From High to Low...in a Snap

Stretch and I left to take him to college last Friday morning, Sept 2. We drove two cars and did some last minute shopping on the way down. Getting him moved into the dorm was fabulously easy...there was a whole crew that just came and unloaded the cars in about 5 minutes and carried everything up to his room. From that point we unpacked and got him settled into his room. Then there were events for both the freshman and the parents for the rest of the day. I spent that night at the World Gospel Mission guesthouse about 15 min from the school...slept well. Drove back to attend a seminar and then have breakfast with Stretch. After that it was off to the cross country course to watch Squirrel's meet. Squirrel ran very well and Stretch got to come watch him run.



However on the way back across to campus Stretch had a bicycle accident and broke both his tibia and fibula in his right leg. He called me as I was walking back to the team's camp and said basically "Mom I wrecked my bike and I broke my leg". I hollered at Squirrel - sent him to find another team parent friend and took off running to find Stretch. An ambulance came (eventually - it seemed like a very long time to wait) and loaded him up with his leg in a brace. I could tell before they got there that he had indeed broken his leg...and watching the EMT's splint it just confirmed it. Legs are not supposed to bend between the knee and the ankle. However even at that point I did not realize that he had broken both bones. (Maybe I was in denial - not sure. It never even crossed my mind). ER service was good - took him for x-rays and I got to be in the room with him. The x-ray tech showed me the pictures while they were getting him settled back on the cart to move back to the room. Then it was just a matter of waiting until he was admitted - to a Peds room no less. Even though it was a little odd to have an "adult" on peds I was very thankful he was there. The rooms were large and cheerful and the nurses were fantastic. Stretch was on pretty heavy duty pain meds by this point - all it could do was keep him comfortable. The orthopedic surgeon came in after we were settled into the room upstairs and explained our surgical options. All 3 involved surgery and various recovery periods. He recommended putting a rod in and surgery was scheduled for Sunday afternoon. (Part of the reason for the delay was that this hospital had to order the rod from Ft Wayne) Surgery went well...took a little longer than the doctor expected due to the strength of his bones! One hears that and can only imagine the force it took to snap those bones in such a way that Stretch heard as well as felt them snap. Monday he was up out of bed learning to use crutches and Tuesday he was released to return to campus. He ended up missing only 1 1/2 days of class. I stayed in town until Wednesday afternoon before I came home. That gave me the chance to see him settled back into his new dorm room and make sure all our t's were crossed and i's were dotted as far as class schedules were concerned.



Getting back to bus route has been interesting. I had only planned to be gone for one day this past week instead of having an entire week off work. Some of my students were definitely glad to see me back and some were not. However I now have my seating assignments done on the bus (at least mostly for the afternoon route). Am still considering whether I will do them for the morning or not. Yesterday I drove the bus for Squirrel's cross country meet. It was an annual invitational meet where both the middle school and high school go. As has happened for the past several years our high school boys' team took first place. Squirrel placed 11th in the JV race with a time of 19:45. He was very pleased to break 20 min.

Next week plans to be another busy week but should be fun. I'm slowly catching up on what got behind while I was away. Will try to write again sooner. Thankfully I have been keeping up with a personal journal better.