Easter 2010

Where, oh where to begin? It has been a weekend to go down in our family history books. Our four day vacation from school and work began with such promise; beautiful warm, sunny days in the forecast, park playdates scheduled, Easter egg hunts, and a family lunch in Bromont. We did managed to fit it all in and even tossed in a broken bone and a 8 hour visit to the Montreal Children's ER.

After playing at the park on top of Mount Royal for 3 hours with Clara, Max, Esther, Chloé and Zaco, Leo took a bad fall. He'd been playing on the zip-line structure for 20 minutes and had dropped to the ground about a dozen times but on his last ride something went awry and he landed on his back. I guess he tried to break his fall with his hands but it was clear within seconds that the impact had broken a bone. First, Leo usually bounces back from injuries pretty quickly but this scream was very obviously something more serious and he was not stopping. Second, when I got a peek at the arm, I could tell the shape was not quite right. My mama bear instincts kicked in and I started barking out orders for Marc to pack up our stuff, we were going to the hospital NOW.

We left Clara behind with Karen and thankfully in the moment we were gathering our stuff Jayne pulled out some kids Tylenol for Leo to take which we figure kicked in upon our arrival at the ER. It was a long walk to our car but Marc managed through a combination of adrenaline and pure muscle to carry Leo as gently as he could all the way. The drive to the hospital was one of the more stressful things I've experienced, Leo cycled from screaming, to whimpering, to silence, to moaning "I'm gonna die". It was heartbreaking holding him in the backseat but I think Papa was experiencing even worse stress, he was trying to drive quickly, safely, and smoothly while listening to buddy boy's cries.

Once we got to the ER, everything went pretty smoothly - Leo was seen quite quickly and he had a series of X rays to see what exactly he'd broken. Turned out to be a wrist fracture. I saw the X ray image and it was like the tip of either his radius or ulna was snapped off. It needed to be set so the doctor explained that Leo would need ketamine sedation in order to set the bones before casting. Katamine is some funky stuff. Marc and I were both there when it went in the IV and Leo just sort of stared off into space - eyes don't close when you are sedated with ketamine!

The most entertaining part of the hospital experience was when Leo started waking up after the sedation. Oh man, was he funny! Some of our favorites were:

"Papa, why do you have two heads?"

While flailing his foot with the red light attached to his big toe (to measure blood oxygenation I think) "oooohhhh, look at the lights!"

Leo: "Papa, what is 10+10?" Marc: "20" Leo: "then, I have 20 fingers!"

So, all in all we spent 8 hours in the emergency department and we brought home a very tired boy with a big, heavy cast. What a way to start Easter Weekend!

Like I said before, we still managed to fit in most of our planned Easter activities. The lunch in Bromont with the GIANT egg hunt was certainly a highlight for us all. Two hundred and fifteen eggs for four kids to find anywhere in the backyard - Awesome!

searching for eggs

Gordo followed Leo around carrying his basket. Lucky kid!