Dad's Most Memorable 50th - Austin's Keeping Him Young!

Yesterday was Thursday. I love Tuesdays and Thursdays because they are PE days. This means I get an hour break all to myself while Bro. Valentin takes the kids to the caves across the canyon by our house or he takes them to the park with pyramid ruins. They always come back with big smiles and smelling like sweaty pennies!

Yesterday was my dad's FIFTIETH birthday and our church was throwing him a surprise party. My mom had to get him out of the house for the day so we could cook and decorate the church. They left early to go out for his birthday breakfast. The kids had just left for PE so I grabbed a cheese stick and stretched out on my mom's couch. About fifteen minutes passed when suddenly I heard little feet running up the stairs to my parents house, then the doorbell rang. I looked out the peephole and saw my kids on the porch! I open the door and Bryan was breathing heavy and said, "Valentin told us to come and get you because Austin broke his leg." I think my first response was, "Queeee?!" WHAT?!

My house is a few blocks up from the church and few blocks up from my house are some old pyramid ruins and a park. This is where the kids had gone to have PE. We took off for the park and when I arrived I immediately realized this was going to be a great blogging opportunity. This sounds really dumb, but in my family, and especially to me, breaking a bone is major. I have no scars on my body and I've never broken a bone - I have no fun war stories. When I was younger I always was wanting to break my leg so I could use crutches and be pushed in a wheelchair. I have joked with Austin for years that if he doesn't break a bone by 18, he's not a real man! HAHA.

I arrived at the park to this sight-

Austin had jumped off the edge of this wall (about 3 ft tall?) and landed where he is laying in this picture.

I asked Austin what had happened and he explain that they were running laps around the ruins and on the third jump of this wall he landed wrong and he heard a loud pop. When he looked down, his foot was twisted back all wonky-looking. Valentin immediately grabbed it and jerked it back into place. This morning, Valentin was recounting the story of how he popped the bone back into place, cringing all over again and covering his face in horror...he said it felt like pulling on a bungee cord. 

 

Austin was pretty pale and couldn't move and when he told me he had heard a pop when he landed, I figured this was the real deal and the broken leg incident of the century had just occurred. 

My dad was in the middle of his birthday breakfast when I called him. His reply was, "WHAT?! Are you serious??" Thankfully they weren't too far away and said they'd arrive in about half an hour. We decided against calling an ambulance at the moment because here in Mexico the joke is that the pizza will arrive before medical help. Lol! 

While we waited the kids stood around and watched Austin. 

 Valentin paced and prayed.

 Before I'd gotten there, Valentin had taken off his t-shirt so Austin could shield his face from the sun.

 While we waited, I chatted with Austin and tried to keep his mind off the pain and keep him calm. He was a total champ!! He never shed a tear. 

We took turns standing at Austin's head to give him some shade. 

Soon we spotted Mom and Dad's car coming down the road! Yay! Help had arrived!

 We all cracked up when Dad turned into the entrance of the park and just drove down the stairs to get in.

Dad to the rescue!

 My dad's classic "thinking" pose -

 They cut his boot and sock off...

 After they did, we could see exactly where it was broken. As he was pulling his sock off, Austin's lower leg looked like jello. It was the weirdest, grossest thing to see. So unnatural.

 They tried to see if they could move him at all to get him to the car, but any movement caused Austin excruciating pain. It was then that we gathered around Austin and prayed.

Austin had to have someone holding his foot in a certain position. Dad and I ran to the house to get some gauze, a piece of plywood, and other supplies to make a temporary brace for Austin's leg so we could get him to the car with minimal pain. 

 You can do all things with duct tape, which strengtheneth things.

 The brace helped immensely! It would have been impossible to get Austin off the top of these ruins without it.

 The closer we got to the car, the more people gathered around to help carry this 183-pound kid to the car.

 I stayed to finish out the last minutes of school and dismiss. Mom and Dad took Austin to the emergency room and I was sent this picture -

Apparently we all have two bones in our lower leg. Turns out Austin broke BOTH of these bones. 

 After school I packed an overnight bag for my mom and picked a few things up from her house that she needed. I then went to the hospital to be with my little champion! :D

The first thing he said to me when I walked into his room was, "Beth. I don't know why you want to break your leg. It hurts soooooooooo baddddddd." I said, "Austin I DON'T WANT TO BREAK MY LEG! But you are a REAL MAN NOW!" Hahaha! He looked a little relieved as he replied, "Yeah...ha ha...I always wondered when I'd break a bone since I don't play any extreme sports! But now I have!" Haha! We were cracking up!

 Austin's Sunday school teacher came to see him....aww! That was really special.

 The Gwamma and the Gwampa

 Austin talking with his surgeon

 When the doctors saw his x-rays they decided they would need to do surgery to fix the breaks. This was done yesterday at around 9pm. He had a sort of epidural done, from what I understand, instead of putting him under completely. However, it'd been a long and traumatic day for Austin so he ended up sleeping through the entire surgery, which lasted for over two hours.

Wheeling him into the operating room

This was definitely not Austin's first go-round with hospitals, doctors, and surgeries, but he still totally amazed me with his bravery! He did express some worries about the anesthesia and had some questions about the screws they'd be putting in his leg, but he stayed so cool and calm throughout the evening. I was so proud of him!

 Gramma and I stayed in Austin's room and chatted for most of the surgery. 

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

The nurse was really sweet - she called us three times during the surgery to let us know everything was going smoothly and looking good! Gramma and I thought that was so nice!

 We stayed at the hospital until he came out of surgery around midnight. I ended up not taking any pictures because he looked a little rough and I don't want to put anything up here that would cause him to feel embarrassed. But everything went well! I talked to my mom this morning and she says he slept through the night and is feeling no pain. He'll be in the hospital until Sunday so they can keep and eye on him and make sure he's not in too much pain, but otherwise he is doing great. He is enjoying getting to play his favorite game of Minecraft with no time restrictions! Lol!

Thank you to the ones that lifted Austin up in prayer yesterday! I sent all messages along to Austin and I'm sure that helped him maintain such a positive attitude through his ordeal yesterday. Any comments left here will certainly be passed along as well! Feel free to give him any words of encouragement and help keep his morale up!

I'll update again in the next few days!

Bethany

P.S. - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!! :)