The fixator is off...but it didn't happen the way we planned!

We have had a whirlwind 1 1/2 weeks at our house with Warren!  I am happy to say we are fixator free and he is now the proud owner of a blue walking cast!  I am not thrilled with how we got here though, it was a little stressful to say the least!
So let me back up and start the Saturday before New Years...
We went out with our great friends to eat and were planning to go to their house afterwards to let the kids play.  Warren had been on antibiotics for a few days because he had a small infection in two of his pin sites but other than that he was his normal self.  When we were leaving and putting the kids in the car I looked across at Warren and could see something pouring from his leg and at the same time Rusty felt it all over his hands.  We were both kinda shocked knowing what we were seeing but not sure!   About that time Jaden realized it was blood and started screaming about her brother!  Thank God that Kim and Ken were still in the parking lot because I was able to throw Jaden in their van so she would not see what was happening!
Once I ran to Warren's side I was shocked!  You could actually see the blood pumping out of one of the lower pin sites with every heartbeat!  It was not a trickle it was pouring out!  Rusty thought fast enough to lift his leg and put hit finger over the holes!  It was about this time that Warren started freaking out, how can blame him!  There was no stopping it so I ran in to call 911!  Once again Kim stepped in and climbed in the car with Warren to help calm him down!  (thank you so much!)  When I was running back outside I could see a trail of blood from the front door to our car!
It only took the ambulance about 4 minutes to get there which was a blessing.  Once we got him in the ambulance he started puking all over my iPad!  Luckily it still works.  The ambulance called the fire department so they could have an escort to the hospital.  I was able to tell them we needed to go to Nationwide since everything was done there.

I will say the paramedics were wonderful!  They were not at all put off by the fixator.  Once we got to the ER that was another story!
The first thing I did when I got there was to tell them to call Dr. Ruggles.  He had given me his cell # but I never put it in my phone because I didn't want to but dial him!  Thank goodness he was actually on call that night and was already on his way to the hospital!  By this time the bleeding had clotted and Warren was in better spirits!  When the orthopedic resident came in Warren told her to leave he only wanted to see Dr. Ruggles!!!  Within a few minutes the Doctor was in and we discussed it and decided it would be best to remove the fixator on Monday.  We did not want to chance that it would happen again.  We were told to keep him calm and relaxed until Monday.  We were outta there and on the way home within 3 1/2 hours and on our way to pick up Jaden!  I would like to say the visit was all good but that is not the case.  The nurses did not want to move Warren to even change his bedsheets that were covered in blood and vomit!  Rusty and I did it ourselves!  While they were in the room.  They made Rusty pick him up to weigh him and when we asked that someone help us clean him up to leave they wouldn't do it!  They were scared of the fixator and had a hands off approach!  Dr. Ruggles said to give him 45 minutes to do his emergency surgery and he would clean him himself.  I told them all to leave the room and come back in 10 minutes and I did it myself!  I was shocked but at the time we were just ready to get out and still shocked over the whole night!  I was not about to let our Doctor do it after he had done so much.
Sunday we hung around doing nothing and then we were back to the hospital Monday morning.

Once the surgery started it wasn't long before Dr. Ruggles came in the waiting room with the fixator in hand!  It was then we found out that the fixator actually ruptured an artery in his leg because it had done it again during surgery!  He said it took 10 minutes to stop the bleeding!  Luckily everything had gone great otherwise.  It was just a fluke thing that would now be discussed at his medical conference!  He took us back to Warren and we waited for him to wake up which of course in true Warren style did not take long!

Once he was awake he asked for food!  He ate a popsicle and drank juice and an hour later we were out the door!  

The recovery has been great.  He does not like walking on the cast at all so we are working on that.  We go to the doctor 1/31 and he should have it removed then!  

I am glad to have the first fixator behind us and next fall we will do it all over again just for a much longer amount of time.  

Warren did a lot better than I ever expected he would do.  I had really dreaded the way he would react but it was in true hero form for sure!

Once I found out the surgery was moving up I realized I had not taken many pictures of the fixator and I of course needed to do that so we had a small photo shoot the night before it was gone!

We had the option to keep the fixator but decided to give it to the Doctor so when he went on his mission trip he could use it on a child who otherwise would not have it!