The Good News and the Bad News

The good news is we don't have any more bats in our attic.

The bad news is, in the process of looking for them Mike fell through the ceiling drywall down a story and a half onto the landing of our wooden stairway.

When I heard the cracking and banging of the drywall breaking I knew exactly what was happening, I just didn't know where; I had my back to the stairs as I was giving Carter a bottle in the kitchen. Mike's mom had just taken Blake up the other stairway to check out Paw Paw and Daddy in the attic (to see the attic pull-down ladder). Blake might have actually seen Mike fall through the ceiling, but I think he just heard it and then saw Daddy seated on the landing. It was about 15 feet down.

I exclaimed something (I don't remember what, but I am pretty sure it added to Blake's anxiety), put the baby down and rushed up the steps to Mike. Ohmygoodness. He complained of his foot and back. I thought right away of a man we knew who shattered his leg in a similar fall. I was so grateful that Mike's legs seemed to be in tact. But after a few minutes of trying to assess the extent of his injuries we decided to take off his shoe and saw a massive lump growing on his right foot. It seemed pretty clear we needed to go to the emergency room.

We are SO grateful that Mike's parents were here at the time of Mike's fall. Mike's mom was able to whisk Blake out to the sandbox so that he didn't see Daddy in pain right after the fall, and they stayed with the kids so we could get to the emergency room right away. Of all things Blake really didn't like that the living room got very "dirty" from Mike's fall as the cotton-looking insulation rained down on most of the room. I think the whole scene was just concerning to him.




Sure enough, x-rays showed a rough edge to one of his bones which implied a break, so he got this swell bandage and some drugs.






We got home just before Blake went to sleep. The little boy was understandably concerned about what he had seen and heard and how Daddy was doing and we were glad we got to show him that Mike was doing well. Apparently he talked about it all afternoon ("Daddy fall down," "big hole!" "dirty,") despite the grandparents' effort to distract him with toys at the "Target store." We called him often from the emergency room and told him Daddy had a "big Band-aid" on his foot, and that seemed to help. It was hard to tell if Blake was more concerned about Mike's boo-boo, or the hole in the ceiling, or that the floor got "dirty." (Paw Paw cleaned it up very quickly, so it was all clean by the time we got home.)
A couple days later we went to an orthopedic doctor and Mike got a "real" full cast with a boot that he could walk on instead of a splint cast that required him to use crutches. Thankfully, it seems his injury is mostly a sprain, with just a hint of a fracture at the edge of one bone. 
Mike continues to have some back pain, and other parts of his body have hurt at different times - understandable, since his entire body endured the fall. We are praying for complete healing and no long-term pain or complications, and we are grateful for God's mercy! He will probably wear the cast for 3-6 weeks, and he shouldn't drive in that time. We are SOO grateful. It could have been so much worse. And, the ceiling is already repaired! Strangely, it seems that falling through the ceiling is a popular thing to do, as multiple friends have told Mike their own dry-wall-attic-fall stories. I'm not sure that is comforting!

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