So back in January I learned that in kids, ligaments are stronger than bones. So that means if a kid has a fall while skiing on a black diamond at Mt Brighton, for instance, they don’t tear their ACL, but instead their ACL pulls their bone off.
And this happened to Mallory Tuesday January 5. At Mt Brighton. On a black diamond.
We were scheduled to go out west later in January to ski, and bought season passes for Beaver Creek which allows us to ski at Mt Brighton here in Michigan. and lots of other places out west. In preparation for this, we all got skis and boots and we headed up to Brighton so the kids could break in their new-to-them gear. Rick and I were just going to watch because our gear was still getting adjusted.
After some runs on the tow rope, all of us took a hot cocoa break and then Rick took the kids back out. Apparently Mallory asked to go on the chairlift and Rick (not realizing it was a black) let her go while he stayed with Carson on tow rope.
At about 6.15p Rick texted me to tell me that Mallory was being carted off the hill. I gathered up Carson who was coming in for a break and we met Rick and Mallory at ski patrol. 
She was on the toboggan still, all in her snow gear, crying. They got her lifted onto the bed and she was still a mess. We slowly got her out of her ski boots and snowpants and coat, and once she’d calmed down she ended up telling me it felt like her knee had to pop. She’s had a thing the past year (like three times), where if her knee is bent all the way she can’t straighten it and she complains that it feels like it needs to pop. So she would “pop” it (straighten it) and all would be totally fine.
So when she told me (calmly) that it felt like it did when it needed to pop, I got annoyed at her and we turned off the movie and got rid of the hot chocolates and I told her to get in the car (because Rick had approved us going out to eat and I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity – ha!).
We got to the restaurant and she hopped on one foot to the bathroom. I ran to get Advil at the Target next door and we ate dinner. Rick & I discussed whether we should get her looked at but with the word “pop” and assuming it was probably ligament-y, we didn’t think there was a sense of urgency and I’d just call the doctor in the morning. Once we got home (I can’t remember if she hopped upstairs or if I carried her?) she got in bed with ice on her {swollen} knee. After sending a text to a doctor friend, said doctor friend told me to go get X-Rays right away. So I got dressed and Mallory got dressed and off to the emergency room we went.
All I could think of is how the ski trip was going to work out if she was really hurt so I hoped for the best. First medical person came in and said we were going to get an X-Ray. Finally did that and I totally snuck a peek at the X-ray screen and it looked totally fine to me. When we got back to the room and the doctor came in, I again answered the “so what happened” question with “we were skiing at Mt Brighton in anticipation of our trip to Colorado in 2.5 weeks…” I got lots of “hahaha ok” responses.
We saw about three different doctors. One broke the news that Mallory had an avulsion fracture of her proximal tibia. I was still hoping that she was going to be able to ski. When the orthopedic resident came in, we found out that Mallory was going to need a cast and to follow up with the orthopedic doctor in the next week.
And a cast she got. From high up on her thigh to her tippy toes.
She was worried about being late for school the next morning and asked me to send her teacher and her swim coach an email right.that.very.second. She got a fancy pair of crutches and we were out of the ER around 3am. The next day was lots of trashy tween tv and waiting on my baby girl hand and foot. We were set up with an appointment with the orthopedic doctor for the next day, Thursday January 7.
Mallory was whisked off for an xray as soon as we got to the doctors office and as much as I tried to pretend that maybe it was just dust on the x-ray, the doctor told us that she did have a fracture but the good news is that she didn’t tear her ACL. It was hard to hear that that was *good* news, when your kid was in a cast from her toes to almost her hip. So I asked what we needed to do and the doctor said he recommended surgery. Tomorrow.
It took all I had in me to not start crying at that very moment. Mallory, in a rare show of non-dramatics was all “OK. See you then.”. I texted my sister the nurse anesthetistitist (sp?) and within 10 minutes I had our marching orders for the next day and didn’t have to wait for the pre-op folks to call me.
With that out of the way, and with Mallory feeling great, we stopped in to her school so her friends could see and sign her cast, and so we could pick up some work for her. The doctor wasn’t sure if she’d have another cast after surgery or just a brace so I wanted her to be able to have it signed in the short time she had it! After that, we went up to softball and had a bunch of Michigan softball girls sign it, and then we did a lap through football and she saw her favorite football player and got some more signatures.
