"Mom, I'll meet you at the garden"

It was the first Saturday in several weeks that we didn't have any plans. I slept in a bit longer than usual. Kyle was walking out of his bedroom-he had been up earlier with Lyndsie. I mentioned that we should go up to our garden to water and I wanted to show him something. He got excited and said "I'll just ride my bike up and start watering, then you can meet me there". In my heart I wanted him to wait because I really wanted to see his face when I showed him that little something. So off he went. I jumped in the shower and waited for Dan so we could meet Kyle. We took a bit longer to get ready and then headed to the garden. When we got there, we didn't see Kyle so we thought we'd just back track to find him. We drove the normal route...but we never saw him. I called home a few times hoping he'd answer the phone, but he never answered. Dan and I headed back to the garden in hopes that Kyle was just riding around waiting for us...but he wasn't there. We admired the garden, picked some zucchini and figured we'd catch up with Kyle at home and go get some lunch. I knew he had his key, so we headed home to pick him up...but when we walked in the door, Kyle wasn't there, or any sign that he had been there. I saw messages on the phone so I pushed play...first two were from me to Kyle to call me, third message, "Hi this is so and so from Box Butte General Hospital". I didn't even finish the message and just hit redial. When someone answered I just asked "Do you have a Kyle Duitsman there"? She answered "yes", and then I asked what happened and she said she couldn't give me that information so I told her we'd be right there. Dan and I just didn't know what to think. He immediately got quiet and I was talking a mile a minute. As we were heading north I noticed a police car coming towards us going south and it looked as though the trunk was open...as the police car passed by, I saw Kyle's bike. My heart literally dropped in my stomach! But then it hit me, as I was trying to keep my composure that the bike looked good-as in it wasn't all bent up. So I told Dan "That was Kyle's bike, oh no...but it looked ok, it's not bent up". I believe for Dan the world was in slow motion. We hurried out of the car and into the Emergency room and told the nurse we were Kyle's parents. I think I asked again "Is he OK, what happened" and she just said "come with me". That is not what a parent wants to hear! We walked in Kyle's room, pushed the curtain back and there he was. My boy, with a silly grin on his face. Our eyes met and I felt the biggest rush of relief. Dan and I went to his side to look at his injuries..all in all he looked pretty good. Some road rash on his face and his arm was pretty beat up. Kyle kind of chuckled about the whole thing and then he told us what had happened.


Kyle's version: I went to the garden to water and waited for awhile but you guys didn't show up so I went to get a soda and started riding home. Then I thought 'hey, I'll go do some jumps at the skate park'. I was going up one of the ramps when my front tire locked up and I fell and then I heard this 'pop'. I kind of slid a ways from the ramp and my bike went flying. I laid there for a second and then looked at my arm and it looked funny. I tried to stand up and picked up my bike but it wouldn't move, then my legs felt weird and I started to see white so I laid down and started to yell out for someone to help me. These people came over to me and tried to help me up and get me out of the sun but my legs went weak and I started to see white so they just helped me lay down and then they called 911. The ambulance came and they got me inside where they hooked up my IV, asked me lots of questions and then wrapped up my arm.

After waiting about an hour, Kyle finally got his x-ray which clearly showed his fracture. The ER Dr. advised us to take Kyle to the Regional Hospital where he would see a specialty Orthopedic Surgeon. This wasn't your typical fracture he told us, this one might need surgery. The Dr. prepared us for what might possibly take place, gave Kyle pain meds and told us we needed to travel by Ambulance or the helicopter. Wait, HELICOPTER?? Are you serious. Due to Kyle's swelling and possible artery damage, his hand was swelling and he wasn't able to feel all the tests they were performing on him. That was a huge concern that he might have some nerve damage. I mean, it just kept getting better and better. I opted to drive him, knowing that the other options would really scare him-he was already pretty upset thinking he might have surgery. We got him situated in the car and off we went. An hour drive felt like FOREVER. Thankfully the meds helped him sleep the entire way.

I couldn't help notice how beautiful of a day it had been... the sky was so blue and there were all these puffy little clouds. It was so much more than just that blue sky, it was gratitude for having my son be next to me and knowing that this wasn't over yet, but he was HERE. He was safe.

We got situated at the Regional Hospital while waiting for the Orthopedic surgeon. Once he arrived we got the 411-and it wasn't real good. Kyle had a pretty complicated fracture and they were going to try method #1 to see if He could set it up in a cast, but if that didn't work, they'd get him into the OR where they'd put some pins in it. Dan and I did pretty good, watching as they poked and prodded Kyle. They hooked him up to what seemed like every machine and ran an IV. The method they chose required an Anesthesiologist to perform what they called a 'block' in his arm pit that would put the entire left shoulder and arm asleep. He was super awesome during the whole procedure! We knew he was scared, but he did really well. Once he was numb, the Orthopedic surgeon came in and picked up Kyle's arm by his fingers and hooked them up to this contraption. Once hooked up, he put what seemed like 25lbs of weights hanging from his elbow-and Kyle felt NOTHING. It was quite painful to watch though. We were escorted out while the Orthopedic Dr. worked to put Kyle's bone back into place...we waited..and waited. The nurses and Anesthesiologist came in and out of the room updating us and at one point the Dr. just couldn't get the bone to stay put. They would work on it, then x-ray it over and over until finally he got it to stay put and quickly finished casting it up. I knew he was working hard because he was dripping with sweat, but I was so happy with the outcome. They monitored Kyle for sometime from the block. We were finally released around 8:30pm...it was a long day!

Kyle will see the Orthopedic Dr. this week where he will x-ray again to see if the bone stays put...if there is any slippage, they will need to take him in for surgery and put pins in his wrist. Hopefully, with faith and prayer, the bone will stay put and we can continue the healing process.

Last night was pretty rough. Kyle is in a lot of pain and his entire arm and shoulder are aching. His hand is swollen and if you happen to touch it he just cries out. So for now, I'm just trying to keep him medicated every 4 hours until I see signs of some relief. I have no doubt that the pulling and weights and all that have added to his pain, but it needed to be done. Kyle's been lifting all summer in preparation for his first year of High School football-I imagine that as practices start this week he will be sitting it out. We are pretty bummed that he might not get to play this season, but getting him healed is so much more important. Please keep him in your prayers for a speedy recovery and mostly for the pain to subside.

Hard lesson learned. Dan and I had many conversations with the boy yesterday about the incident. I'm pretty sure he's learned a very hard lesson early on. He told us he would be a bit wiser in his decisions from now on because he is not enjoying all this pain! Smart boy. Something we need to consider as well, when he said his brakes locked up, well they did. Dan picked up his bike from the Police Dept and said for no rhyme or reason his front brakes where straight up locked and he looked the bike over and the brake lines to see what was wrong and couldn't find a reason why. What we do know, is that Kyle was protected and we are so grateful, so very grateful.