february photo a day challenge: a stranger // the best little brother

my little brother turned 16 this week. i can hardly believe it. he is not only the youngest of us 4 kids, but also the only boy. in the past couple years, he has surpassed us all in height, and gotten even cooler. i've been thinking about him all week long. i am so privileged to be his older sister. kyle is such a good person. he is incredible! he excels in school and multiple sports. he is one of the hardest workers i know. he is so nice to everybody. i can't say enough good things about my brother. all week, i have been thinking of how lucky and blessed i am to be his big sister. to have an example like hid in my life. to be around his fun-loving, optimistic attitude all the time. he truly is amazing. i learn so much from him.

for his birthday, devin and i got him the book "how to talk to girls" written by a 9 year old. we also decided to take him up to sundance for a day of skiing / snowboarding. his big birthday present was snowboarding gear, and he had already been twice, and was such a natural! he was doing so well. so we wanted to bring him along with us.

so this morning, devin and i woke up early, packed up all our gear and headed to my parents to pick up kyle and his friend, hunter. we got up to sundance just after they opened and got in a few good runs off of ray's lift before heading to the back mountain. devin had never been on the back mountain, and i was excited to get him into the better runs of sundance.

just the arrowhead lift ride itself did me in! i was FREEZING and went straight into the bear claw cafe when we got off to thaw (seriously!). we stayed in for maybe 20 minutes and had a hot chocolate before deciding to head back out and try to get in a few good runs before meeting up with kyle and hunter again before lunch.

as we were heading out the door to put our skis back on, devin's phone rang.

it was my dad.

kyle was hurt.

i went into panic mode, and sprinted out to my skis. it didn't take too long to totally fall apart. my baby brother was hurt. i had no idea how badly. i just needed to get to him. i know kyle. i knew he would be scared. i was so focused, like tunnel vision, on getting to him.

as we headed down the first run off the back mountain (wildflower), i was surprised to find it was steeper than i thought it would be, and also a little more icy then i had anticipated. i was under the impression that kyle was down on the front mountain, closer to base, so i was trying to go as fast as possible.

i got maybe 300 yards before i spotted a group of people huddled around something in the middle of the run. then i recognized his green snowboard. i stopped and clipped out of my skis and ran up to him, pushing people out of the way saying "that's my brother!" and i knelt down next to him and just bawled.

bad move. he was crying and all wrapped up in a toboggan with a bunch of ski patrol guys around him. by this time, i had gathered that he had shoulder pain. and he was terrified. hunter had been ahead of him and didn't realize he had falled and was nowhere to be found. he was all alone. i was so extremely sad for him. and in all my worry, i just kept telling him i loved him and that he would be okay. ski patrol had made a make shift sling for him and it wasn't long before they were taking him down the mountain.

our job was to find hunter and meet them back at base. hunter had kyle's phone. wasn't picking up. was nowhere to be found. we skied down to where arrowhead lift starts and ray's lift stops, and got back on ray's lift, heading down. i wasn't really in a state to ski all the way back to base. we finally got a hold of hunter, who was meeting us back down there, and my dad was on his way. he had asked us to tell ski patrol to avoid taking kyle to the hospital in an ambulance if it was possible (so much money for those things!)

by the time we got back to base, we saw my dad's truck and flagged him down as he was driving away. kyle had already left in the ambulance to UVRMC and my dad wasn't very happy about it. he had missed them by maybe 2 minutes!

we got back to the truck and took hunter home and then picked mckayla up (she was at home) and headed to the ER to meet my parents and kyle.

by this time i knew he was okay, but i was still so worried about him. he had gone through it all totally alone. was in the ambulance by himself too, without talking to dad or anything! i knew he would be having  hard time, and be very scared, not to mention he was in an INSANE amount of pain. i can't even imagine.

we got to the hospital as they were finishing up a third set of x-rays, which confirmed that he had broken his collarbone very badly. into 3 pieces!

kyle had gotten an IV in the ambulance and once he got to the ER, they gave him morphine (all on an empty stomach).

after talking with him while waiting for the x-ray results, he told us he had crashed toe side and landed on his shoulder. he said he heard the crack and just thought "oh crap" and laid there for a few minutes until someone stopped. 2 skiers stopped to ask him if he was okay and he said "no, i need help". one of them went to find ski patrol, and the man (thank heavens for this man!) stayed with kyle asking him all the right questions. what happened, where it hurt, where he was from, who he was with, just keeping him talking to make sure he would be okay. he called my dad and very calmly explained the situation to him (and then dad called us).

