Again? Are you kidding me?

Now after looking at this picture wouldn't you say, "Now there is an athletic family!" 

Aahh, but no!  Not true!  This picture is a lie.  I would say we are an active family but to say we are athletic would be a deception.  I do have some athletes in the family but overall we are just "active".

To give you an idea of our "activeness" not "athleticness" I will tell you that in the past two months we have had a broken wrist, separated shoulder and some broken ribs within our "active" family. 

I have come to the conclusion that if you have enough kids you will see it all and one thing is for certain, you will visit the emergency room often!

On Saturday, my husband received a phone call from my son who said with a very whispery voice and in clipped sentences, "Dad, crashed on my bike, ....handlebar in chest .....come get me..........hurry........"

Now I hate these phone calls.  They never give you all the information you need and they cause stress!

So Mickey and I jumped into the car and drove on over to my sons house  (which is two minutes away) to find him rolling around on the back porch.  I think that after several cars drove by him while he was laying in the road and trying to breathe, someone finally stopped and drove him home and dumped him on the back porch.  When we arrived his face was pure white and his lips were blue and he said, "I can't breathe!"  I'm thinking "are you sure" (in my most sarcastic inner voice).

My son's wife is a nurse and she's was at work so Mickey and I played ambulance.  My kids are all too cheap to actually call one!

So we heft my son Whitey into the car as he tells us that he was riding his bike and jumping off a curb while holding his wallet and cell phone with one hand and steering with the other.  Apparently he was going a couple blocks away for a hair cut.  I guess he missed the landing and fell, jamming the handlebar right into the center of his chest. 

At the emergency room the doctor (who by the way knew us from our visit two months ago) checked my son all over and asked him how the accident occurred.  My son started to say "Well you know you have your sternum here and your ribs here".  The doctor said, "Yes I'm aware." Then my son said, "Well I jammed my handle bars right here and points to the middle of his chest."  My son told him he was on his way to get a hair cut.  

Now to understand Whitey, he bikes almost everyday.  He mountain bikes and road bikes.  He has no fear and has ended up in the hospital before with a broken collarbone and concussion as well as countless road rashes from biking.  I wish he would stop biking!

At this point the Dr. told him he had to do a bunch of tests to make sure he hadn't hurt his heart or lungs.  He said that one side of his chest by his sternum felt a little depressed so he might have some broken ribs and cartilage.  As he walked out of the room he said, "By the way, you hair looks good."

Love that doctor!

                               This is Whitey trying to breathe.   

So at this point the nurses put in an IV to give him morphine and Whitey said, "Wait, how much does this cost?"  Well, we are tight with money, aren't we?  Everything they did he asked how much it was going to cost!

After he got his morphine and it kicked in about an hour later, Whitey sat up and told us to take the back board out and said he was going home.  He said this is too expensive and I could buy a desk for my office for what this is costing!  He's not kidding?

This is Whitey's handlebar mark in his chest.  No, that is not a third nipple!

Amy, Whitey's wife popped in to see him while she was at work.  She works at the same hospital that Whitey was visiting.  She realized Whitey wasn't dying and went back to work.  I love Amy!  She's my kind of girl!  My husband realized he wasn't going to die and left to go fishing. 

So to make a long story short, after calling someone to find a ride home, Whitey and I left several hours after first arriving, with pain meds, a couple broken ribs and some ruptured cartilage by his sternum. 

The reason this is a concern is because two months ago, my daughter was riding her bike to work and was hit by a car which sent her flying up onto the hood, into the windshield shattering it, back out onto the hood where she spun around and went off one side breaking the mirror. 

Once again my husband got the call, "Dad, I got hit by a car on my bike.........hurt........windshield.........can you come get me........ some inaudible sounds and then click."

My husband got to the scene of the accident to find four cop cars, a fire engine, a smashed car with smashed windshield sitting by the side of the road. My daughter Sid had already been taken by ambulance to the hospital.

This is the car Sid damaged.

This is Sid after being hit and me aging.

