Summer of calamity.

Our summer was hijacked by injury and sickness. I had plans for swim lessons and water activities. But one night a very dusty Merle was brought in by Reed who thought he needed to get to football practice. There was little explanation of what happened just a crying Merle who said he hurt all over. Millie was crying too and didn't share many details. I knew something was wrong and took Merle to Greg who gave him a blessing then we proceeded to the urgent care clinic for x-rays. He said going over the train tracks hurt. That was weird. I kept asking where he hurt he pointed to his elbow. They had him put his arm on a table for x-rays. He was not very happy or cooperative about that. They saw nothing in the x-rays and sent us home. He was not holding his arm normally. I did not believe everything was ok. Again he complained about the train tracks. 

The next day I had the prompting to put the arm in a sling. We went yard saling and happened to find a squirt gun. This seemed to be a good exercise to get him to use his hand and arm if he could. He proved he could and enjoyed squirting his sisters from the sling position. The next day Anna and Joey spoke in church he did not wear a sling. The rest of the week he mostly wore a sling and didn't go outside or do much. His arm mostly just hung at his side. We finally determined raising it was the problem. I took him back to the doctor and they had him stand against a wall to xray the whole arm. Sure enough a spiral fracture near the socket. So no cast just a sling. 

Finally Millie was able to remember, I think she may have had a concussion. She had several bruises from her leaving the four wheeler too. I learned that a few days after the initial accident. Merle was holding a bucket of tools and a tool box. Millie got spooked with oncoming and following traffic on the paved road. Reed was following in a tractor. She somehow turned the four-wheeler and Merle flew off along with her. They both were spared pavement and the full canal. We are so thankful they are both on their way to completely well. I'm aware and understand angels watched over them and prevented worse outcomes. We are thankful. The orthopedic doc just said wear the sling and no running or potentially harmful activities. 

The nurse at the orthopedic office added the safety pin and removed the belt strap. This made it more secure and more useable. Gotta go to the high professionals for a best fit I guess. 

Jake is too curious for his own good. He touched the hot insta pot and burned his finger tips. He liked cool water for a few hours on the injured hand. I remembered this from other babies who had burned themselves. 

Livy came home from girls camp with a serious burn on her pasty white legs. This hurt for days and is just now peeling off in sections 10 days later. While they really enjoyed the floating the river the sunburns were not enjoyable. Hopefully she will learn and I will invest in water leggings for her in the future. 

On the evening of father's day Jake crawled over to some four wheeler batteries and pulled one down on his hand. It swelled and I watched it. How could I take another kid to the doctor for broken bones. 

Mind you I had been going to the doctor daily for the next kid who got strep because they won't just give antibiotics to the whole sharing family. Nope one at a time for 8 people. UGH! That was 2 weeks of doctor visits right there. Then some 160 doses of medicine. 

In the midst of all this I cut my own hand with my nicely sharpened cutco knife. I was so mad. Thankfully Addie was home and bandaged me up as blood and dangling skin makes me light headed. I was able to recline on the couch while she wrapped it up and managed the dinner prep from there. It healed well too and wasn't too bothersome after a few days. Alia and Afton had to do a lot of dishes while I couldn't. That was part of the problem why I cut myself is I was doing things they were supposed to be doing but had skipped out on. We are working on doing your jobs not disappearing. 

Jake with scrapes from diving out of bed headfirst. He hasn't done this again since this picture I'm so thankful his spatial awareness is also developing. 

His finger has persisted in looking like this. Yes he's grouchy he's also cutting two teeth that I can see and has a head cold. He has had sleepless nights. I don't bounce back from those well and driving back and forth to doctors is challenging on little sleep. But we all survived. Finally Greg demanded we get an xray. We did four days later the pediatrician demanded I rush to get him splinted. That this was a serious injury. I said it's three weeks old. She said you don't understand he must be cared for. Seriously. So we went the attending PA was superb. He laughed he talked he held Jake and let him play with his ID tags. They worked this splint out. It lasted about 1.5 hours. Jake hit it on the cart, he bit at it and finally it unraveled.

 The next day after another sleepless night we braved rush hour to be in Boise for an orthopedic appointment. I had forgotten the splint but the doctor agreed there was nothing to do that wouldn't cause more problems. That Jake is doing fine and like they said with Merle the human body is growing so fast and will "remake" itself so many times in the next years it will be fine. Thankfully he worked with other doctors and nurses and they agreed to see Merle two days early. He is also almost completely healed. We made it home and were able to stay just in our town for a whole day. What a relief. Merele has done well playing and waiting inside. Andrea has been his faithful sidekick and Jake is daily getting better able to play with them. 

Between being the only driver and the rules of modern specialized medicine this summer has been long on sitting and waiting for expert opinions. I'm thankful the experts continue to advice let nature do it's thing. I'm thankful for healthy kids. I'm thankful our flippant prayers for safety are indeed answered. And I'm thankful it looks like we may be well and whole for a while. Life is so good and life is absolutely amazing.