Ryker's first trip to the ER

I'm completely amazed that Ryker lasted 4 whole years without needing a trip to the ER. Saturday was his first time, but most certainly not his last. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that Ryker is super accident prone and gets hurt constantly.

Ryker and Brice were at a fathers and sons campout on Friday and Saturday up Hobble Creek Canyon (10 or 15 minutes from our house). The property they were at had this awesome and enormous see-saw. It was made out of a 24 foot long steel pipe and Ryker was having a great time playing on it Saturday morning. Then he fell off. He fell from about 4 and a half feet up or so (chest height on Brice) onto his side. I'm sure that didn't feel too great all on its own, but then the see-saw came off its pivot and fell on top of Ryker. It landed on his hips and gave him a pretty good pounding. He wouldn't move his legs so Brice held him and monitored him for a while, but when he didn't calm down after about 10 minutes and especially when he wouldn't calm down to accept a treat being offered to him, Brice decided a trip to the ER was in order. He called me as soon as he was back in cell phone range and said I should meet him at the hospital. So I packed up the girls and some books (we've been to the ER with Raelin a few times so I wanted to be prepared for A LOT of waiting) and we headed out. On the way to the hospital Ryker started to go into shock complete with shivers and a ghosty face. Fortunately, by the time he got to the hospital he was becoming a bit more responsive and he started to answer questions and talk a little. They strapped him to a backboard and tried to put a neck brace on him but his little face was too small and it wasn't doing anything. He looked so pitiful in it though! They took us right to a room and nurses were there immediately taking vitals and whatnot. A doctor came in and checked his tummy and his range of motion and then ordered x-rays. Ryker knew all about x-rays because Brice had been prepping him on their drive over. Once the x-rays were taken the waiting began. The nurses brought the kids some little toys to play with and we read books for a while. One sweet moment was when Raelin said, "I love you Ryker," and he said, on the verge of tears, "Do you wish this didn't happen to me?" and Raelin petted his hair and said, "Yeah, I wish you didn't get hurt." I love it when they are sweet to each other. It's so adorable! The nurses all just fell in love with Ryker. He was so good and tough and he kept saying clever or funny things. One nurse said that he had the special room that only special people like the President used. I asked him if he remembered who the President was and he said, "Yes, President Monson." What a good kid! (He remembered the US President's last name after we gave him his first name.) He started to get pretty bored while we waited for the x-rays to come back and he wanted to sit up, but when we tried it hurt him too much and he was sad. Eventually the x-rays came back negative and the Dr. said that nothing was broken but that he was going to be really sore for a few days and that it would get worse before it got better. Ryker's been doing great, though, and he's crawling around well enough now. The first day he just watched movies all day (he and Raelin were so excited about that!) but since then he's been doing well enough to play. I think it hurts him to sit though because he plays laying on his tummy. We took him to church in a stroller on Sunday, which was hilariously small for him, and he perfected his army crawl that day. On Monday he was crawling around on his hands and knees and today he can stand up, but weight bearing on his left leg hurts enough that he falls when he tries. It's kind of hilarious to see him crawling around on his hands and knees outside on the concrete and in the kitchen--anywhere where kids don't usually play on the ground like that. I know, I have a cruel sense of humor. We're headed to California tomorrow evening so hopefully he'll be walking and running in time to really enjoy the beach this weekend!