Friday, December 18th was an exciting day at our house. It was the last day of school for the semester. I love last days of school as much as the kids do. Last days mean rest, they mean a break, they mean no alarms, they mean time with family. I was pumped! I went to school early. I only had a half day! My class had a "virtual class party" with hot cocoa, crafts, movie, game, and gifts. It was fun. I told the kids goodbye and how excited I was to see them in the new year. I have the BEST class this year. They are smart, kind, funny, and their parents rock! I AM excited to see them in the new year. I am ready for life to get back to normal and see them in the classroom too!
Anyway, I quickly finished up at school and headed home. I had a party to prepare for. One of my kids was having a handful of buddies over to hang out and I was helping prep for that and I was preparing for the big Stewart Christmas party that I was hosting on Saturday. It was a fun evening and Randy and I ended the evening with a house full of laughing teens and a fun game of Dutch Blitz with Audrey. After the house cleared out we did a quick partial cleanup, deciding to leave what we could to the morning. It was late and we were tired, so we all went to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a full and fun day. At least that was the plan.
Then early Saturday morning, it was 5:40 to be exact, we were roused by Audrey coming in our room crying. Her shoulder was out of socket. Unfortunately this happens to Audrey a lot. Several years ago she was playing flag football and dove for the ball landing hard on the shoulder and that caused it to pop out. Over the years it has happened more and more. Sometimes rough housing with friends, sometimes playing volleyball, and unfortunately sometimes just stretching her arm to reach for something. She's been to the doctor and she has gone to PT and it still keeps happening. Usually she can pop it back herself, but this time she couldn't. I was just becoming aware of what was going on and getting up to help her and she said something like, "I think I'm going to pass out". Then we heard a slam. It was loud.
It happened fast. Randy reached her first and found her flat on her face with her arms by her side. He rolled her over and she was crying. Her shoulder had popped back in when she fell. There was blood on her face. She was writhing in pain. I threw on clothes, grabbed my phone, a water, and my wallet and Randy carried her to the car and we went to the emergency room. We were there by 6:00.
They had us in a room by 6:05 and we had the best doctors, nurses, transport team. Literally every single person we had was wonderful. And my sweet, baby, girl Audrey is so brave and so sweet and so other centered. She is precious. The doctors immediately knew she would need facial sutures. They immediately knew she would need dental work. We still do not know the extent but we do know that several of her teeth are chipped and her teeth are not aligned. They also knew she would be referred to an orthopedic surgeon to figure out what to do about her shoulder. They said we can't have her shoulder continuing to come out of socket, even while she is sleeping. What they didn't know immediately was the extent of the damage done to her face, so they needed to do a CT scan. Her jaw and her ear were killing her.
Unfortunately, when she fell she fractured her jaw bone, in two places. She had fractured the mandible and the styloid process which is part of the temporal joint. It is like a little spike that goes down to the ear. That explained her ear and jaw pain. The good news was that there were no cranial injuries. Praise the Lord! They started her on some morphine and stitched her chin while we waited for the plastic surgeon to come down to consult. That is when Audrey started crying.
She had cried some from the injury, but this was crying from the fear and emotion of it all. We prayed and tried to rest and talked to Nanny and Pa and Daddy and brothers and sisters on facetime. Then we had more good news. There were fractures along the entire length of both bones, but neither bone had been "shortened" or "displaced". They were held perfectly in position. Thank you Lord for holding things together when life slams everything apart. Audrey will not need facial reconstruction! Thank you Lord! The bad news was she could not chew for 6 weeks. The surgeon was going to consult with some colleagues on whether or not to wire her mouth shut. Children are typically not wired and adults are. She is at the in between spot between kid and adult, so they were going to have to discuss.
Through all of this trauma Audrey kept charming the hospital staff. They loved her and she loved them. Audrey is such an other centered child. Barely able to move her mouth and in tremendous pain and fearful of what her day held she engaged the transport nurse about her job and her life. She complemented another nurse on her bandana. She had the doctors laughing as she joked about how of course she would be the one to fall flat on her face the first day of her Christmas break. She kept telling me how nice everyone was.
The surgeon came back with more good news. They were not going to wire her jaw shut, but we had to be very careful to follow the eating instructions. She assured us it would not be difficult for the first 3-4 weeks because she would not be able to move her jaw. She said it would be hard for the last couple weeks because she will feel better, be hungry, and feel like she can handle it. We were given a long list of follow up instructions and sent home and now is the time for the healing. It will take 6 weeks. She is very swollen, but surprisingly not bruised. I'm calling today to setup a dentist appointment, an orthodontic appointment, a follow-up with her pediatrician, an appointment to have her stitches removed, an appointment for plastic surgery follow-up, and an appointment for the orthopedic surgeon to consult on her shoulder. Not how we planned to spend our Christmas break, but God has been good to allow it to unfold this way. I'm off work. She's off school. We aren't getting behind on anything. We can just focus on getting Audrey well. I'm so thankful for that.
Its also been so sweet to see the outpouring of love and prayers and friendship. Audrey is so loved. She's been inundated with calls and messages from friends. She's been given sweet and thoughtful gifts. Smoothie gift cards, a gift card to her favorite place ever: Chick-fil-a, homemade hot chocolate bombs.....so much love and care it is really overwhelming. She has friends sending packages, T-shirts, cards, planning visits. She is so well cared for. It makes my heart happy to see how well she is loved.
I'm also blessed by her sweet attitude. Once in a while I'll look at her and she will be quietly crying. She is hurt. She is overwhelmed and disappointed at how she will be spending her break. She is sad we had to cancel the Stewart Christmas. However, she is not having a pity party. She is soaking in the love of others. She is constantly telling me she is ok and she doesn't want special treatment. She won't take up her Daddy's offer to let her have his spot in my bed. She just wants to be treated normal. She doesn't want all this focus, she said it makes her think about it and it hurts. She is starting to smile and laugh a little, which is very painful as it moved that jaw area, but it is also a glimpse of her. She is always smiling and laughing. So while we are trying to keep it to a minimum, we are so happy to see glimmers of our Audrey.
A couple other things that have been good on this journey is our medical team. We have the best pediatrician in the WORLD. Dr. Fisher went out of his way when he was not even on call, late at night to get Audrey the pain relief that she needed. I love him. Dr. Fisher was my doctor and Randy's100 years ago and has been my kids doctor for the last almost 23 years and he is amazing. He went above and beyond the call of duty.
And.... our orthodontist Dr. Smith. He has been amazing. He is supposed to be on break and he has given me his personal cell. He has told me to call or text and he will meet us as soon as she is able to open her mouth enough to be examined. He's tracked down her CT and looked at it. He has consulted with other collogues. He's given me advice on her oral hygiene care while she heals, He has encouraged her after seeing photos. She is very concerned about her teeth. She cares a lot about her teeth and has always taken very good care of them. She can tell they are messed up from the alignments and the chipping and that bothers her a lot. Dr. Smith is optimistic and this is helping to alleviate Audrey's fears. I think he is the best!
I wanted to chronical this to remember. I want to remember God's mercy and care even when he allows bad things. I wanted to remember how kind and loving strangers, doctors, friends, and family have been to us in our suffering. I wanted to remember my tough, sweet girl and how well she suffers. I wanted to let people know how they can pray.
