Laken’s Leg

Monday, July 18, 2016 the phone rang at 4:36 am. It was Laken’s number. “Mrs. Midge it’s Sam, I’m here at the ER with Laken.” I quickly respond, “What, no Laken is in her bed asleep.” Sam says, “no ma’am I am here with her and she has hurt her leg.” The admissions clerk then gets on the phone and asks for permission to treat my 14 year old daughter. I give an immediate YES, followed by “wait does she need medical attention?” The clerk lets me know that indeed my daughter did need immediate medical attention. The next ten minutes were sheer angst, with tears flowing, stomach boiling, mind blowing white hot anger, and WORRY! After waking my husband, and daughter we get to the hospital and I speak to the clerk and give copy of the insurance card. She lets me know in which room I’ll find my daughter. Upon entering I see that Laken seems okay, she’s upright, she’s talking, she looks at me and our eyes meet. She looks down, my eyes follow and that’s when I see it; her leg is cut open and meat is hanging out, the nurses that are cleaning the wound then turn her leg and I see the backside is cut as well. My questions start flying, animal instinct had taken over. I wanted to know what, why, how, who did this to my baby?  Come to find out it was my daughter’s own judgement that led to this injury, she made the decision to leave the safety of her room in our home and jump the fence. Little did she know that her adventure would come to a screeching halt when upon leaving she slips and falls on the fence becoming impaled in her lower left leg. I was told that she had to be lifted off that fence, and then carried to the car, I’m very thankful that the group of irresponsible teenagers then sought immediate medical attention for my daughter and drove her to the hospital. The Dr. comes into the room and says that nothing is broke and that he is going to staple her up, she will need to follow up with pediatrician and then have the staples removed in 2 weeks. Okay, not so bad- 2 cuts 28 staples, 2 stitches, and a few scrapes and bruises. Leaving with a script for pain, no antibiotics because the risk of infection is so high and they do not want any resistance to arise. We get Laken home and she’s complaining of numbness and tingling, I think it’s trauma. She spends the better half of the day sleeping from the codeine and being up all night no doubt. Monday afternoon/evening brings pain and lots of it! Pain in the foot, ankle, and leg. She is unable to lift her foot, this is causing ankle pain. Monday night brings little sleep. Tuesday morning we wake up so that she can get to guard practice to observe and be present for her team. She is in so much pain, and her leg and foot are spotted white. We head to the pediatrician instead of practice. Our all wise and knowing ped is on vacation to London “UGH” so we see the one that is available. Not always a good thing! The pediatrician examines the leg and listens to our questions she really doesn’t know the extent of damage or she doesn’t want to tell. She says she is referring us to a wound care specialist and that they will in turn refer to a neurologist and then other specialists. The nurse comes in cleans the wounds and dresses them. We leave with a new prescription for ibuprofen. Tuesday evening/ night brings more pain and weekness. Her foot is just kind of dropped over and she is unable to move it, hubs wraps the ankle with an ace bandage to see if it will help support the ankle. In the middle of the night we remove the wrap as the pain is unbearable.  Codeine and ibuprofen 600 every three hours and my baby is still crying in pain. Uncontrollable pain, immobility, and feelings of stupidity, lead to depression. We wait for the wound care specialist to call overnight. Wednesday morning brings anxiety and upset as wound care tells me that they cannot see her because the wound is closed. Wound care advises me to call the pediatrician for a referral to a neurologist. After repeated calls to the pediatrician and messages we hear nothing. Finally this afternoon the pediatrician office calls and says head to New Orleans and go through the ER to see a neurologist. I reach out to my sister the family RN. She makes a few phone calls and suggests the ortho team at Memorial before leaving town. We swing by Memorial and they do X-rays and a few Drs. perform simple neuro exams. They tell me they are pretty sure that she has nerve damage along with tendon, muscle, and ligaments, and needs to go to a neuro but they are going to call the orthopedic surgeon for a consult. The orthopedic surgeon says that he cannot touch her until a neuro surgeon sees her. They put a splint from the bottom of the wound to the tip of her toes and send us to New Orleans. Here we are with the recently applied splint now off after yet another simple neuro exam waiting full lower extremity X-rays and more.

Please pray for answers and healing for our Laken!

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