kyle said it felt like forever before ski patrol got there. he said the worst part was when they moved him onto the toboggan. at this point, devin and i had gotten to him and noticed that devin's friend, Skyler was one of the ski patrol guys helping, which helped me calm down.

when the x-ray results came back, it was obvious that kyle would need surgery, but not immediately. they said he would most likely have a pin put in his collarbone and it would heal fast, and correctly. apparently, it's the most commonly broke bone, and the bone that heals the easiest. he will go to an orthopedist on monday and have surgery next week, too.

it was a CRAZY morning. so much worry and stress, and too many tears, but he is okay. on lots of percoset. in lots of pain. he had never broken a bone before! he is mostly just mad that they had to cut up his brand new shirt to get his IV in!!! (i don't blame him! i told him i'd buy him a new one). I also told him that Devin and I would bring him an in-n-out chocolate milkshake (his very favorite) as long as he was holding down his other food. which he did! until later, after the milkshake was gone, he threw up (which i bet killed, with a broken collarbone!)

in the end, dad was so glad they took him in an ambulance. he has had an almost identical collarbone break and knows the pain of a bouncy car ride with a broken collarbone (which is a LOT). every little movement causes extreme pain (clearly, because your collarbone, which supports your ARM is DETACHED FROM YOUR BODY...)

so... pray for my little brother! he is so strong and brave. so optimistic. always has the best attitude. he will recover quickly, but man. what a scary morning!

//so the february photo a day challenge part of this post is the strangers in the pictures that helped kyle. mostly ski patrol. so grateful for them today! they are SO GOOD at what they do. they know exactly how to handle these situations. and i would apologize to all of them for acting like a crazy, panicked woman on the mountain today if i had the chance. they're awesome.

this is kyle just yesterday (friday) - carving like a champ! my dad had taken him and kayla out of school to spend the day on the mountain for his birthday!

even in all my worry and panic, i had the good sense to take some pictures. i knew kyle would want them. i knew as much as he was scared right now, he'd be bragging about how cool the toboggan and ambulance rides were in a week or so! (yeah. it didn't even take a week. he was talking about it in the hospital! haha)

all the awesome strangers helping my little brother. good people!

in the ER with lots of morphine. lots of pain, but totally out of it.

dr. nielsen checking for head injuries (none, thank goodness he was wearing a helmet!)

the x-ray. his left shoulder (on the right) shows the break, but it's hard to see. so compare it with the photo below

compare this picture to the one with no writing and it might make more sense. maybe. it's clearly broken pretty bad. but the doctor said, the surgery is very easy to recover from!

discharged. heading home. dreading the fact he is about to have to stand up. and totally sick from all the meds on an empty stomach. he was actually try to smile for this picture, and this is what it looked like. totally miserable :( makes me want to cry!

kyle is the most wonderful little brother us 3 girls could ask for. he is a blessing in our family, and in our lives! i am so glad it's only his collarbone. it could have been his head or neck, which would have been a much more serious injury. he is such a great example of strength and optimism! i love you, kyle!

i also have to say how grateful i am for Devin today. when i was freaking out and my head was spinning, and my mind was in a million different places, he was totally calm. keeping me calm. and talking me back down. couldn't ask for a better husband! he put up with me telling the story over and over again. with me insisting on going to the ER, even though there wasn't anything we could do but wait around. with me breaking down and crying again after i had finally composed myself. three times. he is so good to me. 

**on a much lighter note, kyle seemed much better this even when we visited him to bring him his milkshake. he was on lots of medicine, and in a comfortable (well, as comfortable as you could get for a broken collarbone...) and in a surprisingly good mood. he amazes me, that boy! 

**on an even lighter note, we had dinner with the always entertaining banner and harry. christian and his wife julie came, too, and harry made bbq chicken, quinoa salad, and awesome broccoli. julie made amazing homemade bread, and we brought cheesecake for dessert. i so appreciate the way banner and harry host guests. they know how to make dinner an entire evening event. it's awesome! they appreciate good food and good conversation, and now i get where it comes from in devin. we had a wonderful night, even though i was painfully full! we also made a few trips around to mountain works, park's and REI to gather some more gear, including a new sleeping bag, a mont bell down coat for me, a compression sack, a new (and much warmer) hat for me, and some tent/pad repair kits for a few minor repairs devin needs to make before his backpacking trip next weekend (so not looking forward to it, by the way... more later). 

long, interesting day.

to say the least.