerance for pain medication. I think my little man's just really in pain.

This morning he didn't like the blanket over him, or the little monitor attached to his right foot's toe. He doesn't like all the tubes on him. Every once in a while he'll start pulling on them. Earlier he was telling Mommy that they were "stuck". Since he pulled the blanket off, I decided to get a few pictures of his current splint before he gets the big cast.

The nurse anesthetist came by earlier and believes that Connor will likely go into the OR's around 10:30. I realized that I wasn't too clear in the previous post. Although they won't be cutting on Connor, they will have to sedate him to put on his huge cast. It's a thirty minute to an hour long process.

Connor's currently watching his favorite DVD - "Elmo in Grouchland". He's fairly content watching his movie and holding his lion and some cars.




Here's the cute outfit they cut off of him:

Visit to Children's Mercy Hospital

Connor was playing at the playground today and broke his femur. He was coming out of the little tunnel area and when he stood up he slipped and fell. I (Daddy) didn't have a good angle to see exactly what happened, but he may have twisted it around behind himself or hit it on the lip of the tunnel area. By the time I got to him and picked him up, all I could tell was that his legs were twisted around under him in a way that looked uncomfortable, but didn't seem like a big deal. I picked him up really quick and figured he'd stop crying in a minute, but he kept grasping at his legs and screamed like he was in major pain.

After about a minute of holding him, I decided to go home and started to carry him while pushing the stroller and Chloe. I gave up pretty quickly and called Andrea to come get us. By the time she got to us, I'd decided that we were going to the ER. We grabbed a few things, locked up Chloe and went directly to the Children's Mercy ER.

Connor screamed the entire ride and every time we went around a corner, accelerated or hit a bump he'd shriek in pain. It was the most difficult car ride of any of our lives. When we got to the ER, we were worried it would take forever. There were at least fifty people waiting. Connor was the only one that was crying. The triage nurse took a brief look at him and told us it wouldn't be too long, but every minute seemed like an hour. Thankfully we only ended up waiting fifteen minutes.

We went to an assessment room where they took some quick vital signs and then we went back to a room. The ER doctor came in to examine Connor, and although Connor didn't like the doctor touching anything, when the doctor he felt Connor's left leg, Connor screamed the loudest. The doctor started to try and take off Connor's shorts and I told him just to cut them off. The doctor did so, then he taped the leg and did a quick temporary splint of Connor's leg. They gave him some Roxicet oral pain medicine and Daddy held him up against his chest and tried to comfort his little man. Connor calmed down a bit and for the first time in over an hour he stopped crying started to fall asleep. Of course, it was right then that the XRay room was ready and we had to wake him up and take him back. We carried him there and arranged him different ways on the table, which was absolute torture for him. The only words he really said since he fell were in the initial assessment room and in the XRay room and he would say "No No Da Da", which absolutely broke my heart.

We got him done with XRays and back to the ER room fairly soon and some nurses came back and started an IV for some more potent pain meds. They had a really difficult time finding a vein, but Connor didn't even struggle. He cried, but all the poking around in his arm apparently didn't hurt nearly as much as his leg. It was at this point that one of the nurses asked "So how did he break his leg" which wasn't the best way to break the news to us, but I guess there's no perfect way to do that.

We went back to the ER room and eventually the Ortho resident on shift came to see him. He officially informed us that the left femur was fractured and that Connor would need a cast. In the morning he will have to go to an operating room to put on a fairly elaborate cast that will go around his waist and down both legs to lock his bones in place. The ortho doctor re-splinted his leg and after a little while we were transferred to the ortho unit for an overnight stay.

We transferred him for the last time (hopefully) of the day to a crib and he's been getting morphine every once in a while but it only keeps him calm for 30-45 minutes before he starts crying. As he tries to sleep, every once in a while he'll jerk suddenly and then wake up screaming.

Daddy went home and grabbed some things for Connor and for Mommy and Daddy. Andrea's cousin Lindsey is working tonight here (she's a nurse) and she helped me bring everything up to his room. We're getting ready to try and get a little sleep now. While Daddy was gone, Connor was telling Mommy that he wanted Lion (lion blanket) and also that he wanted to get up and go home "All done Ma Ma. Up! All done..."

Very rough day.

Wish us luck tonight, hopefully Connor sleeps fairly well...

Maggie Dawson's birthday party

We went next door for Maggie Dawson's birthday party today. Connor had a lot of fun playing with the other kids and on the Dawson's play set. The slide is super duper fast and Connor face planted the first time he went down it. His face is all red on the right side and a little scratched from the grass, but he didn't seem to care and went down the slide over and over.

