Peter's Not-So-Excellent Adventure.....

On Saturday, Peter rode in or on: his bike, a car, a wheelbarrow, a wheelchair, a stretcher, a gurney, and an ambulance.

Peter is an active kid. He likes cross-country, track, and parkour. He would rather be outside at the park or the creek than inside with video games or television. So he was bored and stir crazy when it rained Friday and Saturday. By Saturday afternoon he couldn't take it anymore. "Please, Mom, can I go to the park with Luis for a while?" Since it wasn't raining that hard, I secured a promise from him that he'd be careful, and off he went.

While grocery shopping a couple of hours later, I got a phone call. "This is Mr. P, one of your neighbors, I'm here at the creek with your son, and he thinks he may have broken his leg."

Apparently, climbing, running, and jumping on and off things are NOT good rainy day activities. Peter had been trying to climb up onto a drainage pipe that runs near the creek (in the woods), realized that he couldn't get up there, and dropped to the ground. Now, Peter has done similar 'moves' dozens of times with no consequence. But combine rain, mud, and an errant branch upon landing and you end up with a broken leg.

He and Luis figured out it was broken when A) They heard the crack when Peter landed, and B) Peter lifted up his leg and the foot flopped to one side. Peter stayed in the mud and rain while Luis went for help. This is where Mr. P comes in. He rushed to the scene, surveyed the situation, called us, then ran back to his house for a wheelbarrow. By the time we arrived he had Peter in the wheelbarrow and was wheeling him across the field to our car. One blessing, two emergency rooms, one ambulance, two x-rays, a cat scan, some sedatives, a gurney ride, a stretcher ride, two wheelchair rides, a splint and 7 1/2 hours later, he was home again.

Peter, not being one to do things half-way, broke both of the bones in his lower right leg. The fibula was broken vertically (they may have used the term 'shattered' in the first ER), and the tibia was broken horizontally (basically a 1/2 inch slab sheared off the bottom).

His leg is splinted right now while the swelling subsides, and we go to the orthopedic doc on Wednesday to find out whether or not he needs surgery. He may need a couple of screws put in to hold the bones together. Or, (we hope and pray!) they may say that the bones are placed well and just put a cast on it. Either way, Track season is over for Peter, and he faces a long road to recovery. I have to say, he's taking it pretty well. He is being a very 'patient patient'. He's not at all happy about the situation, but he knows there's nothing to be done about it now, so he's got to live with it.

I'll keep you updated on his progress, but in the meantime, here are some pictures for you....