The ER is no place for a vacation

I've been doing a really bad job of updating on the current happenings in our lives, however my sister Pollyanna, and sister in law Kat have been keeping things current on their blogs so I guess I'm off the hook. Anyway while we were visiting some of the family decided to go sledding. I'll put those pictures up as soon as Stephen finishes loading them on his website. But for now you can go here.

It was all fun and games until someone got hurt. Literally. My oldest nephew managed to hit a bump just right and hurt his spine pretty badly. It was extremely scary especially since he ran immediately to my mother and I was standing right next to her. I have gained a new found appreciation for my girl scout and boy scout lessons (I was in girl scouts and now teach boy scouts) because it enabled me to sort of know how to handle the situation. J was writhing in pain and jerking his body around like a mad person. It broke my heart to hear him yelling how his back hurt and he thought he was going to die. Immediately Stephen and I made him lie down and stop moving so frantically because if he did injure something in his back, moving around would just make it worse. Because it was a back injury I was soo scared to even touch him because I didn't want to injure him further.

I am so grateful to the men who immediately came to our aide. The first guy had seen what had happened (J was going down and racing Stephen and Super Boy and they veered in opposite directions. Of course we watched Stephen and Super Boy instead of J...it just figures right?) He told us that it was a BAD hit and that we should call an ambulance. The next guy who came up was a Mesa Firefighter who was enjoying a day at the hills with his family. His wife saw the incident happen and had her husband come to help us out. He and his wife were with us until the ambulance arrived and the help he provided was invaluable. Not only did we have to worry about J's back, but also treating him for shock and for hypothermia.

I was down with J the whole time holding his head so that it wouldn't touch the snow. J's younger brother Z had gone missing, and so the family was trying to find him as well. The only things to come out of J's mouth were updates on how he was doing and also how he just wanted us to find his brother and make sure that he was alright. It touched me to hear him say over and over again to just find Z. My dad rode with J on the ambulance and we followed along only to wait in the Flagstaff ER.

I did manage to capture some moments of us in the ER. The blur on the left would be Happy, he was soo cute the whole time we were there, and I love the shoes that Super Boy is wearing!
J had to have x-rays and a CAT scan only to find out that he had no massive injuries; no broken bones or even fractures, but he'll be sore for a few days.