My Boy and Me

I hate that I have an entry entitled "Worst Day Ever" on this blog. "Worst" might be a little strong, but this day, unfortunately ranks up there. Anyone who knows me also knows how important my son is to me and how grateful I am to have him in my life. He is everything to me. I just barely wrote about how grateful and really blessed I have been to have such a wonderful, healthy son. And also how lucky I have been that the worst thing to happen to him was a broken arm, up to that point. Well, I spoke too soon.

On August 13, 2008, he was at his mother's house jumping on his new trampoline that he got for his birthday. It is a good and "safe" trampoline.... it has padding and one of those enclosures that you can see so that he cannot go flying off of it. The enclosure is a good thing for Logan considering how he usually does nothing but flips on the trampoline. I should actually say that it usually is a good thing for him, because on the 13th of August, it was everything but good. On that day he was out jumping with Mother and his older sister. He was told that he was not allowed to do flips because he was wearing his Star Wars cape and it is pretty long. So while they were jumping, somehow Logan was "bounced" and he went flying across the tramp. He landed at the edge of the padding and right next to a spring. Well, the padding failed and he tore right through it with both legs. His left foot paid the price, big time. Below the padding and towards the bottom of the tramp there was a bracket holding on the enclosure. This bracket was held together by a long screw. Logan's foot caught the screw and proceeded to cut him horrendously. It started at his middle toe and went to just past the ball of his foot. Right down the middle. It was really, really bad. He was bleeding a lot as you can imagine. Fortunately, his mother acted quickly and got him a wash cloth to put pressure on it; she then rushed him to the Now Care Clinic just a few miles away from their house.

I got a call from her while I was at work telling me what happened and where they were. I immediately left work and rushed to be at his side. When I arrived Logan was in a tremendous amount of pain and was still bleeding from his foot. He had it covered, so I had yet to see the actual cut. After a few moments (which felt like an eternity, but was actually probably 5 minutes) we went back to see the doctor. At which point he laid down and we removed the cloth. It was way worse that I expected. It was hard to actually see the cut because he was still bleeding so badly, but what I could tell was that it was an extremely long and deep cut.

Well, the worst part was just about to begin...the numbing of the wound. A few years ago I cut my toe open and it had to be numbed. I had also dislocated it so they had to stick the needle right into where the bone was, and they actually stuck the needle all the way through my toe. The pay was immense and I almost passed out. I was now going to witness the time treatment to my son. I only hoped it wouldn't be as bad as mine and that the pain would be minimal as they would hopefully be able to inject the numbing agent into the cut, which would sting like a mofo, but hopefully be over quickly. Unfortunately I was completely wrong. The numbing was torture. My poor child was in so much pain.... he was screaming, begging for it to be over. All the while he was holding my hand, about squeezing it off. I tried to be tough, but there was no way, I definitely cried a little, but I tried not to let him see. He was on his tummy, so it was easy for me to mask. I do not know how long this went on, but because of the size of the cut, they had to do a lot of numbing. My poor son, I would have done anything to switch places with him.

Finally the numbing was over. They cleaned the wound. He kept flinching everytime they touched his foot, but the nurses said it was probably just the cold water and that he was just reacting to the pressure, naturally. But that he should not be feeling any kind of pain, especially after all of the anithetics he had just received.

Finally, it was time to stitch everything up. The doctor comes in and starts with the first stitch. Logan winces once again in pain. The doctor said it was a normal reaction to just any type of activity around the wound, and that he shouldn't be feeling anything. He tried to prove it to us by showing that he wouldn't flinch as he tied off the first stitch. Well, Logan flinched... and screamed. At this point the doctor decided that maybe his foot wasn't completely numb. Time for more shots. I was not prepared to do it all again. Logan wasn't either, he begged for everything to just be over. I told him to hold my hand again, and that it would be just a quick shot, but it had to be done to make the pain go away and so they could give him his stitches, which he desperately needed. This second round of shots was no better than the first. I had hoped it wouldn't be as bad, hoping that the amount of numbness that was there would dull the pain a little. This was not the case. It seemed worse than the first time. Logan begged for it to stop, to just be over. It was horrendous... nothing I would wish on anyone. Words cannot describe how I felt there, holding my son's hand as he squoze it; in pure agony.

Finally, after a second round of numbing, it was time to finish up the stitches. The doctor assured us that Logan was completely numb, and verified it as they had to wash off more blood, during which Logan did not budge. Well, the doctor probably spent the next 5 minutes putting 15 stitches in Logan's little foot. Logan has now officially passed me in the amount of stiches received. I have mabe had 7 in my life, and on multiple occasions.

Fortunately, there does not appear to be any permanent damage done. No torn muscles, tendins, or ligaments. His toe is sprained, his tendins may be a little strained, but everything will heal within a couple of weeks. I am so grateful that he will be ok. I hope to go the rest of my life without hearing my son in that kind of pain. I am not sure what was worse, this or when he broke his arm. It looked like he had an extra wrist when he did that, but that time they just put him under when they set it. There was a lot of pain with that, but it just didn't seem to be so....torturuous.

In the end the doctors and everyone else praised Logan on his toughness. He knew pain was coming, but he just told them to do it. I am sure a lot of it was just trying to make him feel better, but maybe not. I don't think I could have been through all of that without passing out. I the end they offered Logan 5 suckers out of their candy stash, but he only took one (which he later gave to his cousin). He is truly an amazing kid.

Below are some picture of the stitched up wound. It is ugly.

Logan and I went boating a couple weeks ago. We had a great time and Logan (like usual) was fearless. He dove into the lake off the front of the boat. He has never even dove head first into a pool. I guess he figured a lake was as good a place as any to start.

We both rode the water weenie for a little while. I told him to plan on falling off at some point. Well, we were being taken around a bend and over some waves and I felt us start to tip. I figured we were doomed and I bailed off as the water weenie tipped over. As I was falling I held out my arms so that Logan would not crash into and I would be able to grab onto him. Well, letting go of the water weenie was not in his game plan. He kept right on holding on for about another hundred yards. I actually yelled at him and told him to let go, which he eventually did. He said the only reason he let go was because is shorts were starting to come off.

You can also see in another picture him standing up and holding up a shaka. Amy (on back) doesn't look too excited about it.