On October 18th we spent the morning going to brunch with Mrs. Gambles. She's absolutely one of our favorite people. Then David went with the girls and Jeff Brady and Nicholas on a hike. Taycina had planned a surprise 30th birthday party for Jeff and I offered to have David distract him for a while. (I was helping Doug and my mom) The girls were so excited to go on a hike and loved it! I called David when he was done to ask him if he could get a few things at the store that Doug wanted. He said he would, asked if I wanted a drink and then casually mentioned that Kadence fell on the hike and her whole back went numb. WHAT?! You don't just casually mention things like that. Panic set in. She fell on the last hike, but was totally fine. She just slips when going downhill but it's always a slow fall. David said when she fell he could tell something went wrong. He asked her if she was ok and she said "My back just went numb." After a minute she said she was fine. She was acting fine and playing fine and said her back didn't hurt and wasn't numb. We decided to fill a pinata full of bacon and head to Jeff's party. While there I started getting worried. Spines are not something to blow off. I had David call Shriners to see if there was something we should do, if we should follow up with an appointment or if we should even be concerned at all. The charge nurse seemed mortified and remembered Kadence and her lack of complaints. She had David see if it was still numb by pushing on different parts. Well, it was still numb. When we asked Kadence why she didn't say anything she said "It's only numb when you touch it." The nurse called the resident on call who said that if we were worried to take her in to the ER or if it got worse to take her in. Well, we were worried and more parts of her back were numb. On the way to the ER she said that part of her back hurt and was a "3". The highest she ever has rated anything was a "4" and that was right after her rod was placed. We were concerned but we knew chances were everything was fine. Shelby on the other hand was freaking out. She was so worried that Kadence would need surgery and that we would end up living in Salt Lake again. Here are the girls in the ER...you can tell Kadence is worried but she was completely acting like she was totally fine.
This is how the girls prefer being in the hospital. Just in the same bed next to each other.
Kadence decided that she wanted to go get xrays by herself and didn't need one of us with her. She does that at Shriners, but never at another hospital. It was a little shocking to me and sad. She's so used to it that at 8 years old, despite being totally freaked out that she might need more surgery, she walked away with a total stranger to go to radiology. It breaks my heart and makes me proud all at the same time. They thought she was beyond adorable and gave her a little bear. She was so excited about that.
The ER doctor called Mike Pond who has worked with Kadence since the very beginning. They talked about the xrays and he said that all the hardware was still in place and that he couldn't see any damage to the vertebrae. He had said that "Kadence just gave the hardware a REALLY good stress test and now they know it can handle a fall." He wanted her to take it easy for a few days just in case. When we were getting discharged we recognized the nurse as a wife of someone we went to high school with. She was so sweet to the girls and gave Shelby a bear too. Shelby was stoked! My girls understand that they don't get things just because the other one does....but it's always nice when they both get pampered.
Since the fall, Kadence has had a little pain here and there and her back is still numb to the touch. She says "its like how your mouth feels at the dentist" and she can feel it, but not real well. In fact when I was touching her back to ask if she could feel it she said, "Not really good because my shirt is in the way". Well, I had my hand under her shirt so it wasn't in the way. She can feel something going on, but it's just not right. It hasn't spread beyond her back and she knows that if it does or if she gets tingling in her hands or feet she needs to tell us. She was super bummy for a while and would just burst into tears randomly. I finally sat her down when she was happy and well rested to talk to her about it. It was two things, but a major part was that she got so scared about her back. It's a lot to deal with. I think it made it real that she could be injured so easily. We tell her all the time, but this just made it real to her and not just something we say. After talking to her a few days ago she has been so much better and more herself. No more tears!
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