The ongoing saga of Mandy's leg

 

I wanted to blog about fun stuff and pull out some not posted pictures from Christmas but honestly I have been too busy trying to survive.  As everyone knows Mandy broke her leg on July 1st- the same day that Gideon was born.  She has been in the hospital twice since her surgery because of a massive MRSA - penicillin resistant staph infection which has gone the length of her thigh from hip to knee.

Well on Monday she was outside playing with Nathan and somehow Mandy and Maggie collided and Mandy went down hard on her right knee.  She came in and I looked at it but it seemed ok.  Fast forward to Tuesday (yesterday) and it was very swollen and she was complaining of pain.  (Mandy does  not complain of pain very often) So, we went to see her Pediatrician and he of course, sent us to get an x-ray.  Her knee is fine although it is still swollen but somewhere, somehow during the last two weeks (she had an MRI of the leg done on Jan.2nd) she has developed a stress fracture on her tibia.  The bone below the knee.

So, we got up this morning, read an email from her surgeon and headed down to TCH.  Shelly took care of Nathan (thank you, Shelly) and Mandy and I drove the 1 1/2 hours to get to TCH.  Dr. Phillips (surgeon) looked at it as soon as we got there.  He decided while it is broken that we will just let it heal but wanted blood work done so that we don't have to go back on Monday.  We had a previous appt. for Monday. 

Mandy and I walked over to the bank of elevators to go down to the 3rd floor.  The elevator was a little crowded and a woman was trying to get her large stroller on and as Mandy stepped onto the elevator it closed on me.  I stood still and looked at the elevator door expecting someone on the other side to push the button and it to open up.  It didn't.  I wasn't sure what to do.  My 6 year old daughter was in the elevator with a large group of strangers and I didn't know whether to get on another elevator but what floor?  Would they go to the first floor and let her off - stay with her - stop on the 7th floor?  After standing there and watching the elevator for - I don't know - a few seconds, minutes or a lifetime - I walked over to the nurse behind the desk, while keeping an eye on the elevators and told her what happened.  She called security and as I was giving them her description Mandy got off of the elevator.  A woman had stayed in the elevator  and had gone with her to the 1st floor and waited a few minutes and then had brought her back up to the 8th floor.  If I had gone down on a different elevator  we could have played where are they? all day. 

I don't think I have felt so helpless since we lost Kathie in a huge mall in Pennsylvania when she was around 2 1/2.  Whew.

Our saga continues as we deal with Mandy and now 2 broken bones in her right leg and a Doctor that keeps telling me to wait and let it heal.  Ahhhhhh!