Last night we faced one of the most terrifying moments of our lives.
Ava and Henry had gone down the basement to play and forgot to shut the door. Ella was in her wheelchair on the main floor with us. We had our eyes off of her for a brief moment and then we heard the thud-bump-thud-thud-thud. We knew exactly what had happened. She went down the stairs in her wheelchair.
She's ok.
We called 911 and she was taken to the ER. All of her neurological signs were completely normal.
She wasn't sucking her fingers and "charging" to comfort herself, which we thought was a little abnormal. The doctors noticed that she seemed to have some discomfort in her right arm.
Sure enough, she fractured the two bones in her forearm, just above her wrist. It's called a "buckle fracture", which is quite common among young children and pretty minor as far as breaks go… she won't need the bones to be set or have surgery, but she will need to be in a cast for 6 weeks. Right now she's in a temporary "half cast" to allow for any inflammation, but she'll need to see an orthopedist probably the week after next to get the regular cast.
The fear, the emotion, the utter sickness we felt last night (and probably will for some time) simply adds to our already fragile and heightened awareness of what we are dealing with each and every day. This is so hard on so many levels.
Quite honestly, we feel like the world's worst parents right now. We KNEW that if she ever went down those stairs in her chair it would be disastrous. We KNEW that we couldn't depend on Henry and Ava to close the door every time they went down there (although they do almost every time). We are so incredibly thankful, as it could have been catastrophic, but we're feeling unbelievably low about ourselves right now. We feel so guilty that we weren't watching more closely.
God graced us with protection over Ella last night. She woke up with us this morning as her usual self, just with a splint on her arm.
Obviously this will make things even harder for our sweet Squishy than they already are. It's her right arm, which means no more sucking her fingers and "charging"; and eating and other activities will be more difficult for her. We're not sure how well she'll be able to use her wheelchair during her recovery.
Although she wants to suck her fingers, she's been doing really well with the pacifier to comfort herself. We've actually been trying to get her to stop sucking her fingers, as doing so puts an enormous amount of extra unwanted germs in her mouth.
Now that her right arm is incapacitated for a little while, we can work on her using her left arm more... something her therapists have been trying to have her work on, as it is much weaker than her right. Now she has no choice.
As for the basement door, our first order of business this morning was a trip to The Home Depot to get a "Spring-Powered Door Closer"...
Time will heal her arm.
Time will heal our consciences.
Time is what we have with her now... and more than ever, we understand that anything... ANYTHING can happen in the blink of an eye.
Time will heal our consciences.
Time is what we have with her now... and more than ever, we understand that anything... ANYTHING can happen in the blink of an eye.
