Broden's accident part 1

Last Tuesday, the day before school started again I wasn't feeling well. We had just gotten home from camping the night before, so everythign was a mess. I helped the kids go through thier school clothes and helped them get things ready for school. Then I needed a nap. y tummy was really yucky. Some of the people we were camping with had been sick too.

When I got up I got dinner in the oven real quick and took the kids to sign Remi and Broden up for soccer at the Mildenhall Youth Center. I signed Blake up to coach Remi's team. Then we headed to the park to celebrate the last day of summer break. Parker and Kelsi were both sleeping in the car, so I sat in the car with them. After a while Kelsi woke up, so I fed her, then Remi came over and said, "Broden got hurt."(My kids tell me this all the time)

So I said my normal reply, "Tell him to come here." Generally when I say this they either ignore me and keep playing or if they are hurt and need comforted they come to me. Sometimes I can really tell they are hurt and I will go check on them. A second later, Broden came over running, stomping his feet, screaming and holding his tummy. He was out of breath too. He explained that he got hurt on the teeter totter. I figured he had the wind knocked out of him. So we went home.

When we went home Blake got Broden to calm down and lay down in our bed. He seemed exhausted. I didn't want him to fall asleep without dinner and so early, so I had him come downstairs. He didn't want to eat, chich was odd because we were having tator tot casserole, his favorite.

Eventually Blake left for the stake priesthood meeting and Broden fell asleep on the chair in our living room. I got Alissa in bed and was trying to clean up dinner and Broden threw up all over the floor. That explained the not wanting dinner and being so tired. I got hime a bowl and he fell asleep in his bed on the top bunk.

At 1:30am he started throwing up again. I had him come in our bed and Blake slept in with Parker. In the morning Broden came downstairs hungry, but didn't want toast, so he had some applesauce. He stayed home while I took Remi to school. He slept off and on, but he would jump in his sleep and was in pain when he would move. More than someone would be with the flu. I got worried and started looking up info about abdominal trauma. I read that if someone has abdominal trauma(usually from a car accident) and they throw up and are in pain and have a fever they should be taken to the Emergency Room. I was a little worried, but we had all been sick. So I tried to get ahold of the nurse advice line. No luck. Then I tried calling to get a doctor appointment and they had one, which is very rare. It wasn't until 1:45 though and I would need to pick up Remi and Alissa at 3.

So I took Alissa to school at 12:30 and got everything ready so we could go to the doctor, just in case. The whole time I was getting ready to go I was thinking I should leave Parker with someone, but couldn't think of who. Just as we were walking out the door I got a comment on Alissa's first day of school picture. It was from a friend in our ward and I though, she would be perfect to drop Parker off with. So I called her literally as we were getting in the car and took Parker to her house on the way to the doctor. When I dropped him off I explained I didn't know how long the appointment would be, hopefully not long.

I got to the hospital/doctor at 1:10pm and went to the pediatrician just to see if they were running on schedule, or if I should just go to the ER.

When I was getting Broden to the car he could hardly walk. I carried him and he was in a lot of pain. Then in the car he perked up and seemed happy, so I started thinking I was over reacting. I feel bad taking my kids to the doctor to be told they have a virus or cold and they can't do anything for them. Especially when it hadn't even been going on 24 hours.

Broden couldn't walk into the hospital, but I had traded the single stroller normally in the car, for the double jogging stroller. So I loaded him and Kelsi in it to go into the doctor.

The lady at the front desk said the doctor was already with the patient before us, so she should get to us quickly, so I could be done by 3. I told her I needed to get my girls from school at 3 and she said she would explain that to the doctor.

We walked into the waiting room and the tech immediately called us back. He got the story and took Broden's vitals. His temp was normal(I had given him Ibuprofen in the morning when he had a fever and to help with the pain) The tech was writing really fast, which concerned me. He left and the doctor came in right away. She had Broden climb up on the table and did an exam. Then she told me there was definitely something wrong. She wanted to have the surgeon come exam him, get x-rays, blood and possibly a cat scan. She knew I was trying to pick up the girls at 3 and said I should probably make other arrangements. She went to call the surgeon. After she left Broden said he needed to go pee. I went to her office and told her, just in case she wanted him to do it in a cup for tests and she did. So we got a cup and I wheeled him in the doctors desk chair to the bathroom while the tech held Kelsi. She was only in a diaper by this point because she had exploded and I hadn't had a chance to get her dressesdagain.

I had been in touch with Blake to try to see if he could go get the girls from school. He was supposed to deliver mouth guards to the football team at 3, so he couldn't get them. I wanted to be there so bad to get them on their first day of school. Especially Alissa. It was her first day of real school ever, in her whole life, and I felt bad missing it, but it wasn't going to happen.

When we got back from the toilet the surgeon came in. He did some listening and feeling of Broden's tummy. He would tap on his abdomen and it would cause a lot of pain. The surgeon told me he though Broden may need surgery, but he would at least be in the hospital overnight. He wanted a cat scan and blood work. I got teary at this point and he asked if I needed anything. He had to go back upstairs, but would be back in a little while. I asked if someone could find Dr. Boden and have him come.(He is an allergist, but also our bishop) The surgeon said a little more privately to me, I am a hight priest in the Bury ward, so if you need me to help give a blessing to your son I would be happy to. There is something comforting about being with other members of the church. Especially when it is the doctor taking care of your son.