While waiting in the emergency room, I called my son Tyler and told him Sid was in an accident and that I would let him know as soon as I knew, how she was.  He hung up the phone saying, "I'm on my way!"  Tyler lives in New Hampshire. 

Just so this blog doesn't drag on too long I will just say that Sid came away from that accident with a broken wrist, deep bruise in her hip from it hitting the windshield, a concussion that is now just going away, some neck and back issues, glass all over her that we were picking out for days and a cut on her arm.  She will be fine but is very lucky to be alive.

When my daughter came home the following night from the hospital it was late. As I was helping her into my bed, Tyler burst through the door and clomped down the stairs to see me helping Sid into bed.  He took one look at her and said, "You're walking!  You're walking!  I could be in Paris for what that plane ticket cost!"  

You gotta love Tyler!

I am just worn out and have aged years from these types of accidents and the phone calls that accompany them. 

I got a phone call once from Tyler that aged me ten years!  Just a few years ago I got a phone call in the afternoon and it was Tyler. In his most panicky voice he said, "Mom, Sid got hit by another wave runner.  It smashed her leg and she's bleeding everywhere and it won't stop!  What do I do?  Wait I have to go.......she's bleeding everywhere.....needs help....click"  Really?  I sat there hyperventilating saying to myself "call an ambulance!" 

Does anyone in my family know the number for 911!  No!  They only know my number!  If you are blue and bleeding out of your eyeballs 911 is for you!

This is Sid after the wave runner accident.  That time she ended up with a hole on both sides of her leg, stitches and drains.  Once again, she was lucky.  My daughter Jensine is also in the picture.  She is the support team for injuries.  She is our family cryer and sympathizer.

However Jensine has been among the injured too.

This is Jensine after daddy forgot to catch her while she was crossing the monkey bars.  She ended up with a rock (and I mean a boulder) in her lip.  When I removed that rock, it became obvious she would need stitches to fill that hole.

Tyler is the guy you can count on to come in town when there is an accident even if it does cost as much as going to Paris.  Ty has been a road rash type of accident victim. Not so worrisome.  Usually he crashes on his bike.

Whitey tends to break bones.

This is Whitey's broken arm.  He's on about his third cast and this one was real stinky.  He broke his arm into a "V" while rollerblading into a garbage can.  He thought the can would stop him because he was going too fast and it did!  It was also cemented into the ground.

Sid on the other hand does various injuries.  Broken bones, stitches, and this is from basketball. 

Madisyn broke her arm on the tramp while jumping with her friend Lauren.  I had just gotten rid of our tramp because the orthopedic Dr told me about all the many injuries from tramps.  Madisyn broke it at a neighbors house.  I thought she had just hurt her arm so I told her to walk home.  When she got home I took one look at the arm just a hanging there and decided it was emergency room time again.

My son Mickey is the one who separated his shoulder playing football for the high school.  This was about a month ago.  Now look at this picture and what do you think happens next??

Oh I could go on and on.  This is just the tip of our family injury iceburg! 

I guess I would be a hypocrit not to mention that I personally know the emergency room, however, you should be aware that I AM one of the family athletes!

This is me after surgery to put 9 screws and a plate into my leg.  I shattered my fibula and broke my tibia off in two places while running?

Me after surgery to remove the nine screws and plate. (I believe I went wave running in this cast.  I covered it with a garbage bag and tied it tight and it worked like a dream!)

Once again I have injured myself playing basketball with the kids.  I tore my achilles right in half.  That wasn't sa good.

I had this cast so long my family made me ride a jazzy just so I could keep up.  PS. Why am I always holding kids?

I believe this is another achilles cast.  I wore a cast for months! 

Lastly this is me passed out after I jumped for joy off the stairs at the elementary school and missed the landing.  This incident is mentioned in another blog.  No cast for me this time but surgery!

 I'm off now to go flatten everyones bike tires and sell whats left of the athletic equipment! 

Or maybe I'll just go read my book and not answer the phone!

PS.   Family, here's the number for 911.......

911