Aprils Fools??? We Wish!!!

For those of you who dont know, Eldon's birthday is April 1st, Yep, April Fools Day. This year he turned 25, and it was a birthday to remember for sure! And unfortunately, not in a good way.

This is Eldon the day before his birthday, and he definitely wished his finger was a gun, only he didnt even know the half of it yet. Let me explain. Its kind of a long story but i will try to sum it up for ya.
Eldon's current profession is a window washer. He frequently has to climb ladders to get to windows. So far, no problems, until Monday that is. Eldon was inside a house cleaning some window over travertine tile (can we say slippery?) Normally, the feet on the ladder is really sticky and has no problems even on the slippery tile. Well, today, not the case so much. The ladder actually slipped out from under him until is hit the wall about 2 feet back and jolted him down and off the ladder.....from about 10 feet up!

Amazingly, this is all that happens....its hard to see from the picture but his wrist is super swollen, and very painful. He doesn't really remember a whole lot, but his wrist gave them an idea something wasnt quite right, so Eldon and his boss rush to the local urgent care. Well about 2 1/2 hours later, we were just about to leave the urgent care with a sprained wrist. We couldn't believe it....no breaks! They started putting Eldon into a sling, but then...it started to hurt really bad, and even his fingers and whole hand were numb (the numb like when your hand has been in freezing cold water and kills numb). The urgent care doctor didn't think much of it, but just because of the amount of pain, they sent us to the ER. So we head down the street the Gilbert Mercy hospital. About 2 more hours we are sitting in a room and have seen about 3 different doctors and few nurses. Guess what, still no breaks and thankfully, Eldon finally got some drugs. But even after vicodin, morphine, and 3 rounds of stronger than morphine, the pain was still at a 10! Eldon's boss said his facial expressions looked like ones he remembered on his wife's face during labor...nice! So finally another doctor comes to us and says he found a small fracture on Eldons elbow. We werent even worried about the Elbow, well neither was the doctor, it was so small they weren't going to do anything besides a splint. We explained the pain and the numbness, which sent the doctor in to check the x-rays again. He came back and said it looked like one of the bones in Eldon's wrist was dislocated, not broke, just dislocated. He wanted to consult a hand surgeon, but said it was pretty simple to snap, crackle, pop it back in. He comes back and said the surgeon wanted to see Eldon himself, so now they are going to transport Eldon to St. Joes in Phoenix by ambulance.

This is his bosses face at the news of another hospital. So we head over to St. Joes. About 2 more hours later, and 2 more doctors, we are finally speaking with the surgeon and his assistant. Guess what.... there is a break, and its the worst break you can do to the bones in your hand! The bone that connects the thumb to the wrist (the scaphoid bone) was in several pieces and many of the pieces were pretty much crumbs. He was going to need pins, screws, and 8-10 weeks at best without movement of his wrist! Oh and remember the dislocated bone in his wrist, yeah the one causing the big bump...it was not only dislocated, it was on top of the bone next to it and was pinching a nerve. Eldon was going to need immediate surgery and because of the situation, they didnt have all the equipment they needed to do everything....so he had to stay overnight at the hospital and have a second surgery the next day (on his birthday). They did the first surgery and things didnt look so good. The bones were in bad shape and there was nerve damage. They said it could take up to a year or more for him to get all the feeling back in his hand if it ever all returns. So he stayed overnight (0ur first night apart from each other :( The surgeon didnt know when the surgery would be so we waited all day. Thankfully visits from friends and family made the day go by a little quicker, but finally at about 7pm, he was headed into the second surgery. If this surgery didnt go well....there could be many many more. Thankfully, the surgery went really well and he only needed 3 pins and 1 screw, but they had to fix 3 ligaments in his wrist as well as the bones.
Because it was 9pm and because of the amount of pain he would be in, he would have to spend the night at the hospital again so they could give him pain medicine. They said he could be discharged the next morning. Well, discharges always take forever, so the morning came and went, and so did the afternoon. Finally at about 7:30pm, Eldon was on his way home!!! He is actually doing really well considering everything. He is pretty drugged, and not happy about not being able to play the new PSP he got for his birthday, but he is safe and will recover. And the good news is.....it was only his wrist and his elbow! Falling from 10 feet, it could have been his neck! So we are so grateful for a broken wrist, even if it is a pain. We are also incredibly grateful for the power of the priesthood and the amazing gift it is in our lives. We are also thankful for all the family and friends that rushed to his side to show their love and concern! It wasnt so much of a happy birthday and we will have to celebrate later, but we definitely have things to be thankful for!