After he left I used the doctors office to call Blake and tell him to come to the hospital and change the mouth guards to a different time. He had a patient sedated in his chair and had to take care of them, then he would come. They I arragned to have Remi and Alissa go to the office after school. Then called the friend who had Parker to see if she could get Remi and Alissa after school. She has a 12 year old, so she doens't have to be there when all her kids come off the bus. So, they were all taken care of.

While I was on the phone the nurse held Kelsi. It just happened to be the burse I had taken tennis lessons with the last 2 years. When I got off the pghone we got Broden noved into a treatment room and the nurse came in and drew blood and left in the cannula. Then Blake came. The doctor was there and explained things to Blake. Blake was still hoping it was just the flu. He didn't realize Broden had been in so much pain. Radiology was then ready for Broden, so they started wheeling him in his bed out of the room, but it wouldn't fit into the hall. So they got a wheelchair and Blake sat in it and held Broden. As they were walking out the door the bishop came in. He went with them to radiology for a cat scan.

When they got back from radiology the bishop and Blake gave him a very comforting blessing. Afterwards the surgeon returned and after having looked at the cat scan and the blood tests he was pretty sure there was a hole in the intestines and most likely the duodenum, the first part of the intestine. If Broden had been an adult he would have opened him up right then and done th esurgery, but because of the follow up care he wanted him at a bigger hospital. So they wanted to transfer him to Addenbrooks in Cambridge. They would coordinate everything with the surgeon and get an ambulance.

While they were doing this Broden was given some morphine through his IV to make him more comfortable. He had been so tough this whole time, but was starting to be in more and more pain. After a few minutes his pulse shot up and he became really hard to wake up. We shook him and the nurses and doctors all came in. They started pumping fluids through the IV and almost immediately he perked up and his heart rate dropped. It was still high, but not as bad. We aren't sure if he was just really dehydrated or starting to go into a septic shock.

Finally the ambulance came and all the coordinating was done. I left in the van so I could be there when they came. A nice man at base hospital told me exactly where to go to park and where to go into the hospital.

On the way to the hospital I arranged for the other kids to go to Ingersolls to stay the night.

When I got to A&E(British ER) There was a long line to get in the door. Blake had texted me saying they were there. So I walked past the line, then there was another line. I could see them bringing Vroden in from the ambulance, so I just walked past the line and to the double doors and told the lady as I walked past that I needed to go through to get to my son. They took him straight upstairs to the PICU.

The nurse in the PICU was awesome! she was a little old lady and so sweet to Broden. She would talk to him and explain things to him and keep him as comfortable as possible. The doctors looked at his charts and vitals and didn't really see an urgency. Then they looked at the cat scan and didn't see what the other doctor had been talking about and thought whatever it was may heal itself. Then they took the cat scan down to radiology to view it again or see if they needed anew one just to be sure.

When they came back they said they could see a lot more on the bigger screen and they said Broden definitely had something going on and they would need to open him up to see exactly what it was and fix it. He explained to us how the stomach connects to the duodenum and that he thought the tear was somewhere on the duodenum. He hoped it wasld be the 3rd portion of the duodenum because the 2nd portion has lots of important blood vessels, etc. connected to it.

He explained in the surgery they would sew the hole, hopefully without making the bowel smaller. They would also put a tube down his nose into his stomack to drain his stomach after surger because it and the intestine would shut down after surgery and nothing would go into the bowel, past where they did the surgery, so it would all drain out his nose. They were also hopin to get a feeding tube down the other bnostril past the hole in the duodenum to feed him and get butrition in. If that didn't work hopefully things would move along quickly and he could eat sooner than later or he would need a pic line for food because they can't get enough nutrients through a regular IV line.

After going through all the risks of surgery and anestesia then waiting for an available theatre(operating room) they finally took him in for surgery. By this time it was 11:30 at night.

Broden was such a trooper through all of his. When they started his IV he didn't even cry. He even watched. The only thing he complained about was that he was so hungry. He wasn't even complaining about the pain from his wound, he was only noticing the hunger pain from not eating. I knew the surgery was necessary, but by this point I wanted him to get it, just to relieve him from the discomfort of starving.

When they took Broden back to Theatre(surgery) Blake went with them to where they put him to sleep. I stayed in the hall with Kelsi, because she wasn't allowed back there. Then the waiting started. We were both exhausted and starving by this point, so we headed to the cafeteria and grabbed some sandwiches and drinks. Then we sat in the PICU parent room and waited. We both drifted in and out of sleep, until the doctor came in at 2:30am. He said the surgery was successful. They repaired the hole and it was in the duodenum. It was in the 3rd part, so they didn't have to deal with all the major blood vessels. They were able to repair it without making it smaller, but because of the inflammation they weren't able to put a feeding tube through his stomach past the injured portion of the intestine. So they hoped he would recover fast and be able to eat sooner than later. He did have a drain put into the abdominal cavity to drain the fluid and a drain put down his nose, into his stomach to drain his stomach and give the intestine time to heal. It would also serve as a way to monitor the amount and color of what was in his stomach and know when things were working again and passing through the intestine. This was all great news. What a relief that things went so well!

After a little while they brought Broden back to the PICU and we got to be with him again. He was pretty out of it. I stayed until he was awake and I could say bye to him. He was out of pain from his wound, but in a different kind of pain from the major surgery he had just been through, so he had a button that he could push that would give him morphine. He had a constant background of morphine too and they would give him paracetemol through his IV too. It was so hard leaving Blake and Broden in the hospital, but I was so tired and knew we still needed to take care of ourselves and the other kids or we would all get sick and make things worse. I finally got home at 4:30am and got Kelsi back to sleep and fell asleep.