Mr. Breakable

As I mentioned in a previous post, and most of you know already, Austin has taken up position as resident King of the Broken Bone in our house. We have decided that football is not his sport if he wants to stay healthy.

In October of 2007, he broke his right arm (both bones) playing in a football game in Paint Creek, Texas...picture the middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing but cotton fields. Thankfully, the bones did not pierce the skin and we made it the 2 1/2 hour drive home to the hospital without incident. He spent the night in the hospital and had surgery the next day where the doctor had to insert a pin to keep the bones in place until they healed.

Fast forward to October of 2008, and then hit the repeat button. Actually, this time it was his left arm, he was injured during practice here in town, and the break was a buckle fracture...much less traumatic than last year. He wore a cast for 4 weeks and a brace for 2 more and he was good to go.

That brings us to the day after Christmas 2008. He and Tyler were up at the school by our house playing football with some friends. Austin punted the ball and felt his hip pop. He fell to the ground and couldn't get up. Tyler came home to get someone to go and pick Austin up. I was in the middle of cooking with Kara and her new oven and didn't think it could possibly be anything serious and so I let him sit up there for the next 10 minutes waiting on me. Yea, I know...Mother of the Year. :(

As soon as I got to the school, I could tell that things were worse than I expected just by looking at his face. His face was flushed but he was really white around his eyes. I could literally see the pain in his eyes. I felt horrible.

I brought him home and called our doctor on base. He said to take him to the local walk in clinic since the base clinic was closed for the holidays. The nurse practitioner that was on duty didn't think it was anything other than a strained muscle until she saw the x-rays...then things got chaotic fairly quickly.

Turns out that Austin experienced an avulsion fracture where the tendon that runs from the knee up to the side of the pelvis actually pulled part of the pelvic bone away from the rest of the bone. In an adult the tendon would have sustained the injury but in kids, where the bones are still growing, the injury occurs in the bone and not the tendon.

We left the clinic with pain medication and crutches and orders to put no weight on the leg until he saw a specialist on Monday, which we did. If the displaced bone had been more than 1/2 inch away from the pelvis it would have required surgery to fix. Thankfully Austin's was not. It should heal on it's own eventually...the doc says 6 weeks to 3 months.

He is now walking without crutches and can do pretty much anything he wants within reason. The goal is to not reinjure the hip during the healing process. My goal for him is to not break anything else either.

Because of the number and nature of breaks in just a little over a year, the doc decided to test Austin for bone issues. All of the tests came back normal and the doc says he's just "unlucky". My personal thinking is that he has grown so much in the last year his poor bones have had a hard time keeping up. That...or he's trying to make up for his older three brothers that never broke anything.

I knew when Austin burned his hands when he was 13 months old and it didn't phase him we were in trouble. Nothing keeps this kid down. He is amazing. He can't wait to be cleared so he can go back out and play some more football. Mom's not so sure about that.

Austin's 14th Birthday - December 14, 2008

Wow, 14 years old...I can hardly believe it. I distinctly remember the day that he was born. Keith's squadron was deploying to Saudi Arabia before Austin's due date so he was encouraged to come a little early...2 weeks to be exact.

I had a doctor's appointment on the morning of the day he was born. My midwife told me that he was about 6 1/2 lbs. I laughed and told her there was no way. I told her that all of my other boys were bigger than that and I felt bigger with Austin than with any of them. She shrugged her shoulders with a "you'll see" look on her face.

He was born at 9:54 that night and weighed in at 8 lbs. 11 1/2 oz. Yeah, this mom knows a few things about baby boys. Can you imagine how big he would have been if he had come on time or even late? Yikes!

Here is a picture of him at 9 months.

We should have known when Austin was a baby that we were in for a wild ride with him. When he was 13 months old he pulled my curling iron off the counter and wrapped both hands around the barrel holding it and crying until I got to him. It resulted in 2nd and 3rd degree burns to both hands but never slowed him down a bit. Here he is with his bandages which we changed twice a day for weeks.

It was a grueling experience for his parents but God was merciful and healed him beautifully.

Austin was the first of all four of our boys to have staples in his head...thanks to a fall on the trampoline. He was also the first of our boys to ever break a bone...which he has now done three times in the last year and 2 months. We have decided that football is not his sport if he wants to keep his bones intact. This picture was taken when he broke his arm the first time in October of 2007.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we are thankful Austin has survived to see his 14th birthday. He is active, athletic, full of energy, and all boy and he always has been. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Here is Austin on his big day.

Austin, we hope your birthday was as special as you are. And we pray that God will see you through to celebrate many more wonderful birthdays in the future. We love you, Son.