Lara in Colo Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 (edited) she likes to take the money out and count it. She long ago lost the rubber bottom and it was replaced with a cork. The cork has lost its ability to stay in the piggy bank so child (dd10) put the bank on the floor and sort of stomps on the bank. My church has an annual tree cutting party and I was decorating 6 dozen tree cookies for the tailgate party and sent the children to bed earlier than usual to do this task. I hear a lot of screaming and see dd10 on the floor crying about having broken her foot. I see blood, a HUGE cut on her heel and an obviously broken "white" thing. (I thought she had a compound fracture of the heel.) We go an emergency room. WE HAVE NO INSURANCE. The peds doc doesn't know what is really wrong, calls another doc from adult ER, has does a little look and squeezes her foot. They call an ortho doc who isn't there and doesn't come in and tells us to get an MRI and "call on Monday". They call the MRI guy to come in (this is now about 11.00 pm FRiday). I wait for the results (1:30am) and they say she cut her achilles tendon 95% of the way through in two places. No ortho has seen this child and they splint her and send her home. We stay home on Sat and start doing some research and I really cannot stop freaking out (I am normally a very calm person about medical stuff, I seem to have a natural sense of 'rightness and wrongness'. I couldn't stop worring and the insurance thing got me thinking that no one would now work on her. We went to childrens hospital in Denver on Sunday because a friend of my mother's says they have to take you even without insurance. They had an ortho they called (who was on his way out the door and is a resident doctor, not an actual ortho yet) because I was so worried. He sort of explained that the tendon will self heal and these days they don't hardly sew they together as lond as *some* is still intact. I felt like a silly mom. He agreed to look at the MRI just because he was there and the MRI was there. (Her foot was sewed up and he couldn't see the actual injury since the other hospital closed the wound). He came back less than 10 minutes later and said that she was booked in the OR first thing in the AM and he was admitting her right now. Apparently he was worried that she had cut the tendon so low that we thought it would unattach from the bone (the cut is 3/4 of and inch fron the heel). He went on to talk about how this looks bad and she may need to donate more tendon from another part of the foot or have some sort of reattachment procedure. The next AM we are waiting for the actual ortho who is the student's boss/teacher to come in and talk to us when we see him looking at her MRI picture. We look with him and he discusses the images and says that he doesn't know more until he actually sees the opened foot on the table. He operates and comes back to say it wasn't 2 cuts, it was one COMPLETLY SEVERED. What the other hospital thought was 2 cuts was actually 2 pieces with 1 1/2 inches of space in between them. (which an ortho would have seen if one had bothered to come look at her when she was at hospital 1) Anyway she is sewn together, not in pain, the tendon is attached to the heel after all (but the cut is about 1 inch from the heel). She had a GREAT doctor. He asked her what color she wanted her cast and he listed all these cool colors (she picked purple with glow in the dark stars). I learned from the nurse that he wraps the foot in glow in the dark, then purple, then cuts out stars for the first layer to show though, then they glue glitter all over it!!!! They said it takes almost as long to make the cast as for the entire operation!!!! What a great guy!! She has to get a new cast in 3 weeks and we are all waiting to see what she gets!! Now my mother is talking about sueing the first hospital (which I don't want, but I don't want to pay the bill either!). I think we will qualify for medicaid and if that is true, they wiil pay both bills. If not, another program will help with one bill (childrens) but not the other. I am just now starting to get back to normal (I got sleep for the first time since Thursday night last night) She was treated. She is home. She is not going to be crippled. The rest is just details. My wonderful, wonderful church was there for us. DD's pastor was there at the hospital as was another pastor and they prayed with us and keep me from falling further apart. The church is making our meals for the next week. Just knowing that people love us enough to drive 30 miles out of their way is amazing! So that was my weekend. Now I must clean my house before the food people get here. Lara PS you cannot imagine how many times I had to explain how she sliced her tendon with a piggy bank. (every nurse, tech, relative, church member.....) Here is a picture of the piggy bank after her foot went through it!! ignore the date (I always have the wrong date) if you click you can see the blood!!! Edited December 7, 2010 by Lara in Colo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2cents Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 I think you should contact the first hospital to complain and inform them that the cost of the 2nd doctor and hospitalization will be deducted from their bill! (That should pretty much obliterate that bill). Aside from charging you for not doing what was needed, they could have further injured your child. I would be making my displeasure very apparent and their bill would, at the very least, be disputed. I'm glad your daughter is doing well. It sounded like a very scary ordeal! :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 :grouphug: Glad she is healing and doing good. I hope you are able to sleep and rest and recover yourself. What a scary weekend! ~Tap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lara in Colo Posted December 7, 2010 Author Share Posted December 7, 2010 I cried so much this weekend from worry that I threw out my contact lenses (disposable) because I couln't get the protein off of them!! Lara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Peregrine Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 Oh! You need hugs! :grouphug: And for your DD, too. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bokons Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 So glad to hear that dd will be okay. How scary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 Many :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Glad Children's took care of you!! Anytime there's a choice, I'd rather my kids have surgery at Children's than anyplace else (BTDT spinal cord surgery). If it makes you feel any better, when one of my kids needs the ER, especially where bleeding is involved, I'm usually much too impatient to drive all the way to Children's (though we've been to the ER at the Children's branch in Parker several times too, it's not usually my first thought :tongue_smilie:). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lara in Colo Posted December 7, 2010 Author Share Posted December 7, 2010 I just added a picture of the piggy bank! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 I'm so glad that you listened to your mommy instincts! :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lara in Colo Posted December 7, 2010 Author Share Posted December 7, 2010 Many :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Glad Children's took care of you!! Anytime there's a choice, I'd rather my kids have surgery at Children's than anyplace else (BTDT spinal cord surgery). If it makes you feel any better, when one of my kids needs the ER, especially where bleeding is involved, I'm usually much too impatient to drive all the way to Children's (though we've been to the ER at the Children's branch in Parker several times too, it's not usually my first thought :tongue_smilie:). If you want the name of the "other" hospital, ask and I will pm you! Lara I knew, knew, knew I should have gone there first!!!!, but this one was closer and I had Rob coming in from work, 3 other children that needed a sitter etc..... Lara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danivdp Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 Wow! :eek: Glad you got a good doc that fixed it properly!! :auto: *runs away to throw away all my kids piggy banks* :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnitaMcC Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 So glad that she is healing and doing well. About the first hospital bill... I would definitely contest it. They messed up big time!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 I'm so glad that you listened to your mommy instincts! :grouphug: :iagree: What a scary situation! And how painful it must have been for your dd! Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lara in Colo Posted December 8, 2010 Author Share Posted December 8, 2010 :iagree: What a scary situation! And how painful it must have been for your dd! Cat actually, she is in VERY little pain. Sunday was the worst (that is a main reason we went to the 2nd hospital) But her pain meds from the surgery wore off yesterday and she has gone over 24hr w/o any and doing fine! Me on the other hand--I just spend 1/2 day changing the bunk beds to single beds and moving furniture around--I could use a shot of Patron right now!! Lara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkle Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 Yowza, what a weekend. Poor girl (and poor momma!). At least she has a cool cast out of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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