Broken collarbone

My poor husband!! Things became pretty crazy after we came home from our cruise in early November. I started having some weird and serious nerve problems in my feet and legs. It started out with my feet and hands swelling up and a lot of discomfort. When the swelling went down I was left with a ton of pain in my right foot. It was one of the weirdest things that I have experienced and it came out of nowhere! It felt like my whole foot was filled with a ton of pressure and that it was ready to explode. On top of that I had really bizarre pain in it.

The pain began to spread up to my calf and then to my knee. That lasted for a few days and then it started in my left foot as well. It then began to spread into my left leg up to my knee just like my right one had done. The pain was now in both legs and feet and it was very painful and uncomfortable. The weirdest thing was that it was traveling pain and it would switch at a moments notice from one leg/foot to the other. I could almost always feel the pain in both limbs, but one part of either my leg or foot was always the worse. The type of sensations that I would feel were so crazy too! It was never the same and seemed to have no rhyme or reason to them. It forced me to be on bed-rest right away and the doctors didn't know what the problem was. Needless to say Josh had to pick up a lot of slack here at home since I was struggling so much with pain. I was still trying to do what I could to take care of the girls along with being the Relief Society President, so that was a bit crazy too!

We were invited to a few friends homes for Thanksgiving but had to decline because it was just too hard for me to go anywhere and I didn't really feel comfortable bringing my whole family to someone's house and having them do all of the work while I had to literally lay on the couch. Sitting was very difficult because it made the symptoms worse. I am not sure if it was the position or the gravity or what, but I had to lay down almost all of the time. That was not an option for me at someone else's house, so Josh said he would do Thanksgiving here by himself (yeah he is seriously the best husband/father in the world) and that he would make it fun for the girls (I was feeling bad that the girls couldn't be with friends/family).

Meanwhile he and I were going to specialists trying to figure out what the problem was with me and why I was in such bad shape. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before, so it was quite a puzzle for us. We bought a turkey from Rudy's as well as some fixings and Josh went to the store (he was even going to make homemade key lime pie!) to get all of the rest of the ingredients for our big feast. We were all actually pretty excited about it. Thanksgiving morning he went out with some guys from the ward to play football (he does this almost ever year). It was the last play of the game and Josh's team needed one more touchdown to win (at least this is what I was told :)). So Josh was in the end zone and open for the catch so the QB threw the ball to him, but it was a little short. Josh laid out and dove for the ball. He caught it but then hit the ground. He heard a loud snap and figured it wasn't worth holding onto the ball so he dropped it and was in terrible pain. He had to go straight to the ER because he knew he had broken something. It turns out that he broke his collar bone. He called me and told me that he was on his way to the Er and that he had broken his collar bone (it was such a bad break that he could feel his collarbone sticking up). I of course thought it was some kind of joke so he had another guy from the ward try and convince me that it was real and I didn't believe him either.... That is just the sort of thing that Josh (and my brothers) would do, so I wasn't going to be easily fooled...plus I was used to being teased. Then Josh got back on the phone and I could tell it was real and he said he needed to go because he was in too much pain to talk. I got off the phone with him and completely lost it!! I just bawled like a baby! I was worried about him and I wanted to be with him but I couldn't leave the house with the condition I was in myself and then I worried about what we would do for Thanksgiving and what we would do in general! Josh was picking up the slack so much that I wasn't sure what we would do with the both of us completely laid up! Within minutes there were people at my door. Afterall, all of the guys from the ward were there so when they got home they all told their wives and they all called or came over to see what they could do to help. It was so incredibly sweet of everyone and we felt SO loved! Our friends and neighbors took the girls to their house for the rest of the day and the girls had Thanksgiving with them. I just waited for Josh to call and come home and I called my parents sobbing. They could barely understand what I was saying! hahaha I was crying to hard! They were so supportive. I told them what happened but then had to get off of the phone because people kept coming by or calling. By the time I was able to call them back (a couple of hours later) they had a ticket ready to go for my mom to fly out and help. I was shocked and amazed! I didn't want my mom to come because she had just been here watching the kids less than 2 weeks before when we went on our cruise. Plus she was needed at home to help Reed and on top of it all she was the Relief Society President herself and had plenty of responsibilities to attend to. I knew we would figure something out and get through this, but my family loved me too much and showed me just how much by being persistent and having my mom fly out anyway.

Little did I know that they scheduled the flight for 3 weeks!!!! My poor mom! It was the most amazing blessing! My dad said that he thought this was a blessing in disguise because we could use the help but wouldn't have asked for it (and they wouldn't have typically come out to help unless we asked), but now with Josh "going down" it made it clear that they needed to come. I completely agree and think it is amazing how the Lord works sometimes! Josh said he was happy to be the martyer! hahaha poor guy...he was in so much pain.

Anyway, our other friends took the girls for the night and Josh came home and he and I tried to get all the rest we could. My mom flew out the next night and was a life saver! Because of the holiday Josh couldn't see a surgeon until Monday. He was so uncomfortable and had to wait over 4 days with his bone broken before he could do anything about it. He went in on Monday and the surgeon scheduled the surgery for Tuesday. The surgeon said this was one of the worst breaks that he had seen. Josh had completely snapped it in half and one half was sticking up!

My mom took Josh to the hospital and stayed there with him during surgery. When he was in recovery she came to the house (friends had the girls) and picked me up (I couldn't drive)so I could go and be there with him when he woke up. When I got to the hospital I was pretty uncomfortable myself (remember sitting was pretty hard, so the car ride wasn't great) so we had to get a wheel chair for me. hahaha It was pretty funny. I was there when he woke up (it about killed me that I couldn't be there with him the whole time...this was his first broken bone and his first surgery!). He was quite the trooper though. He ended up having a big plate put in along with 7 screws to hold his bone together...ouch! In the end The nurses had to wheel us both out in wheel chairs side by side and everyone at the hospital thought it was the cutest thing ever! They all wanted pictures...it was embarrassing and funny all at the same time.

Josh recovered amazingly well. The doctor said he would be in really bad pain for 3-4 weeks and that he wouldn't make a full recovery for 6 months. He said that he wouldn't be able to go back to work for like 6 weeks! We were pretty worried about his job and his health and my situation. A miracle happened and he recovered amazingly quick! I know it was a major blessing from the Lord. Having my mom here was incredible and the girls just loved the attention. She was able to keep things going so well around here. She did so many projects that I hadn't been able to do since things went south with my body and it made the pain I was struggling with and the trials that we were facing so much more bearable. We were all very grateful for her coming. Josh isn't 100% quite yet, but he is pretty close and he has been able to do so much! In this difficult time when so many things felt like they were coming at us from left and right I know that the Lord never left our side. We felt uplifted and strengthened by so many around us that it really did make our burdens easier to bear. I am very grateful to the Lord for His love and support for my family. I know that all things are possible with His help and that He will never leave us as long as we are seeking Him.