Kirsten's Big Accident Part #1

New Photo story! Part #1! Enjoy!

(Little House on the Prairie: The Dance Part #3 is coming soon, but I wanted to get some other photo stories out of the way so I'm posting all of these first) 

One Saturday morning - the Saturday after Ivy's aunt's wedding, Kirsten dressed in her light jacket and prepared to go outside. She wanted to explore nature and maybe climb a few trees. She wasn't allowed to really explore alone though, and she wanted a friend with her anyway.

"Jasmine?" Kirsten asked; walking in on Jasmine who was lying with Jewel, the little Chihuahua.

"Yes?" Jasmine replied, sounding very exasperated.

"Well, I just wanted to know if you would come out for a little nature exploration. Do you want to?" Kirsten was at first a bit subdued by Jasmine's frustrated behavior, but she knew that Jasmine was probably just really involved in something.

"Hmmm...." Jasmine asked. "What was it?"

Kirsten rolled her eyes in frustration. Jasmine just was not listening. "Do you want to come on a nature hike with me?"

"Oh Kir, I really am sorry. I wish I could go, but I'm trying to figure out what is wrong with Jewel. She just isn't acting herself and just overall isn't feeling well. I need to figure out what is wrong with her. Can you wait a few hours?" Jasmine asked.

"That's okay," Kirsten shrugged.

"I really am sorry - it's just that, well, Jewel is the newest addition to our little dog family and I want her to be comfortable - she needs me."

"No, no, I want you to stay with Jewel - she does need you," Kirsten smiled quickly, not wanting to make her friend feel bad. "I'm sure that I can brave the wilderness on my own - after all, we've been exploring these hills for a while now - I've been here for nearly 2 years!"

Jasmine smiled and Kirsten walked out of the room and set off for a nice climbing tree.

A few hours later, when Jewel had settled down and finally gotten to sleep, Jasmine was going to go start her writing homework, when Lanie walked in wearing her riding helmet.

"Jasmine!" Lanie looked worried and out of breath.

"What is it?" Jasmine frowned.

"I found Kirsten - on the side of the trail - she was lying down, limp on the ground. I think she fell and my horse stepped on her leg. I feel so bad!"

"I do too!" Jasmine cried, "I should've gone out with her earlier - then none of this would've ever happened! I wouldn't have let her climb too high in the tree and we would've packed a picnic or something. Oh why am I so stupid? Jewel would've been fine without me!"

"You aren't stupid!" Lanie told her, "No one could've foreseen this. Besides, you would've climbed higher than her in that tree and I know it! You wouldn't have told her to keep close to the ground. Come on, let's go see if she needs our help. I alerted her parents and my parents. Well, my dad is at work with my mom, but I alerted my Aunt Hannah."

"Great. Let's go see if they need anything."   

Once they got to the hospital with Kirsten, Lanie & Jasmine hopped out of the car and raced to get a wheelchair to take Kirsten up in. Kirsten had been in the 3rd row of seats in the SUV and they hadn't gotten a good glimpse of their hurt friend just yet. They were worried about her.

"I hope she is okay," Lanie worried, resisting the urge to start her old habit of biting her nails.

"Of course she will be okay - you know Kirsten. Remember the flu outbreak last year - not even that could keep her down!"

Lanie laughed and nodded her head.  

"Hey, you know since we shouldn't really be worrying, why don't we race to the car with this wheelchair?" Lanie suggested and Jasmine nodded as the two of them took off across the parking lot (looking both ways of course) and back to the Larsons' car.

At first, Kirsten felt well enough to sit somewhat forward in her wheelchair once they arrived in the waiting room.

"Whoa, I took a bad fall," Kirsten smiled weakly. "Who knew something like that would happen. I wonder how many limbs I broke - ouch, I can barely move." Kirsten was in so much pain and Lanie and Jasmine felt so bad about what had happened to her.

Kirsten sank back in the wheelchair and waited for the x-ray nurse to arrive to take her to the official x-ray room.

The nice nurse named Nurse Melody came out and helped wheel Kirsten back to the room. Mrs. Larson went along and Mr. Larson & Lanie's Aunt Hannah stayed with the two girls.

"I'm so worried," Lanie kept repeating over and over again. All Jasmine could do was nod her head in agreement as they stared at the daunting doors of the x-ray room, both wondering what was going on in there and what discoveries were being made.

Meanwhile, Kirsten lay on the x-ray table with the x-ray apron on and a big, powerful machine towering over her.

After the x-rays were taken, Dr. Paul analyzed them.

"Well, I definitely see a break right there at the wrist and elbow. Something isn't right in the hand's alignment either," Dr. Paul spoke mostly to himself. He whispered different doctor codes and arranged things differently on his x-ray screen.

Then, he showed everyone Kirsten's breaks. She had broken two fingers, one leg, one arm, and sprained one foot and ankle. She had managed to nearly break every limb in her body in one swift fall from a tree and one step on the foot from a trotting horse.

"I'm going to drive you two home," Aunt Hannah told them after Dr. Paul had given his final word of casts to the Larsons' and their worried friends. "You can arrange some things for Kirsten when she leaves today - she won't be spending the night for a few broken limbs, of course."

Aunt Hannah ushered the two girls out of the drab doctor's office and onto the city streets where they met up with their parked car.

Back at the farms, everyone had managed to hear a different story.

"Is it true that she busted her teeth out and everything?" Julie asked in a horror movie voice as Jasmine walked into the room to collect up Kirsten's things.

Jasmine rolled her eyes, "No. Stop joking about serious things like this Julie. She broke a leg, sprained another, leg, broke two fingers and an arm. It isn't a laughing matter."

"Okay, okay, geez, I was just trying to lighten the mood in here a bit," Julie shrugged off  what she had said. Samantha shrugged too and went back to typing whatever it was she was typing up on her laptop. 

"What's wrong with you?" Jasmine asked Payton who was lying on her bed, sleeping.

"Oh, I have a really bad sore throat. I don't know what it is, because otherwise I'm not sick. I think it's the metal from these stupid braces. It is probably making my throat sore."

Jasmine just shrugged and hoped Payton would get better - even if she didn't see what braces had to do with a sore throat.

"Oh, the new Playmobil catalog!" Jasmine smiled, "Kirsten is going to love this. Do you guys mind if I take it?"

"Not at all," Samantha smiled, gesturing for Jasmine to take the catalog that lay on the nightstand. "We already all looked through it. I think I might spend my saved up $55 on that! They have some groovy new items!"

Kirsten's home!" Lanie called.

Sure enough, in the sick room of AG farms, lay Kirsten. She had an ice pack on her hurt hand, a cast on her arm....

And a bandage on her leg which was supported by a pillow.

Her hand was also propped up with a pillow and the rest of Kirsten's body just lay limply against the sheets.

Nurse Melody, who had come home with them, helped lift Kirsten into a more comfortable position.

Kirsten had a long road of recovery ahead of her, but with the strength of her friends, family, and everyone else, she knew she could get through it.

 

Part #2 coming later (probably in two weeks or so - when we've given Kirsten a chance to recover some more)