He Battled The Stairs…And Lost

On Sunday, I was happily watching my sister-in-law open gifts at her baby shower when my phone rang. I briefly considered getting up to answer it (it was in the other room) but decided against it. A minute or so later, my mom’s phone rang, and as she sheepishly looked around at the other guests, I advised her to answer it since that was two in a row. As I watched her face, my heart sank. I knew something was wrong. She put me on the phone with my dad, and he informed me that Nathan had fallen down the stairs while carrying Simon.

Simon was ok except for a banged up cheek. But Nathan had dislocated his shoulder among other minor injuries. My brother was driving Nathan to the ER while my dad watched the boys.

Now I have to admit that while I was still concerned for Nathan, all I could really feel was relief. So much more could have happened, and I was just so thankful that they were ok. I packed up my stuff and, knowing that my boys were in good hands, I headed to OHSU to be with my husband.

Poor Nathan was in a lot of pain, and was still in the waiting room when I got there. He had to go through quite an ordeal at the hospital to get his shoulder back in. The nurses couldn’t get an IV in because he was in shock. Three different nurses had to try six times before they finally were successful. The first thing they tried was giving him a muscle relaxant. This had worked the first time his shoulder was dislocated about ten years ago. Despite four nurses and doctors all pulling and heaving, the shoulder would not go back in place.

We had to wait some more, and Nathan would have to be sedated. The sedation worked and only about fifteen minutes after I had left the room, they came out to get me and tell me it had worked. When I walked in, Nathan was peacefully sleeping, but as he came out of his drug induced state, he said many amazingly funny things.

Nathan has been home from work since then, and declares himself pitiful. I wouldn’t say that he is pitiful, but the whole thing has been pretty tiring for me. I won’t complain, though, because I am just so thankful that things turned out as they did instead of so much worse. Nathan is recovering slowly but surely.