We have had quite the month at our house. We’ll start with Levi. About four weeks ago he was running down the stairs and landed wrong on his big toe. He hurt it pretty bad, but we decided to wait and see before taking him into the doctor. It was feeling slightly better two days later, so he decided that trying to jump onto a skateboard, barefoot, in the dark, was a good idea. Strangely enough, it did not go well! He came hobbling into the house bleeding profusely and in a great deal of pain. At that point, I called in the cavalry because over the years with Levi, I have learned that I don’t do well with lots of blood. Rock got him cleaned up and I got the carpet cleaned up. 🙂 Since there was new damage to the same toe, we took him to the doctor the next day. It was indeed broken. A broken toe right at the beginning of summer=no swimming, hiking, mountain biking or cross country summer training runs. He has had to sit on the sidelines all summer and watch his friends do those things. Pretty rough. But he’s handled it pretty well and tomorrow we got back to see if the doc will give him the ok to run and swim. Fingers crossed.

Next up is Rock. My very active, healthy, weight lifting husband started having hip pain last fall. It took a while to track down the cause, but they determined that he had basically a bone spur in his hip socket that was causing a labral tear. After PT and a cortizone shot didn’t help, the Dr. recommended surgery. We had hoped to put off the surgery until the end of summer, but it got to the point where he couldn’t even mow the lawn or sit for any real length of time so we did the surgery the end of June. The surgery went well. The Dr. found quite a bit of damage so it’s good they operated. They repaired the labrum and stitched him up. What they didn’t do was prepare us for the next several days. We naively assumed he’d be able to get up stairs with crutches and sleep in his bed and.. go to the bathroom. Nope, nope and NOPE. When the nurse was preparing us to leave she looked shocked when I told her I didn’t have anyone to help me get him into the house. “Oh, honey, you’re gonna need some help.” So Cade and Levi were almost late to Top Gun Maverick because they had to stay and help me get Rock up the steps into the house. His meds were not completely worn off, and he’d never done crutches so it was a little touch and go there, but we got him in and settled. Sleeping in the recliner wouldn’t be too bad and it was right near the bathroom which he was beginning to need- a lot. Three miserable days later he still wasn’t able to pee, so I took him to Urgent Care where we waited for 3 hours only for them to tell us he’d need a catheter and they couldn’t do one. They sent him home with some meds and said if they didn’t work in a few hours to go to the ER.

At 10:30 that night, as we were getting into the car to head to the ER, we got a phone call from Reagan. He was on his way home from a road trip with a friend and had run out of gas 1.5 hours from home nowhere near a gas station. There was no way I could go get him, so, Cade, thrilled to be able to “rescue” his big brother, offered to drive out to Reagan and give him some gas. We headed to the ER and Cade headed to the Idaho/Oregon border.

The ER doctor examined Rock and was shocked to see the extent of his poor bladder and quickly ordered a catheter. Right at that moment, Reagan texted me to tell me that even with the gas Cade had provided, his car still wouldn’t start. Rather than calling Cade who was driving away, he called me and wouldn’t stop talking to me long enough to call Cade to stop him from leaving them without the car working. In frustration, I left the room to go outside the hospital. Pacing up and down in front of the ER entrance I pointed out the craziness of the whole situation and may or may not have yelled the exact details of catheter installment to Reagan over the phone. This garnered several strange looks from those poor passersby who found themselves unlucky enough to visit the ER that night-and Reagan’s travel buddy, who heard the description through the phone. I hung up with Reagan, called Cade and told him to STOP! and go back and just pick up Reagan and friend and bring them home. He obliged and I went back into the exam room.

I guess I’ve seen too many doctor shows, because I knew what was coming and poor Rock really didn’t. I am ashamed to say I tried to get out of it, and offered to leave in case he didn’t want me in there as an audience, but my sweet husband has no shame and said he wanted me to stay. Sigh. So I stayed to be supportive in his moment of need. He stays through childbirth, after all. Let’s just say that NO ONE, no male, anyway, should have to have a catheter put in while they are conscious. It is a horrible and painful experience-the stuff of nightmares. After draining over a liter of liquid-a huge amount, in case you are wondering-they informed us that he would have to wear the catheter at home for a week and sent us home at about 2:00 AM.

Reagan and Cade’s adventure was not over yet, however. When Cade arrived back on the scene with Reagan, they decided the reason for the car stopping was not lack of gas as they had thought, but most likely a dead battery. So, Cade drove 10 miles down the road to buy jumper cables, drove back and the three of them had to figure out how to use the cables. Apparently, they did not remember the times they had been shown at home, in scouts and in YM. After getting the car started, they finally made it home about 3:00 AM.

The next few days were truly miserable for Rock. It was worse than the pain from the surgery and having a too full bladder. Luckily, he only had to have the catheter for 3 days. It was a long three days. He slept a good chunk of each day-as a way of coping with the discomfort, I think. I will say, taking care of another adult AND a house and kids is more work than I thought. It wears on you and I don’t know how people do it for long periods of time. Caregivers are saints in my book.

Finally, a week after surgery, all the systems were working again and he could get on with the business of healing. Eight weeks later he is almost back to normal as far as simple things like stairs and driving. He’s still doing PT and working on his range of motion. He’s not hiking mountains yet, one of the many activities that got postponed this summer, but he’s been a trooper with something that he, at least in the beginning, expected to be much easier.

I had such high hopes for this summer. But alas, traveling to far away and exotic places was not to be for us this year. It’s just as well, I suppose, with gas as expensive as it is right now. What we saved in gas money, we can use to purchase a new car! 😉