We didn't get any pictures of Connor with the birthday girl, but did get a few of him playing.

End of summer reading program

Connor completed the summer reading program. Each week, if the participant reads twenty books, they get a book as a prize. If you complete five weeks, you get a blue bag as a bonus. Mommy was very diligent at taking Connor to the library and picking out lots of neat books every week. This past week Connor finished his 100th book and he picked out a Barbie princess book and got his blue library bag.

Potty time!

Connor has been practicing on the potty lately. Based on the advice of Andrea's friend Mandy, we decided we would try and skip the potty chair and potty seat and try going straight to the regular toilet seat. Connor will sit on it every once in a while for us and he loves to flush the toilet after he's done. He still hasn't done any actual business in the toilet, but it's good practice.

Connor and Mommy

Connor has been very affectionate with Mommy lately and it's been very sweet. He gives her lots and lots of hugs and kisses all the time. He really likes to stay home with Mommy on Mondays and Wednesdays. When Daddy gets him up in the mornings when Mommy's working, the first thing he says is "Mommy work?".

They are so sweet with each other and are so close. Connor says "I love ma ma!" all the time now.

Big boy at the table

We finally decided to put the high chair away this week. Connor's still been sitting in it since it's convenient to roll him around, but we decided he needed to sit at the table like a big boy from now on.

He's been having a bit of a rough weekend, so he isn't too cheery in the picture below. He's got a sore on his lower lip and his teeth are hurting him too. Poor little guy.

Parade, Ping Pong, and Crib Climbing

Saturday morning we went to see the Puddle Jumpers parade. Connor loved watching all the trucks, cars, motorcycles and people go by. He really loved seeing the fire trucks and construction equipment, but got pretty scared when a bunch of loud motorcycles drove by. He grabbed onto Aunt Amanda's neck and held on tight for a long time. The rest of the day, and even the next day, he would say "Motorcycles loud" whenever he thought about them.



After the parade we walked around for a very short time. It was crazy hot. Connor was wishy-washy about whether he wanted to ride the little train that was set up and thankfully cousin Drew agreed to ride it with him. We probably wouldn't have let him try to ride it alone, there weren't any seatbelts or straps and he probably would have stood up and tried to get off without someone there to stop him. He seemed to like it, then hated it and would reach for us every time the train came near us, and then by the end of the ride he liked it again.




Before we ate lunch, Connor played a little ping pong with Uncle Nate.






After lunch we tried to put him down for a nap in the crib upstairs at Grammy Genie's house. He's slept up there before, but he's never loved sleeping alone in the room. He threw a huge fit and was trying to climb out of the crib. He kept throwing his right foot up and was able to get his heel over the top of the rail. Daddy decided he'd better put a bunch of pillows down in case Connor got out and it's good we did. Moments after the pillows got set down, Connor threw his leg up again and before Mommy or Daddy could react he managed to hoist himself over the side. He landed on his side, right on the pillows. It scared him half to death and scared Mommy and Daddy almost completely to death. It was a pretty big drop, probably a good 4 feet, but thankfully he landed on pillows and carpet and thankfully didn't land on his head.

After falling out of the crib, he was very angry and upset. We didn't think he would get a nap, but his Aunt Abby decided to try and lie down with him. She settled him down and he ended up falling asleep and he took a nice long nap with her.

Drew and Alli visit for the weekend

Andrew and Allison came to visit this weekend and spent Saturday night with us. Connor loves playing with them and they spent so much time riding around in his Jeep that the battery died. We played outside a lot and Saturday night we went to the Penguin park (in the northland, it has lots of big animals) and then got some snow cones.

Connor re-fell in love with his Jeep this weekend too. He'd really gotten the hang of driving it, so Daddy unscrewed the lever so it could go in fast mode. He does a pretty good job of driving it, but we're a little more nervous with him in it because it goes fairly quick now.

Driving with Drew:


Laughing at Uncle Nate:


Jump Nate!!!


Playing at the park:




Allison helping Connor on the slide:


Eating some snow cones:


Connor doing some fancy driving:

At the pool with cousin Theresa

Mommy's cousin Teresa is babysitting some kids that live near us in our neighborhood. This past week, Connor and Mommy went with them to the Gladstone Municipal Pool. It had a zero entry area which was very nice for little boys that don't swim well. It was great to spend some time with them.