Some of my favorites were Rick’s “HEAL FAST – DAD” and Carson doing puppy paws for Cooper & Marlo. And then there is Blake O’Neill’s “G’Day Injury Buddy!” (Blake tore his ACL right before the bowl game and was scheduled for surgery a month after Mallory).
The next morning when my alarm went off I started to cry and texted my sister to ask if we really needed to come in. When Emily told me that yes, if I wanted Mallory to be able to walk, she needed the surgery, I finished up my tears and went to wake up my pumpkinhead. Still relatively unfazed by what she was about to have done, she got in the car and off we went. Aunt Emily came to get us and took over.
I was getting text messages from Emily during the surgery with funny jokes from the doctor, like that they would be finishing up after Dr Abbott got back from lunch (after I asked what was taking so long), and also when Emily asked when our trip out west was, I told her in two weeks and asked if Dr Abbott was going to be done by then. “Almost done with the amputation!” was the response. Glad they were having fun. Ha.
They did two looks at her knee arthoroscopically (to make sure the ligaments and tendons and such were all still OK) and then a 3″ incision down the front right of her right knee. Emily was sending me pictures of her knee opened up – before & after the repair – and it was pretty cool. They were able to pull the broken piece of tibia back into place with sutures so no screws or pins that would need to be removed or cause further pain later in life.
But then the fun was over. We got to see our sweet baby but couldn’t touch her until she woke up from the anesthesia. And after a couple of hours of her slowly coming to and trying to get moving out of the hospital, Mallory started to throw up (poor kid reacts to anesthesia just like her mama). We finally got loaded up with crutches and her cast (that they saved for us!) and her ice machine and her belongings and we got to head home.
Mallory was pretty out of it most of the evening and got sick again (but YAY for being able to warn us!) and we managed her pain with the meds well. We’d put a second bed in her room so I could sleep next to her for a few nights, which was a good idea because at 2a, she woke up screaming in pain. They’d warned us that the meds they gave her during surgery would wear off around that time so we got the ice machine loaded back up with ice and got her loaded back up with pain meds and caught a few more hours of sleep.
Saturday – the day after surgery – was terrible. She was in a ton of pain and couldn’t get comfortable and screamed that she just wanted her cast back. She seemed to think that her leg hurt because of the brace and not because of her surgery. Rick had to carry her down & up the stairs and to & from the bathroom (and even that was tough for her because have you ever tried going to the bathroom with your leg straight out in front of you on a stool?). We kept up on her meds and her ice machine but she was having a rough and tough time.
Rick was heading out of town the next morning (early) and I was dying at how I was going to manage Mallory by myself for two nights. I couldn’t carry her like he could so I was anticipating a really rough couple of days (and anticipated cursing Rick a lot).
Everyone said two days out from surgery is the turning point. She fell asleep on the couch at like 5.30p Saturday and I didn’t wake her up that whole night for meds – she didn’t wake up needing them either. At 5a Sunday I did give her something so she’d be covered when she did wake up but she took the meds and went right back to sleep.
At 10.30a that morning, I heard her yelling for me. I braced myself and said a prayer and ran upstairs to help her. Sweetness was out of bed, standing at the door to her room, asking for her crutches.
I about DIED! PRAISE THE LORD.
She had a GREAT Sunday (aside from continued frustrations about going to the bathroom with a brace on) and I was so happy.
The next day was Monday and she wanted to go to school. I planned to work from home that day (except for one meeting I had to go to) so that I could be close in case she called and needed to come home. I gave her some Tylenol, loaded her and her wheelchair into the van and off to school we went.
And I didn’t hear from her all day.
Our rock-star went to school for a full day just three days after knee surgery. And did her homework after school without complaint. 
The rest of the story is that she was in that non-weight-bearing brace locked straight for two weeks, then she was allowed to bend to 90 degrees for two weeks and then full range of motion for the last two weeks until she got to ditch the brace completely. She was still on crutches for another five-ish days until she got enough strength back in her leg to support herself. She’s been doing physical therapy for almost three weeks and makes little improvements every day she goes (she needs to do better about doing her exercises at home…). She’s been back in the pool for a couple of practices already and has been back to softball practice too.
Rick and I are crazy proud of how she handled this whole ordeal. She’s rather prone to dramatics yet she didn’t have one dramatic outburst about the injury and surgery and recovery.
And that my friends is the end.